Something needs to change

[funwithfuel]

I once spent 2 hours, yes 2 hours looking for the 9/16 combo I needed for a brake adjustment. I found it, in my front pants pocket, right where I left it. I was in my 30s when that happened.

The worst is when I'm working on something with the right tool in my hand and I set it down to do something else and then have to take ten minutes to find where I set it.

 

[Birken Vogt]

Pull tool out of tray. Use tool. Put tool back in its spot in tray even if you will be using it in 2 minutes.

Remove bunch of bolts from some thing. Remove thing. Thread bolts back in their original holes immediately. Even if they all appear the same.

Saves time in the long run.

 

[funwithfuel]

Amen........
Now if I could put that into practice, I'd be onto something.

 

[td25c]

My most used tool is the Leatherman .
No idea how many times I pull that rig in a day's time . LOL !

 

[Ronsii]

Good thing you put the slo-mo in there my old eyes just can't see that fast action stuff anymore.

 

[crane operator]

Pull tool out of tray. Use tool. Put tool back in its spot in tray even if you will be using it in 2 minutes.

You'd fire me in less than 10 minutes. We've got a piece of plywood on a rolling cart that the mechanic and I have been arguing over for a month at least. I just keep rolling the plywood to my next project and sort through the mess to find the tool I need. My mechanic hates me too.

 

[Birken Vogt]

I did not start out that way. More experienced mechanics ragged me for my disorganization. Only when I was really on my own and I was the one responsible for deadlines and screwups did I change my ways.

 

[Nige]

Pull tool out of tray. Use tool. Put tool back in its spot in tray even if you will be using it in 2 minutes.
Remove bunch of bolts from some thing. Remove thing. Thread bolts back in their original holes immediately. Even if they all appear the same.
Saves time in the long run.

My old man would have cut my hands off if I'd done it any other way. "That's not the way I taught you...!!"
Call it OCD but for me if a bolt comes out of a certain hole it should go back in the same hole, even if it's one of 20 identical bolts in a ring.

 

[DMiller]

When started out was taught find a scrap of cardboard, use a Philips screw driver make holes for bolts and screws, line them up as remove them. Have not done that in years, just lay them out on a piece of plywood or a rag where I am working until they go back in. Kind of nice not having five other guys rooting around my work as in the old days, vultures each and every one!! Just me and the two helpers nowadays, Me Myself and I.

 

[funwithfuel]

I'm a box n bucket guy. Nobody wants to follow me on a job. I rip n tear throw everything in a bucket. Just the way I've always done it. Not bragging, it's just how I roll. Used to work flat rate, no choice but to move fast and efficiently.

 

[walkerv]

I'm a box n bucket guy. Nobody wants to follow me on a job. I rip n tear throw everything in a bucket. Just the way I've always done it. Not bragging, it's just how I roll. Used to work flat rate, no choice but to move fast and efficiently.

Im the same way on my macks when i get ready to clean up for reassembly i clean hardware and toss into there respective pile , the jigsaw mack project i have been working on threw me for a loop when i was hanging the clutch i was missing one bolt , after some careful looking over what others had assembled i found it in the front cover .

 

[Former Wrench]

I have a couple of old, good sized magnets that came out of speakers. I sometimes use them to hold nuts and bolts when I am taking something apart. They are strong enough to keep stuff from getting knocked on the ground.

 

[check]

I once spent 2 hours, yes 2 hours looking for the 9/16 combo I needed for a brake adjustment. I found it, in my front pants pocket, right where I left it. I was in my 30s when that happened.

Thanks, guys. I feel much better knowing I'm not the only one with these problems.
Note to young guys (the old men already know this): Only buy tools which have the size stamped on them in large legible numbers because one day you will realize you have to get out the reading glasses out to figure out what you have.
I can eyeball some sockets and wrenches like 7/16 thru 9/16 without having to read them. But that only works when I'm not wearing reading glasses. One thing that helps is having a mix of brands so you can recognize your tools at a distance.
I just ordered some Craftsman socket organizers but I know they will end up practically empty with all the often used loose sockets rolling around in the box. Yes, I'm a box and bucket guy too.

 

[Old Doug]

The old stuff didnt have alot of different bolts so it wasnt so bad but this newer stuff may have 12 bolts holding a cover on 11 one length 1 a different lenght.

 

[farmerlund]

Put me in the keep you tools organized group. I have a buddy that had tools all over the place. When I would go help him it was sickening wasting time looking for a 9/16 wrench. I used to make him bring his projects over to my place. he finally got organized 5-6 years ago.
When I was dating my wife I had to have a talk about putting things back where they belong in the fridge. Its a lot easier to find the ketchup if its in the same spot all the time.

 

[petepilot]

a few of you guys really like to stomp on toes

 

[Old Doug]

I have sets of wrenches sockets and other tools that i bought new and sets that i put together from flea market, auction and pawn shop stuff. If i lose something from a set i got new try to get a exact replacement.The other day i lost the 7/32 from my craftsman 1/4 set.There is a salvage store close to were i work and they have been geting some craftsman tools i was looking around there this week and they had alot of sets but they also had 2 lose 1/4 sockets and one was a 7/32 disaster averted. I have a list of tools to take with me when i go places so i can buy what i need it helps me to not buy all the good deals. Next weekend there is a flea market so i need to recheck my list.

 

[Birken Vogt]

Ebay has exact replacements for a lot of the stuff that I lose. But usually it is never really lost. It turns up later in the bottom of my tool bag or in the truck somewhere or I return to the site 6 months later and the customer hands it over and says you left this here last time.

 

[kshansen]

Two of my best/worst tool stories would be:

While working as a mechanic in the shop every so often someone would "borrow" a tool with out asking. My 3/4-7/8 boxend(ring spanner) wrench went missing for a long time. Finally broke down and bought a new one.

Then months latter found that someone apparently had borrowed it and decided to set it in the very top of the roll cabinet way to the front where you needed to have a step stool to see it! Well now I have a spare.

I can say that in 45 years working at the quarry don't think I ever had a problem with out right theft and very seldom a lost tool like this one. But ever since that I made a point to tell people to NOT put tools away, just leave them on the shelf on the side of the tool box.

This one I have to take the blame for. This was when I was the road mechanic for the company. Sometimes in a hurry to get home from a job I would just put all the tools I had been using on a job in a bucket and worry about cleaning them the next morning at the shop.

One day realized I could not find my large Snap-on screw Philips driver and could not recall where I may have used it. After a good long time decided to break down and replace it.

Well one day maybe a year or so latter I was at one of our other quarries doing some work and one job was fixing the window mechanism on a Mack truck. Removed the inner door panel to see if I could free up the linkage, 90% of the time it was just build up of dirt making things work hard. Never guess what was laying down in the bottom of that drivers door! Seems I had worked on this same door once before!

 

[grandpa]

I've got all the problems you all posted too. Now I have two sons that work with me and they are in their 30's. They have their own habits now. I find myself asking them where something is located now..... in my own shop. I wouldn't change it for anything though and have regressed to just bitching about it now!!!