Most common lost tools

i'm in constant search mode for my black chrome sockets they looked great when i bought them but they blend right into every nook and cranny on a car when they drop or tumble away

Whenever I run across a commonly lost size tool at a flea market, I buy it. I have multiples of everything anyway, ie. metric and english sockets in 1/4 - 3/8 - 1/2" drive in regular and deep, plus impact sockets in 3/8 and 1/2" and 3/8" mid-deep, 2 sets of combination wrenches, offsets, flares, double box end...

So I'm never dead in the water when something goes missing. But it's nice to have that box of spares.

The inevitable story, since I always start with yarns about the bygone days...

I was working in a busy bicycle and moped/scooter shop in DC in the early 80s. 4 full time bike mechanics and a scooter guy. Tool loss was rampant, and at one point we were down to a single 10mm combination wrench. At the time, there was loads of stuff on a bicycle that used a 10. Imagine 5 mechanics, all hustling on a busy, busy Saturday, all saying in unison:

"Who's got the 10? - Who's got the goddamn 10!!??"

footinmouth wrote: I find tools on the road . Good ones !

Funny you mention that. When I was an impoverished SCCA Corner Worker, I found a lot of tools on the side of the track..especially around where the bumps were. Especially when the Runoffs were in town...lotza thrashing for that event, I suppose. Occasionally we'd see the tool fall out, and we'd try to return it (since we knew what car it came from). The stuff you found in the grass by accident was fair game, though. I even found a nice torque wrench once!

Weirdest thing I ever saw come off a car like that? There was a guy one year running his Super Vee in Formula Atlantic, and then putting a body kit over it so he could run in CSR as well. He hit the curbing at Turn 3 (Road Atanta), and this cylinder-shaped object fell out of the back, spewing fluid. We actually raised the oil flag for a second, and put it back down when nobody following him had any problem with grip.

At the end of the session, we went out to clean up the track and discovered it was a Diet Dr. Pepper can.

At one of our hillclimbs' drivers' meeting (Pagoda, Reading PA) the Safety Steward stressed the importance of removal of any stray objects from the interior or outside of a car prior to getting to the start line. She gave the example of someone fixing an electrical issue and completing repairs just as the class was called to the line. However one tool didn't manage to get back in the box, and as she told it, " the car got to the first turn and a pair of dikes flew out of the car!"

To which a few of us asked "Were they hurt?"

I can not understand the tape measure thing. I used to think other people were stealing them from the shop, but by now everyone who wanted one could have stolen two and been set. I also get raging mad about the damn air chuck always being gone, but thats because people are slobs.

I thought Sharpies were a write off the second you took them out of your pocket.

For me it is work related. very easy answer carpenters rules (we call them DOF sticks) and 1/2 nut drivers.

I work in the sewers measuring flow and our sensors are mounted on a ring that is removed using a 1/2 nut driver, and we confirm the measurements our sensors make using the DOF sticks. Any tool dropped into the flow is instantly gone, sometimes you only get one use out of these two before they slip out of your hand and go down the flow. DOF sticks tend to snap a lot too. At least I know where all the tools end up, at the sewage treatment plant.

For the tools I use at home, I'm pretty anal about it, the only time something goes missing is when my wife takes something and forgets to replace it. ironically one of those things always seems to be a tape measure! Chris Rummel

Rumnhammer wrote: I work in the sewers measuring flow. Any tool dropped into the flow is instantly gone. Chris Rummel

Would you really want it back?

Shawn

13mm anything. That is the most common size on the neon.

That didn't come out right...

And phillips head screw drivers. I could get a 5-pack for each tool box in my house, thats at least 7 tool boxes, and withing a week all will be missing

funny... I have a HUGE collection of tape measures and sharpies...