Projects Who needs a toolbox?

I actually broke down and started cleaning up the shop after removing all my florescent bulbs and ballast then retro fitting new LED lights,now I can start looking for those long lost tools.

I have 3 roll around tool chest and they are almost full once again. HRP

 

I try to stay organized. Pegboards are my best friends. Everything has its spot, and I'm quick to notice when something is missing. However, I'm guilty of leaving tools with the job till it gets done. And god help me if I need to switch to a different job mid way through, because then I can't find anything.

I've also accumulated a good collection of 'lost' tools. That is, tools left behind by tradesmen. I've acquired 3 or 4 nice side cutters from utility people working on the house, a ladder left behind by a roofer, a bunch of miscellaneous tools left in a tool box that was being thrown out, and a couple of screwdrivers and wrenches found in parts that I've bought.

 

I had a friend who was a diamond seller. He was also a car guy.
He was showing me a real expensive diamond, and it fumbled and got lost on the floor.
I was kinda freaking out, he told me to watch.
He had a little .99 store laser, and swept it around the floor and BAM, there it was.
I dropped a small screw from a carb I was rebuilding and did the same thing.
Same results.
I'm in the leave it for later camp, tool wise.

 

When I couldn't find a tool I always blamed it on my boys using it and not putting it away. My boys are now married and moved away and the tools still come up missing. Go figure.

 

I have 4 roll away tool boxes in the garage and 3 tool boards.That way if I cant find it on the boards I can go box to box .I DO put up the tools as soon as I am finished for the day. I also have a tool box in each car containing wrenches,sockets,screwdrivers,hammer etc as well as tape,wire,hose clamps etc.What I think all this means is I have too much stuff!

 

When I had my shop, I had 2 large Snap On rollaways with top boxes, bolted to a dropped tube chassis, on six 4" heavy casters. One box was for SAE, the other metric.
I used a rolling cart with top tray and lower shelf to take 'to the job', as the 'Queen Mary' was just huge. (36" wide by 96" long)
Since retiring, I have downsized into my 2.5 car front garage and 25' X 25' shop in back. The huge rollaway set was sold, and a smaller pair of rollaways set up just like the big one was, two sets bolted to a chassis pan. I like lots of drawers.
My wife still works with me, has her own rollaway/tools, but we usually work out of my large box, still in the process of separating tool types among the 4 other rollaways between both shops. Front garage is easy, stuff gets put back right away.
Back shop has more big jobs going, so 3 work benches have small tool sets and wrenches that seem to take their time getting put away...Horizontal surface syndrome.
Steel tables I made have become 'wrench benches'. Gotta work on that.
Harbor Freight special was the 4 drawer rolling cart, I equipped it with socket sets/end wrenches/screwdrivers, etc. Roll it out of the garage into my 25 foot square metal carport in front of our large garage. Handy! BUT!!! Many tools out of the large duplex boxes get laid in the top, then the cart rolled inside to close it down at night.
Omigod, in the morning I'm walking like, 2 miles in series of short steps between tool boxes to start anew...
My wife says 'age precludes inefficiency'. This shit's getting old. So am I.

 

(A place for everything and everything in its place.) A workspace with organization and where tools are cleaned and squared away is a safer environment. Slovenly work habits bespeak slovenly work. A last word: Those who respect their tools, respect themselves and the world they live and work in. A garage, or any place where work is done on machines in which we entrust our lives and those of our loved ones should be like an ancient temple, a religious place where some of us, even, worship the gods of speed. If you spend as much time as I do in your work space, you will understand my thoughts and feelings on this subject.

 

my brother does not have a tool box. when he needs to work on something he gets out the metal detector and searches his yard for wrenches. I don't know how he ever gets anything done.

 

Due to a knee that no longer bends all the way, blood pressure meds that make me dizzy and generally stiff joints (I sometimes have to hold something heavy just to bend down. ), getting to or from a prone position is "not just a job, it's an adventure". So if I have a nut or bolt to turn, It's common for me to grab a long + short socket, a couple of extensions, an end wrench, a box wrench and food for 2 days. Multiply that by 3 for one size up and one size down if I'm not sure of the exact size. You don't even want to know what happens if I have more than one bolt to work on.
So everything gets kicked around and into the corners of the garage for a fun game of "Where's Waldo". Usually, a few less tools make it back to the box but once in a while, I put back a few more than I took.

 

Yeah, I got my ass chewed for that many times.... LOLOL!

 

My dad would go through my tool boxes looking for his tools from the time I was 15 'til I was well into my 50s! And he'd occasionally find a tool like his and grab it.....

 

The only tools I have a problem finding are the one's that I loaned out to someone...…...

 

Consider that phrase stolen. Kinda sums up a lot...

 

? I worry more about keeping my shop rags clean and folded. Nothing worse than cleaning your windshield with anti seize or bearing grease.

 

A note on loaning tools. Never loan a tool to anyone. Murphy's Law applies: as soon as it's gone that very tool you need is the same one you just loaned out. ALSO, like loaning books, your good friend thinks it was his already. "No! No! No!," they say. "That is mine, see?" And, they refuse to even consider all arguments otherwise. Even if your mark, or initial is on it. "You put that on there when I loaned it to you." Of course others tell you they will bring it back, and never do. In Pilgrims Progress, as a youth, I encountered The Slippery Slope. Your first feeling of generosity is a step off the path onto a place where it takes the contemplation of bloody murder to realize how bad that generosity can be. Say after me, "My name is (use your own name) am I am here because I loan or tools and never get them back." The best story I ever heard about loaning out things is as follows: (Those who are overly sensitive may stop reading.) A young man went to his neighbor's house, an older man with a young wife, and asked if he could borrow the old man's car. The Old Man shook his head, and said, "No can do. Sorry. There's two things I never loan our. My car and my wife. My car is old and you might throw a rod in it." The young neighbor was about to ask about the reason why the old man wouldn't loan out his wife, and then his face turned red. The Old Man nodded. "Yep."

 

When I was younger, every toolbox had one of these, with a “No tools loaned!” caption.



My dad’s version was simpler. He doesn’t loan. He’ll give it to you. It’s a gift. You should gift it back when you’re done with it.



Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

I’ll play. It’s a never ending chore. Finished wiring and started up only to have issues with transmission. So clean up to tear apart sounds about right.

 

I tidy up every few years or so,

 

I have been a mechanic all my life. I pick up all my tools and throw them in a catch drawer in my tool box when I'm finished with them, if its a customers car I will wipe them clean and put them up in their proper place, it is my inventory check system, losing tools in not fun for me. If its one of my projects I still throw them in the catch all drawer and lock them up, next day just grab everything I had out and go back to work, when I get to where I have trouble finding something, time to wipe them clean and put them away. When I look at a fastener, the first thing I see is the size, the second thing I see is the combination of tools in my box that I need to remove it. After all these years It is hard to use someone else's tools, I cant find my tools in their box.

 

I don't do a lot of stuff. Mostly small repairs. The big and important stuff I leave to professional 's. But when I'm done I like to clean and put the tools back in their spot. That way I don't have to hunt around the next time I need them. Snowman

 

I got a job at a 4x4 shop a number of years back. First thing was to fix a Toyota FJ that one of the guys sent out dry.
I got the job because I rebuilt the diffs in my '46 Military Dodge carryall.
I showed up with 6 tool boxes and the guy asked when my roll away was coming.
I told him as soon as I can afford one. He literally fired me on the spot.
Tool box, pashaw.

 

I went in on a business trip one time and my wife “cleaned” the garage for me. That was two years ago and I am still finding stuff she “organized” that I thought was lost forever.

—louis

 

Is your name taken from the Atwood novel? If so, want to be friends? And no, I'm an English teacher not a geneticist. No waterless floods or blue people for me.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

 

Are those the ones that after, you having throughly searched for a missing tool, given up all hope of finding it, buying a new replacement, using it for the first time, and after putting it down, - those fairies come along and put back the lost one right beside the new one......?

 

the problem i have is my grandson when he helps me. when i am using a tool and lay it down he picks it up wipes it off and puts it away.

 

Yep, Clem. I heard that if you leave the jaws of your vise open just a little bit it helps to scare them off!

 

"a place for everything and everything in its place" I always put tools away at the end of day so I know they are all accounted for. Drives me nuts if I lose a tool. We lost a 3/8 ratchet 3 years ago...still hoping it pops up but I think it departed in a engine bay

 

Some of my boxes.. It's from the beginning a paper box for drawings and fit perfekt... It's 3,5'x 3,5' and a little big.. But most go everything is with me everywhere in my garage..

 

My youngest son and his family moved about 400 miles away from his mother and me. I had bought him a very good starter set of Craftsman tools when he was 16 but still had to keep buying replacement tools for my box while he was living at home. As a result, when he moved, I didn't have a complete set of anything. A couple of years after he moved, I went to his place for a weekend and we were supposed to pull the engine out of his truck. I took my tools just to be on the safe side. If there was something I needed that wasn't in my box, I'd go into his box. First thing I noticed were a lot of the tools from his box had my initials engraved on them. I started pulling out all those with my initials when he walked in and said very indignantly, "What are you doing?". I showed him the initials and told him I was taking them back home with me. Then his question was, "What am I going to do when I need them?" I suggested that he spend his money and buy good tools. He still gripes about me "taking" his tools.