When I lose a tool...

[dennishoddy]

Working in Industrial maintenance all of my civilian career, I've found lots of wrenches and tools laying on an I-beam or purlon.
At home when missing a tool and the kids were young, the best place to look was in the grass outside the garage where they worked on their bikes.
I'm anal about my tools with each having their place, but like the rest, it drives me crazy when one is not where I know I left it.

 

[Okiedog]

I can guarantee it is right where you left it.

I know! And I'll find it the last place I look.

 

[wawazat]

I know! And I'll find it the last place I look.

Every now and then if I am feeling spicy and am looking for something with my wife, I will look two more places after I have it in my hand so I can tell her it actually wasnt in the last place I looked. She is never amused.

 

[ConstitutionCowboy]

Put your scent on your tools. That way, you can always sniff out their hiding place.

Woody

 

[Foxfire5]

I am discombobulated to no end if I lose a tool. If I'm on a job and I laid down a tool someplace then When I go to the location I thought it was and it's not there, I might as well go home for the day. That is what I feel like anyway. I do work through it but it is in the back of my mind all day like a mosquito buzzing my brain until I find it or buy another.

It screws up my workflow and my process thinking so bad I have to start on another completely different task or sit down and think. If I sit down and think it's kind of like me taking a break. I don't take breaks, because I don't let my mind rest because I'm thinking what I have to do next, where that damn tool is, what I can do to bypass using the tool, etc. That is why I have bought multiples of tools over the years, to replace the ones I lost, then found.

I lost a multimeter once. Pissed me off so bad I had to take a long lunch break and go buy another one just like it but had to upgrade because they didn't make my model anymore. I didn't like the first two I bought then finally found one on ebay and it was in worse shape than my old one and I didn't trust it.

I had a drill driver stolen on the job when I was in another part of the building. I walked back to get it and couldn't find it. Then I heard a bunch of them were missing and the GC was aware and wanted a list so he could replace all of them. Nice guy! They even bought me a better brand of drill bits than I had. We found out later it was a thing that happened whenever the Rice company came in with their day laborers and escaped convicts to assemble furniture and cubes. I watched mine like a hawk whenever they were on site anywhere I worked.

Worst scare I ever had when I was General Foreman on forty story Society Hill Towers in Philadelphia PA. There are four buildings. I was shooting bench marks on number two for HVAC placement at building #2. I had to talk to the Project Manager down on the first floor and had to take my Nikon Theodolite instrument with me so it wouldn't grow legs. Conversation got lengthily and in a hurry to get back to job at hand, I left it. Got on the elevator and at 38th remembered what I forgot. Headed back and it was gone and the PM was gone and nobody knew nothing. Went looking for him in all four buildings. At number three building he got on the elevator as I was coming down. He gave the instrument to a apprentice engineer to take to me. Told the kid wrong building. Now the kid was looking for me. After a long time looking I heard the Carpenter Foreman's whistle end of day. As I was getting off at ground level the Elevator Operator said hey Ben you forgot your instrument. It was in the corner where the operator sits. Holy Chit was I happy that I didn't have to put out somewhere like four grand for a new one and take a year to pay for it. I never did find out how it got there. Really Didn't Care.

 

[Profreedomokie]

I've lost a 19mm deep well socket somewhere here at home. I looked yesterday without any luck. I guess I'll go buy another one today.

 

[Jason Freeland]

I have more screwdriver sets running around my house from this.

 

[cdschoonie]

I am discombobulated to no end if I lose a tool. If I'm on a job and I laid down a tool someplace then When I go to the location I thought it was and it's not there, I might as well go home for the day. That is what I feel like anyway. I do work through it but it is in the back of my mind all day like a mosquito buzzing my brain until I find it or buy another.

It screws up my workflow and my process thinking so bad I have to start on another completely different task or sit down and think. If I sit down and think it's kind of like me taking a break. I don't take breaks, because I don't let my mind rest because I'm thinking what I have to do next, where that damn tool is, what I can do to bypass using the tool, etc. That is why I have bought multiples of tools over the years, to replace the ones I lost, then found.

I lost a multimeter once. Pissed me off so bad I had to take a long lunch break and go buy another one just like it but had to upgrade because they didn't make my model anymore. I didn't like the first two I bought then finally found one on ebay and it was in worse shape than my old one and I didn't trust it.

I had a drill driver stolen on the job when I was in another part of the building. I walked back to get it and couldn't find it. Then I heard a bunch of them were missing and the GC was aware and wanted a list so he could replace all of them. Nice guy! They even bought me a better brand of drill bits than I had. We found out later it was a thing that happened whenever the Rice company came in with their day laborers and escaped convicts to assemble furniture and cubes. I watched mine like a hawk whenever they were on site anywhere I worked.

I’m the same way, I will start over, looking at all the places I’ve already looked for weeks

 

[OkieJoe72]

Half of my time spent on projects is looking for a tool that I sat down somewhere two minutes prior.

 

[RockHopper]

Pro tip. Spray paint all your power tools bright pink. A crackhead would still steal it, but no other tradesman is gonna "accidentally" walk off with it.