Misplaced Shop "Things"

[dougd]

OK, a friends MRE I'm working gave me 3 brand new packages of 4" cloth for the repair. Of course they sat on my bench for a long spell and when I cleaned it off to make room for other stuff I put them in a "safe" place, ya know that place where you know exactly where it is.

That never works. Now I can't find them in a 16 x20' shop! I know they will turn up but when is the big question and where is that "safe" place? Come on, we've all done it. A few stories from others would make me feel a little better!

dougd

 

[Boatman53]

I can’t remember specifics but you are not alone. That’s partly why I have too many tools.
Jim

 

[Cheeseandbeans]

I have bought replacement tools for tools I found later that day... I consider myself to be organized too! It happens.

Bob

 

[Jim Dodd]

OK, a friends MRE I'm working gave me 3 brand new packages of 4" cloth for the repair. Of course they sat on my bench for a long spell and when I cleaned it off to make room for other stuff I put them in a "safe" place, ya know that place where you know exactly where it is.

That never works. Now I can't find them in a 16 x20' shop! I know they will turn up but when is the big question and where is that "safe" place? Come on, we've all done it. A few stories from others would make me feel a little better!

dougd

Yup ! Happens all the time to me ! It's always been like that, so it's not Alzheimer's, unless I have the longest running case of it !

Sometimes. I wake up in the middle of the night, and remember one place that I haven't already looked six times. Get up, go look, and sure enough it's there !

I resort quite often to saying that Magic Word !" Dear !" Can you help me find something !

OH ! Don't Ever accuse the Wife of losing something of yours ! If she finds it ? You likely will be Springing for Supper !

Sometimes when She finds something I take her out for a meal anyway !

I'm pretty sure God Planned it, that Adam would be Depending on Eve to find things for him !

I'm pulling for you Doug ! But if all else fails ??

Jim

 

[Jim Dodd]

I have bought replacement tools for tools I found later that day... I consider myself to be organized too! It happens.

Bob

Amen to that ! Especially Small things like drill bits, screw driver bits, and tape measures !

How many People don't have at least 5 tape measures ?

Jim

 

[LanceR]

Shoot! If I don't stumble around in a haze wondering where the heck something is a few times every shop day then it's not really a shop day.

I allegedly own three portable belt sanders, one each Porter-Cable 503 and 504 super heavy duty old school worm gear and chain drive "production sanders" designed to run all day every day and a newer PC 3x24" belt sander. For the life of me I can't find the newer sander and the heavy duty ones can't be run on their sides or upside down as they were were made to work in large flat surfaces and use an oil bath to lube the chain and spiral gears.

I have a couple of projects that would have been a lot easier with the newer sander but, for the life of me, I can't find it. Really, a darn belt sander???

Best regards to all,


Lance

 

[sweeper]

I'm building a shed right now and every day I find the tool I'm looking for was right in front of me after having walked all over the site.

I planned to put in a water line to my wife's garden this spring. I figured out all the pieces and tools I needed to make the connections, bought them ahead of time last winter, put them in a box, and put them in a 'safe place' waiting for the ground to thaw.

Yup, I found the box about 2 weeks after I rebought everything and installed the line. It's not a total loss, she wants some branch lines for next year.

 

[stripperguy]

I’m a firm believer in time warps.
i carefully place an item where it can retrieved easily, only to come back in a few minutes to find it gone without a trace. Then, mysteriously, the item reappears in a week or maybe two years? These time warps are prevalent in the refrigerator but also manifest themselves in the shop.
usually, the items are transported to some time in the future, where they may or may not still be needed. Sadly, some of the time warps must transport stuff into the past, making them impossible to find.
i know all of you have experienced these time warps, but you may not have recognized them as such.

Or, the stuff is just misplaced!

My money is on the time warp theory.

 

[ppine]

As we age, this disease only gets worse. I remember watching my grandfather label everything, wrap it up and tie string around it. Now I get it.

 

[Odyssey]

Finding a misplaced tool can be impossible or sometimes easy, or due diligence. Yes I own several tape measures, but I don't recall how many. What's the point in numbering them, I can never find them all at one time. In my busy hectic work life not so long ago I was a painter decorator who did a lot of paper hanging. Miles and miles of gaily printed paper, around tight cabinet corners and up and down soaring atriums. It was necessary to have several cutting blades and two tape measures in my work pouch at all times. And numerous pencils, one in my pouch one in my shirt pocket one in pants pocket the one in my mouth. That's the one I used the most. I never lost that one. If only I could hold all my hand tools clenched in my teeth I'd never misplace them. Now in my slow lane of life I can never seem to find this stuff. Not even that favourite pencil. But as slippery as my tools are I know a guy who is even worse. He's a good buddy of mine who can lose a pencil, tape measure or hand tool faster than you can say sandwich. I'm talking instantly - poof!! - it's gone. Unfortunately it's usually one of my items I've loaned him because he can't find his. And when I do finally come across something I've loaned him it usually comes back the worse for wear. He is a tool user-abuser. How do you bend an aluminum step ladder, dent the table on a table saw, knock a compound mitre saw out of square, and kink a drywall square?? Easy. Loan it to my buddy George. I don't even want to discuss my hammer drill. But he did replace that for me, so we're all good. But when he calls me to help him out I show up empty handed. My tools stay home. Except my tape measures and pencils. I bring plenty of those.

 

[Guest]

Just in the past few months:

The “water pump pliers”. I only have one pair, don’t need them often, and they go back on the peg board in the same place every time. 12” long, big red handles, hung beside all the other pliers, hard to miss.

I stood in front of the peg board every day for two weeks, convinced that I had put them back somewhere, asking myself “Where the heck did I hang those?”. Nope. I looked everydamnwhere in the shop. Nope. I asked my wife and son if they had used them*. Nope. I had my son stand in the shop with me and scan the expanse of peg board. Nope.

I was going to the hardware store to buy a new pair, and needed gas for the lawn tractor. Found the pliers as soon as I opened the shed door, and remembered what I had last used them for, and exactly where I had set them down. My bad.

*Propane torches. Plural, I have two, probably because of that “Can’t find it, bought another, found the original”. Again, always put back in the same spot. Again, not exactly a small, easy to lose item. Tore the shop apart. Repeatedly. Nope. Got to the point that I was looking in the unlikeliest of places; in the sandpaper box, in the cabinet with the power tools, in the FRP cloth and material box and the outfitting parts box, behind boxes on shelves, inside shop stored canoes.

Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Eventually found one torch in my son’s bedroom closet, and the other mysteriously reappeared soon after. He did his best Sergeant Schultz “I know nufink” impersonation; I think he borrowed them both to help a friend and forgot he had them or where he put them.

Although my family (mostly) knows where tools go, when asked “Where should I put this” I typically respond “Just put it on the bench, I’ll put it away”. I like to check; does the battery need charging, is the blade guard back on the hand saw, are all the drills back in the index?

Especially Small things like drill bits, screw driver bits, and tape measures !

How many People don't have at least 5 tape measures ?

Tape measures are the bane of my shop tool existence. All of them are in an open top box on the bench, easy to see, easy to grab. Grab and measure something and then set the tape measure down in some obscure spot before making a cut. Or return it to lie on the bench and become covered with other tools to invisibility.

I have four principal 25’ tape measures in the shop, a couple smaller ones and two cloth tapes. And a tape measure in each vehicle. When I get down to where I can only find one tape measure in the wreckage of the shop I stop whatever I’m doing and clean up/reorganize. It is quicker to clean and organize the shop, put all of the tools away and start over than to wander around aimlessly looking for a dang tape measure.

The magnetic tool bars set within no-stretch reach over the main shop bench have been an organization lifesaver. When working on something, taking it apart or putting it back together every tool I regularly use in within reach, in plain sight, and easy to put back on the magnet bar

Those magnetic tool bars were a Canoe Tripping suggestion and I can’t imagine shop life without them. To wit, I now have nine of them, including three easy-reach in front of the bench; much handier than peg board hooks.

So Doug, where was the fiberglass cloth?

In the beer fridge? No, I expect that was the first place you looked.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I don't have a shop but misplace and forget things all the time, and it's definitely getting worse with old age. I now misplace and forget even names and common words.

Once I was chopping branches off a tree with my Condor golok. I knew I had put it down at the base of the tree, yet I couldn't find it no matter how hard I looked. More than a year later, having survived a bad winter, I found it right at the base of the tree, rusting, under some matted grass. I'm convinced that sometimes the eye is not connected to brain recognition center.

Of course, I knew the misplacement phenomenon early in life. I always preached to my family: "Put things in their final place the first time." Unfortunately, no one ever paid consistent attention to this rule . . . including me.

 

[dougd]

I resort quite often to saying that Magic Word !" Dear !" Can you help me find something !


Jim

Jim, You hit it out of the ball park!

When I got home today I was talking with the better half explaining my problem. She comes down to the shop and we...she...searches than looks at me and says, "Remember that milk crate full of things you don't want to have out in cold weather and brought to the house?" Ummm, me...oh yeah! Mystery solved until the next round of looking for that next exclusive item I need and during this latest head scratcher I am now in search of something I need and of course can't find!

 

[Chip]

Went paddling Saturday. It was pouring rain when I departed the house. Oh, fudge, where's my paddling jacket. I ran around the house trying to figure out the last place I left it. It was time to go, and still didn't find it. Luckily, a paddling buddy had an extra and loaned me hers. Next day, I decided to search for that jacket, which was a neon yellow color. Hard to miss, right? I spotted it right away, sitting out in plane sight. Just wasn't were it was supposed to be.

I don't loose many tape measures. Glass cutters are my bane. Small and seldom used, and it doesn't classify into any tool category, not a saw, not a hammer, not a wrench, where does it belong? I've bought a new one three times, and have no idea where any of them are now.

I once built a crowbar into a shelf. Found it when I rebuilt the shelf 25 years later. It was rusty.

 

[Guest]

I once built a crowbar into a shelf. Found it when I rebuilt the shelf 25 years later. It was rusty.

My father once built our family cat into a staircase.

Ed was building new risers and treads in our old farmhouse. He designed the stairs with a 90 degree turn near the top before the 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] floor hallway, so that tread was a specific triangular shape. Ed got it cut to shape and nailed it in place.

It was some hours before our absolute unit of a giant black tomcat (Sambo) began crying for release from his staircase prison.

Ed did not like that cat. Ed was not pleased.

Way back in the ‘70’s I repaired the plaster wall in the attic bedroom of a decrepit mansion house where I rented a room. Did a nice job of it if I say so myself. I left a treat inside the wall cavity, a neatly rolled joint inside a test tube, with a dated message about repairing the wall.

In a l'esprit d'escalier moment of regret, shortly after I had replace our ground level deck, I realized that I should have bought a lifelike plastic skeleton, or at least a plastic human skull, and buried it halfway in the dirt for the next deck replacer to discover.

 

[dcloots]

Amen to that ! Especially Small things like drill bits, screw driver bits, and tape measures !

How many People don't have at least 5 tape measures ?

Jim

Haha...just bought two new tape measures. Had some work to do in the garage and three tape measures nearly hit me in the face. When things like this happen I always tell myself that now is the time to get organized and stay organized. Pretty sure I will continue to buy unnecessary tools!!!!

 

[Paddlinhal]

Sure fire cure: Loudly proclaim in front of everyone that "Somebody stole my [insert item description here]." Your hand will be resting on said item.

 

[Roybrew]

I think my wife has been moving my tools around. She's hoping I loose my mind, and have an aneurysm and keel over dead. Yeh that way she can collect my life insurance and take off with her boyfriend. That would explain things.

 

[scratchypants]

I can't lose tape measures - they follow me around and congregate. I try to keep one in the kitchen, basement, garage, shop, truck... In less than a week they are all in the same place - by the door where I take off my shoes. For the life of me, I can't seem to put them away and have them stay there.

 

[Canotrouge]

OK, a friends MRE I'm working gave me 3 brand new packages of 4" cloth for the repair. Of course they sat on my bench for a long spell and when I cleaned it off to make room for other stuff I put them in a "safe" place, ya know that place where you know exactly where it is.

That never works. Now I can't find them in a 16 x20' shop! I know they will turn up but when is the big question and where is that "safe" place? Come on, we've all done it. A few stories from others would make me feel a little better!

dougd

Nope never happened to... never I said.... I swear never