Loosing tools

[Charlie M]

I've been looking for my large punch for the past couple of weeks. I've also noticed where I hang my crescent wrenches some were missing and couldn't remember where I might have used them. Today I opened the tool box on my 300U I use for brush hogging and there they were - right where I put them a month ago. I had tools in the box in case I broke a shear pin. I've done the same thing when I put tools in the tractor for hay baling and can't remember for a month where they are. I don't leave the tools on a tractor when I don't need them there anymore, once I remember they were there to start with. Anybody have that problem besides me? Maybe I have been smelling tractor exhaust for too many years. LOL

 

[Doc 2]

You are not alone and it doesn't get better with more age. Brian

 

[retired farmer]

Some of mine disappear never to be seen again. Right now I am missing a long tire tool and a big punch. However I did find an inch and seven eights three quarter drive socket in the tractor that I have been looking for for several months.

 

[buzzinduzzin]

feeling your pain brother

 

[J Hamilton]

The tractor you've been looking for for months? Lol, just kidding. I knew what you meant

 

[Kelly in tx]

How have I lost my 15 Crescent wrench? And, why hasn't it shown up in the year or so it has been mislaid? It is just one example of why I need MORE THAN FOUR OF EACH TOOL!!! kelly

 

[Bob M]

Happens to me too - tools will disappear only to be discovered later where I last used it. My most extreme case:

A nice pair of slip joint pliers went missing. 2 years later I'm firing up the gasoline-powered water pump at the vacation cottage. Once the pump was running I perched on a convenient rock to watch it a for leaks for a few minutes. When I got back up I stuck my hand on another rock to steady myself - there I discovered the pliers resting where I apparently set them 2 summers before. They were a bit rusty but still fully functional.

The pliers are now cleaned, oiled and back in my toolbox waiting for their next out of box adventure...

 

[Rich'sToys]

Usually you don't find the missing tool until after you've purchased a new one!

 

[tractorguy2]

My dad lost his 4 Makita grinder. Looked and looked for it in the shop and shelves were he stored tools. He bought a Skill to replace it. He didn't really like the Skill grinder so he ordered another makita grinder. When it came he went to put it on the shelf where he kept it.

Guess what. Right there on the shelf wax his old one. Now he has three grinders.

 

[37 chief]

I'm glad I am not the only one with that problem. Stan

 

[timcasbolt]

(quoted from post at 03:15:20 08/29/22) My dad lost his 4 Makita grinder. Looked and looked for it in the shop and shelves were he stored tools. He bought a Skill to replace it. He didn't really like the Skill grinder so he ordered another makita grinder. When it came he went to put it on the shelf where he kept it.

Guess what. Right there on the shelf wax his old one. Now he has three grinders.

've found that having three angle grinders is very handy. One for a cutoff wheel, one for a grinding wheel, and one for a flap disk.

 

[J Hamilton]

I think my toolbox eats wrenches, 7/16, 1/2 and 9/16 seem to be what it likes to eat. I have at least 3-4 of each and can never find one

 

[560Dennis]

Yah , I just go to swap meets and pick up a hand full of wrench I think I lost . I dont buy new one . Get the rusty ones work good , paint them yellow ,(+doesnt help )

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

The correct response is to run out and buy tools to replace the lost/missing ones immediately. Eventually you will have the tools you need where you need them, instead of having to take tools from the shop, not put them back immediately, so they're not there when you need them in the shop the next time.

 

[RJKeith]

Finding them in your tractors tool box BEFORE you buy a replacement? That hardly seems fair, I always have to buy a replacement before I find the lost tool!

 

[Charlie M]

I don't buy replacements because I know they are somewhere that will eventually show up - just takes time to find out. I should have learned my lesson by now to look in tractor tool boxes first but sometimes I'm a slow learner. On the bright side I now have a tool box on all 12 of my tractors so I don't have to guess how to hide my tools on them any more.

 

[Centerplate]

(quoted from post at 17:55:16 08/28/22) I've been looking for my large punch for the past couple of weeks. I've also noticed where I hang my crescent wrenches some were missing and couldn't remember where I might have used them. Today I opened the tool box on my 300U I use for brush hogging and there they were - right where I put them a month ago. I had tools in the box in case I broke a shear pin. I've done the same thing when I put tools in the tractor for hay baling and can't remember for a month where they are. I don't leave the tools on a tractor when I don't need them there anymore, once I remember they were there to start with. Anybody have that problem besides me? Maybe I have been smelling tractor exhaust for too many years. LOL

You could write yourself a note when you put tools in an odd place instead of your toolbox. Now you just need to remember not to lose the note.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

 

[Keith True]

I never owned a Dremel,but have thought they could be handy for certain things.When I saw someone having a special on them I happened to have a use at that moment for one.I bought it,used it,thought well that was handy.I went to put it in my tool truck(old step van)and put it next to the dremel on the shelf.I had no clue where that one came from.I still don't.I do suspect that one of my friends dropped it off,I do seem to be the tool dump.Wives will buy things like that for their husbands,who have no use for them,and a couple years later the tools get dropped off here.

 

[SDE]

I had intended to vacuum yesterday. When I got home after 9PM, I stayed in the garage to work for a while. As I was searching for my drill, I found the canister, for the vacuum, in the back of the truck. WOW, I only remembered putting it there, after I found it.

 

[NY 986]

Happens with smaller wrenches for me. I'll buy replacements as I feel to a certain degree that I cannot have too many small wrenches.

 

[DMartin9N-2N]

Good morning, Charlie M: This thread reminds me about my loss of a (legendary in this forum) 10 mm socket. I needed to work on front mounted distributor on my 9N, nuisance to work on and I really hated to work on it over grass in my front yard. Dropped the socket that fits the nut for the coil wire on distributor. Well, I marked the area in the grass with white spray paint, so I would know where to look after I moved the tractor. Next day, I got my little magnet-on-a-stick, found the tiny socket!!! Yaaaay! No need to remember to look for another one next time in town.
.
Dennis M. in W. Tenn.
.

 

[dhermesc]

I don't lose tools - I have kids that do that for me.

A couple that I really worry about - a 90 pound wrecking bar that disappeared when my son changed a rear tractor tire in the field. I hope it slid out onto the road - I'd hate to find it back with the baler. In the last 4 years over 10 Crescent wrenches - some I'd owned more than 30 years. Come alongs seem to have short lives, one son even loses tires, neighbor showed up with a grease gun that he found in his field 4 months after we put up hay for him.... The ones that really tick me off - I have several full sets of sockets on their own organizer - either the whole set disappears or suddenly 2 or three are gone from the organizer - never to be seen again. I bought a nice set of drill bits and thought I had them hid. One day I'm cleaning off the work bench and found them sitting out - missing two drill bits - so I know he used it twice.... Nice tools I am now hiding under my bed so I have them when I need them - like my bore scope camera and my long handle Snap on socket wrenches.

 

[rossow (mn)]

I don't lose many tools, but I do temporarily misplace them until I figure out the last place I used them. I confess to some notable disappearances:

(1) Back around 1971 I lost a nice body hammer. No idea how or where, because I never used it outside the garage where I lived way back then.

(2) A brand-new Craftsman 16-oz. hammer. I took it with me when I moved to Madison, WI, to work on my doctorate. I couldn't find it when unpacking so bought a cheap one to get by for two years. When I packed up to move back to Minnesota I found the hammer. I hauled it back to Minnesota and have never seen it since. (Moved back in fall of 1988! Hammer is still in a box somewhere 34 years later, still brand-new.)

(3) A Makita 14-volt drill and battery. I took it somewhere but don't recall why, and now I haven't found it after months of searching. I have an identical drill with charger and three more batteries, but I still want to find the missing one.

(4) A gunsmith tap and die set from Brownells. It hid itself away three or four years ago. I've offered grandkids a reward of $100 if they run across it, but no luck so far.

These are all tools that never leave my house or buildings, never get loaned to anyone, hardly worth stealing. With the exception of the body hammer which is gone for good, I'm sure they are all here somewhere. I just accumulate too much stuff in which they can hide. I need to get organized (or so I'm told).

 

[INCase]

ya know.

the darnest thing is.... its always in the last place you look

 

[4xMF]

i think the gremlins must be mislaying a lot of tools since they keep steeling mine.