Ever forget you have the right tool?

[mikey2]

Ever forget you have the right tool for a (non-woodworking) task?

I found both front sway bar links were broken on my car, and was cutting them off with a small 3" air cutoff tool, which sucks my little air compressor down in like 30 seconds. (I am not much of a mechanic.)

A neighbor came over and asked if I had a sawzall.  DOH!  I have not really thought about that saw for anything other than rough cutting framing.  I even had a metal cutting blade in the case.  Finished the job in about 3 minutes instead of waiting, waiting, waiting for the air compressor to recharge for another 30 seconds worth of cutting.

 

[hockey_magnet]

I do that a lot around the house. Usually it's a Dremel I forget about. By the time I think of it, the job's usually done though.

 

[greenMonster]

I think it's more of a case of tunnel vision, when I have a sawzall in my hands...It's like a caveman with a club

 

[Kev]

Forgot I had a Fein Multi Master - pleasant surprise when I came across it while moving things round.

On several occasions I've had to buy a new tool that I know I have - but it takes too long to find.

Wish I had more space!

 

[jmbfestool]

I think it's more of a case of tunnel vision, when I have a sawzall in my hands...It's like a caveman with a club

Funny

 

[DKurzweil]

This is similar to a case of "I know I have ______ around here somewhere, but where is it?"  Spend 10 minutes looking for it just to finish the job with another less than adequate tool.  Then once you finish the job the original tool you were looking for shows up. 

Daniel

 

[peter halle]

I hate to admit this, but because I feel that I am fair game for jesting, I was thinking about a project for my shop and unpacked a box that had virgin router bits in it that were still covered in the protective plastic coating - never used.  A whole bunch of them.  I bought them in 1986.

Ouch!

Peter

 

[Deansocial]

i seem to go periods of not using a tool. like today i used my laminate trimmer to scribe some phenlic panels and it worked ace, easier to hadle than the of1400 and its first time i have used it in 3 years, which was obvious cus it took about 1min to reach full speed, think it was coming out of deep hybernation

 

[Jesse Cloud]

In the middle of a project, I always have trouble finding a six inch metal rule.  When I finally clean up the shop, I find four or five of them. [scared]

 

[GPowers]

I dislike looking for a tool, not finding it and figuring out that you forgot to claim, the missing tool, as part of a recent theft [scared]

 

[fritter63]

I tore the barn apart last year looking for my drywall screw gun. Couldn't find it anywhere.

It was of course in the last place I looked, out of sheer, "I know it's not there but just in case..."

It was in a old (handmade wooden) toolbox I'd built for my routers and not using anymore, on the top storage shelf. I thought it was empty, but apparently at one point thought it was a good place to put a seldom used drywall screw gun... [doh]

 

[rxe]

I find it is the widgets that go with tools that I can't find.    I know I am going to stash my new crown extensions for the Kapex somewhere, ditto all of the clamping bits that come with the MFT/3.  When I need them.....I won't be able to find them. 

A few years ago I bit the bullet on a huge roll cab for the garage.  Second hand on eBay, it was one of the proper deep snap-on ones with the vertical pull out storage units on the side.  Now I can find stuff with my eyes shut.  Metric spanners, top draw on the right.  Imperial, in the draw below.  Whitworth (old diesel engines are another passion) below that.    Everything is laid out in racks, if the 13mm long reach spanner is missing, I know all about it.  When I finish the job, I can check through all the drawers and realise that I've left a socket sitting on the engine.

I'm going to have to build a giant systainer port for one side of the workshop and just put everything in it.  So a sys/2 for the MFT/3 clamping bits, and probably one for my Kapex extensions.

 

[dwillis]

Having moved frequently over the years (nature of my profession) I had the bad habit of not unpacking all of my tools.  So when I needed a tool and couldn't find one, I was off to buy one.  Now that I've settled in (the advantages of working in company headquarters), remodeled the garage into a shop, I finally unpacked everything.  Now I have enough Vice Grips to disassemble an M1 Abrams tank, and strip the heads of all the bolts in the process.

 

[fdengel]

I sometimes feel like I spend half my time on a project searching around for any of the half dozen pencils I'd pulled out to work on the project with, then sat somewhere where I could find them...

 

[Steve R]

Being that I work on location.... putting stuff back in the same place and same bag is soooo important ... or you can come to a dead stop over the smallest thing. when on site someone might ask for something as a loan...and some tools I will loan....but they have put them back in my hands....not back in the first bag/box they see.

Most of the time for me is not forgetting I have the tool but not bringing it due to the project was a small thing and now grew.... I need a bigger vechiel with that can store it all and then a nice safe warm place to park it at night.

Cheers,
Steve