problems With Missing Tools

[Rocketman1]

Anyone else have problems with tools disappearing?

My framing hammer went missing for several months. It isn’t like me to misplace tools, and I looked high and low for it. I’m always willing to lend my tools to a friend or neighbor, but I couldn’t remember lending it to any one, and my friends and neighbors always return things. If they didn’t return things they wouldn’t be my friends and neighbors for long, Ha! I thought maybe my stepson might have it because he never returns things, but he said he never borrowed it. Got me kind of upset, because it was an older Stanley that I had for years. I got even more upset this past summer when I tried to drive a big nail with a 12oz hammer. Well today it showed up in the most unlikely spot.

My wife hasn’t been feeling well the last few days, so I have been doing all the cooking, which I don’t normally do. I was looking through the kitchen drawers for a spatula, and low and behold there was my framing hammer.

Now just how in the heck did my framing hammer end up in a kitchen drawer? I asked the wife if she knew how my framing hammer ended up there, and she said that she needed one for cooking, and since I had four or five hammers she didn’t think I would miss it.

I decided to leave it at that, and never bothered asking what she used it for. Maybe when she’s feeling better I’ll ask her to explain, anyone have any ideas?

[76Highboy]

Meat tenderizer? Then again maybe she wanted to be a framer. Could be.

[01brian]

Heh heh...makes a fellow wonder!! my wife said she used them to break up frozen meat

[Rocketman1]

Originally Posted by 01brian

Heh heh...makes a fellow wonder!! my wife said she used them to break up frozen meat

You know that makes sense, I bet thats it, because I know she has a meat tenderizer.

[todd51]

Hey Darrell at least you have your wife to blame. No one here but me and I am still looking for my coffee cup that has been missing for over a years. It only gets worse as you get older. My floor jack has been gone for two years but I see it often in my neighbor's garage so I know where to get it if I really need it.

[76Highboy]

Originally Posted by todd51

Hey Darrell at least you have your wife to blame. No one here but me and I am still looking for my coffee cup that has been missing for over a years. It only gets worse as you get older. My floor jack has been gone for two years but I see it often in my neighbor's garage so I know where to get it if I really need it.

Hey Todd, you haven't seen my large adjustable wrench have you?

[68c15]

Originally Posted by 76Highboy

Hey Todd, you haven't seen my large adjustable wrench have you?

I've got it. I was using it to adjust those binoculars I found. LOL

I have an assortment of tools at home and every one knows to leave them alone or at least put them back. my good stuff I keep at work though.

I did find my propane torch on top of the drier once though. now that is an interesting place to find it. as it turns out the wife was using it for baking a ham and just put it there out of the way when she was done. 3 more steps and it would have been back in the garage on the bench where it's supposed to be

[cjh7819]

I had a tackle box disappear from my shop a couple years ago and then it showed up again right in front of the door about 3 months later. Still havent figured out who did that yet.

[mjp28]

Start engraving all your tools. (tell your wife that)

Seriously I engrave everything right down to every socket, engrave where it's hard to see and harder to ever grind off.

But a framing hammer in the kitchen, hmmmm, take out any big insurance policies lately?

[Buckshot]

I'm with mjp...ever sit at the breakfast table, drinking your coffee, loading eggs in with one hand while absorbed in the sports section...with your back to the kitchen?

[glens67]

Originally Posted by mjp28

Start engraving all your tools. (tell your wife that)

Seriously I engrave everything right down to every socket, engrave where it's hard to see and harder to ever grind off.

But a framing hammer in the kitchen, hmmmm, take out any big insurance policies lately?

Ya engrave every tool. Worked for Chevron USA Richmond Refinery as a Machinist For 27 years, Field Mechanic most of the time. Worked on the big stuff. Older Mechanic told me not to mark my tools as questions would arise if found in closed machinery. Did have one socket returned after 2 years in the Machine Shop's Caustic Pit....

[wolfdog]

I hae been turning wrenches for a living for 30 years. I engrave everything, but I lose more tools now then I did when I was younger.

[gvw3]

My son has been losing my tools since he was 3 years old. He is 22 now.

[carver]

I seem to have a simular problem. But in my case, for some reason, the tools I buy all have legs on them, and they like to wander around. They turn up in places that you wouldn't believe! Got to looking for a hammer that got lost once. Found it in the freezer! I know it was my brother, but he denies it!

[cycloneman]

Ya aint gona want to believe this. This sounds like a dirty movie in the making. The old lady had a boyfriend over one day fixing up the joint and the "husband" finds the hammer in the kitchen drawer where the boyfriend last hammered his nails. So the "husband" confronts his old lady about the hammer being in the drawer and wants to know why its in there. She picks up the phone and calles the BF and he comes over and the 3 of them have cookies and tea.

There you go the next romance on the bookshelves.

[wv hillbilly]

maybe to break ice?

[Gun Geezer]

I once found my wife using one of my expensive wood chisels to pry open a can of paint. She's my ex-wife now!

[CampingJosh]

I have that problem way more at work than at home.

We eventually instituted a "don't put it away" rule. After you use a tool, it always goes onto this one steel table. Then our maintenance coordinator puts it away. Now things don't go missing because they've been "put away" where they don't belong.

[Insulation Tim]

Originally Posted by Gun Geezer

I once found my wife using one of my expensive wood chisels to pry open a can of paint. She's my ex-wife now!

Women have a much different view on tools than men. Most think that an expensive culinary knife suffices as a Leatherman Multi-Tool (my wife included).

[Slabsides]

In my experience, the fastest way to locate a lost tool is to buy another one. You will magically stumble across the old one shortly after.

[Country101]

I can never find mine. I have no place to store them properly and I'm bad enough with my memory, but when it's not me its the wife. I cant STAND my wife using my tools. Once I get a shed, I'm putting locks on it and she doesnt get a key.....

[Old Grump]

Originally Posted by glens67

Ya engrave every tool. Worked for Chevron USA Richmond Refinery as a Machinist For 27 years, Field Mechanic most of the time. Worked on the big stuff. Older Mechanic told me not to mark my tools as questions would arise if found in closed machinery. Did have one socket returned after 2 years in the Machine Shop's Caustic Pit....

I had a Crescent wrench returned to me at the Foundry when the forklift mechanic found it wedged inside the batter box. I never worked on the forklifts.

Then one day I catch a youngster in the maintenance shop digging through my tool box looking for a screw driver and I jumped his tail end. I need it he explains, besides it just company tools anyway. I let him know that the company did not buy our tools, us Maintenance workers had to buy our own. He leaves mad, comes back 10 minutes later and throws half a dozen tools on top of my tool box and said "Fine take the F''''n things." That was in in 1973, I never left a tool box unlocked on the job since that day because the minute you turn your back some a-hole will think he is entitled to your means of making a living.

[Rocketman1]

Originally Posted by todd51

Hey Darrell at least you have your wife to blame. No one here but me and I am still looking for my coffee cup that has been missing for over a years. It only gets worse as you get older. My floor jack has been gone for two years but I see it often in my neighbor's garage so I know where to get it if I really need it.

Now that made me laugh out loud Todd!

[Rocketman1]

Originally Posted by wv hillbilly

maybe to break ice?

If this was a contest, then I guess wv hillbilly is the winner!

Just asked my wife tonight when I got home what she used it for, and breaking ice cubes up into smaller bits was her main answer. She also said that she uses it to break the large dog cookies up for her pampered pooch that happens to have bad teath.

I think I will let her keep it, and I'll go get me a new one a few more ounce bigger.

[nmckenzie]

Originally Posted by Slabsides

In my experience, the fastest way to locate a lost tool is to buy another one. You will magically stumble across the old one shortly after.

About five years ago I bought four industrial strength C-clamps. These things were real monsters, needed for a specific task, and once finished I clamped all four to one of the overhead shelf supports (a 2x4) in the garage. All four of 'em lined up in a row, neat as a pin. About a year later I needed all four for some project, went to the back of the garage, and just three were clamped to the 2x4. Looked under the workbench - nothing there, questioned the usual suspect - she claimed innocence, so poor ol' me went and bought another clamp. Finished the project and returned all four clamps to the 2x4. Don't know when or how it happened, but I now have five industrial strength C-clamps hanging onto the 2x4 shelf support. Spooky.