lost and found tools

[brightspark]

lost a decent screwdriver and a dewalt stanley knife a week ago bought new ones yesterday 24 quid .today found them at bottom of toolbagother month it was a tester 18 quid

 

[Barking Mat]

I've lost my 12" adjustable Wurth wrench / spanner at work, can't find it anywhere, not like it's a small tool. Had it about 15 years.

Pretty rare I lose tools.

 

[brightspark]

i loose good tools at work and only find crap ones

 

[minimutly]

I've lost my 12" adjustable Wurth wrench / spanner at work, can't find it anywhere, not like it's a small tool. Had it about 15 years.

Pretty rare I lose tools.

Likely left inside a boat...
I lost a pair of side cutters, found years later inside of a television set..
When I worked on the diaries I was pretty much the only electronics geek there. I lost a really nice pair of side cutters, probably 15 years later one of the powder bagging operators bumped into me - I found one of your side cutters in the cable trunking". Told him to keep them for tying flies.

 

[Barking Mat]

Likely left inside a boat...
I lost a pair of side cutters, found years later inside of a television set..
When I worked on the diaries I was pretty much the only electronics geek there. I lost a really nice pair of side cutters, probably 15 years later one of the powder bagging operators bumped into me - I found one of your side cutters in the cable trunking". Told him to keep them for tying flies.

I've about a dozen boats, currently in the car park, I've serviced all the engines and cleaned the bilges, emptied the van, checked my colleagues tools, still none the wiser.

They'll probably turn up after I replace them.

 

[RWD3M]

Second attempt!

I lost a magnetic LED inspection lamp for about 3 years. I found still attached to the underside of the front wing of my old Morris. Done a good few hundred miles under there, still worked after a good charge!

 

[bert]

I rebuilt a gearbox this week and managed to bolt the bell housing on with the torch still inside. Didn't realise until after the camper had gone on its first test drive.

Torch still works too after removing engine and gearbox to retrieve it.

 

[Blobber]

Haven't lost but misplaced a pair of decent side cutters and a pair of 12inch long nose pliers...

 

[Barking Mat]

Haven't lost but misplaced a pair of decent side cutters and a pair of 12inch long nose pliers...

Ahh, the subtle difference between lost and misplaced, a huge grey area.

 

[Nomad]

I lost a magnentic worklight when I went camping, noticed it was missing when I got home - rang the campsite but nobody had handed it in so I bought a replacement.
The original turned up when I went camping a year later - it was stuck to the metal frame of my camp bed


Somebody gave me nice magnetic worklight, I used it when I was working under my car and never saw it again so I suspect it ended up in the gutter somewhere along my test route ...

A month later I picked up a very nice magnetic "long finger" LED worklight that was in the gutter and lit up, I'm guessing somebody got home after a test drive and realised they were missing a light. Karma - I was giving a nice lady a lift to the shops when I found the light as her car was off the road

 

[KimB]

I lost a pair of needle nose pliars at work. One of my colleagues found them wedged in a weird position in the neck of my low loader. They were so seized but I cleaned them up and all good

 

[Hitch]

Lost a 1" cold chisel under a staircase on a job in London. Went back to do a job just down the road year later, went back to the staircase, an found the chisel exactly where I remembered using it last.

Dropped a socket down amongst 7 stories of steelwork in a Sheffield carpark, had a look to no avail, but found a steel rule instead.

 

[DanZac]

I helped a mate lay laminate flooring throughout the entire ground floor of his house a few years ago. On day 1 of the 3 day endeavour we (he) lost the pencil we were using to mark up the boards.

2 days later as we were wrapping up his Mrs says "Why is there a lump in the middle of the lounge floor and the coffee table won't sit flat!

That'll be another day's work while we lifted most of the floor again to retrieve the missing pencil from the middle of the lounge floor.

 

[Shedendman]

Tape measures jeeeeez if i had a quid for each one i've lost i'd be bloody rich

 

[beeRS]

I buy tools, put them in the toolbox in preparation for a particular future job, then totally forget! Later, when I need to do the job, I buy the item again and go to the toolbox to put it away, only to find I’ve already bought it.

 

[smashweld]

magnetic torches...where is it? probably stuck to something

have a habit of getting sidetracked and walking away with whatever tool I'm using...

 

[daleyd]

I left a tape measure inside an air flotation dryer at the place where they used to print the auto trader, max air temp inside was around 300 degrees c

I didnt know id left it in there, just thought id lost it "somewhere" - I went back a couple of years later and found the coiled up tape sat on a ledge inside, the plastic case was a molten blob underneath

 

[JOEPRO]

I buy tools, put them in the toolbox in preparation for a particular future job, then totally forget! Later, when I need to do the job, I buy the item again and go to the toolbox to put it away, only to find I’ve already bought it.

This happens to me alot too! Sometimes if I suspect ill spend half a day looking for a specific and inexpensive tool I'll end up buying another to get the job done. Then during a garage tidy I'll realise I have 4x silicone guns etc. Yet the next time I need one I'll spend 30 minutes to find just one of them

I just have far too much stuff to ever reliably find anything.

 

[Beeezer]

I didn’t loose them but I found a set of feeler gauges in the sump of my Thornycroft engine.

 

[tigdlo]

I lost a 19mm deep snap on 3/8" socket at home and found a older style snap on one a few months later on an undertray on a customers car, Used it for about 2 years before finding my original.

In the last couple of years I have managed to lose my 1/4" and 3/8" Beta ratchets I bought 20 years ago, pretty disapointed as they were the first decent ratchets I bought, did a lot of work and were still decent.