Shop Rant, missing tool

[Guest]

I presume this is relatable to other’s experiences.

For some reason I have two 14 oz propane bottles, both with pencil torches attached. They live in a box labeled “Propane Torches” with some other torch gear. I set the torch aside on the shop bench to cool after use, and then put it (properly) away. Every time, see anal shop organization.

A couple days ago I needed to nail head melt 24 holes for grommet installation. Done and done. Yesterday I needed to melt another hole. Where is the torch?

Not on the bench. Not in the box; in fact the second torch is not in the box, where I swear I saw it when I got the other one out.

Not on any shelf, not in any other box, including boxes I have not opened in 6 months. I looked under the bench, behind boxes, on every distant shelf. I looked in the unlikeliest of places; desk drawers, file cabinet, inside the canoes.

No luck.

I spent a solid hour looking for either of the torches yesterday. And another hour today. I asked the wife and son to help me look. Still unfound. If this was a little screwdriver or pair of scissors I could understand, but a 14 oz propane tank? Both of them???

I am sure they will turn up eventually, in some “What the hell was I thinking location”, but I need to melt a couple more grommet holes today, so I guess I’m driving to the hardware store.

 

[sweeper]

I feel your pain Mike, It doesn't take long in my small shop to lose things if I don't put things away. The latest item is my wedding ring. I was cleaning my hands with the Heavy Duty Hand Cleaner, I heard the ring hit the floor but after a
couple of searches now still no ring. It's a 12 x 12' shop, how far could it go?

 

[Alan Gage]

Sometimes, after cleaning and organizing my shop, I think to myself: "Why do I have so many tin snips?" Then I remember it's because I misplace them, get frustrated, and go buy another pair.

Sometimes I sing a little song about where I'd be if I was the missing tool. It never works but adds some levity.

In the end going to the hardware store isn't so bad. The little drive lets me organize my thoughts and they have 10 cent bags of popcorn.

Alan

 

[Alan Gage]

My dad is worse than I am. Once I was at an auction and there was a box of about 10 pairs of pliers. I bought the whole box and gave it to him. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "why did you think I needed this many pairs of pliers?" A year and a half later there wasn't a pair left to be found in his shop.

Alan

 

[Chip]

I so hate buying a tool I know I already own. But it happens. Mike must have done something smart with the torches. It was hot, so he couldn't put it back in the box--find a perfect little niche for it, right? But mostly, it's little and seldom used stuff. I'm sure I have a glass cutter and a screen spline tools, but if I needed one today, I'd probably have to go buy it.

I told CAP Kinetic I won't build with them this year, as I did for the '17 and '18 Kinetic Sculpture Races. That team can't plan, and their shop hygiene is worse than their planning. Tools, parts, and stray material get dropped everywhere to the point I consider it a hazard to walk-around. There was all kind of jagged metal on the half-done vehicle, so a stumble that threw you into the vehicle would likely end up with stiches. Sure, Captain Pat is a Balt County EMT, but still, why risk it?

A tiny spring got dropped while I was working on the shifters. It was a critical, no longer commercially-available, piece and it disappeared into the shop debris covering the floor. There was a two-inch layer of tools, metal shards, a heavy accumulation of metal grindings, nuts and bolts, various links of drive chain, rivets, blocks of wood and, of course, beer cans. On my next shop day, I cleaned that shop, which was an all-day project. That spring had to be there, but I never did find it. One of the guys got tired of me picking the place up, and in a testament to the mechanicl prowess on that team, made a new spring. As far as I know, the original spring is still there. Working with that team really made Mike's clean-shop compulsion seem virtuous.

Mike, you don't think somebody is practical joking you, do you? Does the staff at your morning diner know where you live?

 

[Odyssey]

My dad is worse than I am. Once I was at an auction and there was a box of about 10 pairs of pliers. I bought the whole box and gave it to him. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "why did you think I needed this many pairs of pliers?" A year and a half later there wasn't a pair left to be found in his shop.

Alan

Your Dad and I would get along just fine (so long as he never asks to borrow any tools).
There's only one thing more frustrating than someone else misplacing one of your tools, it's YOU misplacing one of your own tools. To avoid these eventualities I've come to accept my occasional (frequent) lapses of memory and resign myself to owning 2-3 sets of whatever (excepting power tools). Hammers, chisels, screw drivers, levels, plaster knives, tape measures, pencils...I've lost track how many of whatevers I own because I rarely see all of them in the same place. There's only so many places they can be. In the back of my work van. In my work shed. In my basement storage. Amazingly (to me) I have searched in those 3 places and not found a certain item!? That confounds me. How can they be anywhere else?! This past autumn my wife plopped a small Phillips screwdriver on the kitchen counter and asked me in a very worried voice "Is someone tossing hand tools over the fence?! I found this on the ground under the big spruce tree next to the bicycle shed." I didn't recognize it at first. The patina of rust camouflaged what had been a shiny tool. Eventually my brain kicked in (the next day) when I remembered using it to work on a bicycle. It's just one of those tools I put down behind my back and ...it gets away.
But my good friend has an even worse memory than me. I assisted him on a house renovation this past year. I brought nearly my entire toolshed of tools, both hand and power, only to have him methodically lose every last one of them throughout the days we needed them. I'd no sooner hand him a tape measure, pencil, screw driver, level, saw, whatever, then he would make it disappear into thin air and ask for another. What the frig. I soon learned to leave my extra tools at home. When (not if) he misplaced something I'd tell him to go on a tool hunt of his own, or a shopping spree. And I kept an eagle eye on my tools. Somehow our friendship survived, and so did my tool supply. Barely.

 

[Woodsman1776]

Yes, I'm there. The #1 culprit for missing tools is my wife. My hammer, rubber mallet, and tape measure are her favorites. So, I put these items along with a few other essential tools into a bright orange tool box and gave it to her. She loved it...more than flowers, etc. Ha! That eliminated the bulk of my missing tools. As a precaution, I now keep my tool boxes locked. And for the things that can't be locked, well, that's a different story. My brother in-law likes to prowl around my tools. I finally had to tell him to keep his distance. Maybe a couple of trail cams are needed.

Oh, and another thing, my neighbors aren't very good at returning borrowed tools. And I would forget too. I hate to do it, but now I take the time to write down who borrowed what, and when.

And finally, sometimes it's me. I have a workbench and a large Craftsman box and a couple of tool boxes in the garage. I have an x-tra large craftsman tool box on wheels in the basement. I also have a few storage units. Somehow, things go from one place to another and of course I forget about it. But I eventually I find anything that I've moved.

 

[Guest]

Mike, you don't think somebody is practical joking you, do you? Does the staff at your morning diner know where you live?

I have reason to suspect my wife. We trade off weekly grocery shopping, and a couple months ago she somehow came back with an ultra-mini travel sized body powder, which must have been leftover on the checkout from a previous customer. That elicited some “What the hell is this” conversation.

I ended up at the grocery store the day after she did the shopping .There was some odd-ball round fruit lying in the parking lot; I almost drove over it. I avoided it, and it was in perfect unbruised condition, so I took it home.

I don’t know that it was, shaped and colored like a large Red Delicious. Maybe a weird pomegranate or Natal plum.

And I can’t ask her what it was; I put it in the fruit bowl under some apples and oranges, feigned ignorance, and it eventually disappeared. Two weeks later she bought some Mandarins. I bought a single quite round lemon the next day and stuck it under the Halos. I think she brought it to work as a Clementine snack.

She is going grocery shopping tomorrow, which means I need to go on Sunday to buy a single piece of somewhat similar WTF oddball fruit. I don’t think she has any idea that I am fruit gaslighting her, but if she does hiding the propane was serious paybacks.

 

[sweeper]

I don't borrow tools if I need one, chances are I'll need it again. I buy what I 'Need', and try limit buying tool I just 'Want' to have.

I built my wife a nice toolbox and filled it, now I have a place to put her tools when she leaves them around the house.

 

[Guest]

Sometimes I sing a little song about where I'd be if I was the missing tool. It never works but adds some levity.

Oh where or where
Have my propane tanks gone
Where, oh where can they be
I must have put them in
Some cooling place special
Oh where, oh where could that be. . . . .”

Nope, that didn’t help.

I tried using a candle to heat the nail head for grommet holes. Don’t even bother.

 

[alsg]

I tried using a candle to heat the nail head for grommet holes. Don’t even bother.

No gas stove in the house or propane grill that could be wheeled close to the shop?

 

[Alan Gage]

Oh where or where
Have my propane tanks gone
Where, oh where can they be
I must have put them in
Some cooling place special
Oh where, oh where could that be. . . . .”

Nope, that didn’t help.

You could try praying to St. Anthony. I learned about it through a friend of a friend who thought it was funny and ridiculous. She thought it was even more funny and ridiculous when it actually worked. http://www.chicagonow.com/being-cat...saint-anthony-when-something-is-lost/#image/1

I have my own version of the prayer:

Tony, Tony,
be a homey
I lost my propane tank
and it ain't funny

To do it right funny has to be pronounced so it rhymes with homey. Hopefully you have better luck with St. Tony than I have.

I tried using a candle to heat the nail head for grommet holes. Don’t even bother.

Don't you have a heat gun?

Alan

 

[memaquay]

My hardware store loves me. I just keep buying instead of trying to find the tools I already know I have in a big pile of crape in the garage.

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

Generally, I can't find seldom used power tools. After searching the small work room and the entire garage, I move on to my sons' garages. BINGO!!! Son says, "That's not yours Dad. I've had that for 2 years." I says, "Yes you probably have had it that long, that's how long it's been since I needed it." Short discussion ensues and I depart (without tool). If a desperate need, I buy a new tool on the way home. If not, I wait until Christmas and often find the new and improved model under the tree (thanks to D-I-L that reminded him that he did indeed borrow it from Dad)

 

[yellowcanoe]

I feel your pain Mike, It doesn't take long in my small shop to lose things if I don't put things away. The latest item is my wedding ring. I was cleaning my hands with the Heavy Duty Hand Cleaner, I heard the ring hit the floor but after a
couple of searches now still no ring. It's a 12 x 12' shop, how far could it go?

Make sure your wife doesn't find it first! If its like my hubbys 12x24 shop its under that pile of wood called Saving for Future Use..

 

[dougd]

Yes, I'm there. The #1 culprit for missing tools is my wife. My hammer, rubber mallet, and tape measure are her favorites. So, I put these items along with a few other essential tools into a bright orange tool box and gave it to her. She loved it...more than flowers, etc. Ha! That eliminated the bulk of my missing tools.

I am with you on this one Woodsman, did about the same thing after the better half used my favorite hammer, had it forever, and she left it in the lawn. Wanna know what a riding mower blade sounds like when it chews up a long wooden handle before it hits the metal head? Just ask me! I rarely loan out tools, only to a trusted few and not for long which can cause me to make multiple calls or a visit. I spent too many years buying repeat lost tools.

 

[sweeper]

Make sure your wife doesn't find it first! If its like my hubbys 12x24 shop its under that pile of wood called Saving for Future Use..

An immediate confession of the lose seemed appropriate

 

[goonstroke]

I tried using a candle to heat the nail head for grommet holes. Don’t even bother.

No gas stove in the house or propane grill that could be wheeled close to the shop?

What about an ugly soldering iron? That's what I use to cut webbing for seats.

 

[Odyssey]

"The #1 culprit for missing tools is my wife."

I should be so lucky, your wives actually borrow your tools. What's yours is hers, whats hers is...you know.
I love to cook every once in awhile, but when I do I never hear the end of it if I put an item in the "wrong place" afterwards, because they become "missing."
Her: "Where's my small whisk! Why's my small wooden spoon missing!?"
Me: "The whisks are together in this drawer here. The wooden spoons are all in that drawer there."
Her: "No! Only the large whisk goes in the drawer. The small whisk always goes in the small mixing bowl here, and only the small wooden spoons go in this drawer, the larger ones belong in the stoneware crock in the sideboard."
I ask innocently why the whisks don't just tumble in together in the same drawer? As a kind of solidarity or something. Or simplicity? And why separate the spoons? Maybe they'd like to hang out together in the same drawer? They do have something in common, being spoons and made of wood.
But "NO. This is how I like things organized" she says.
End. Of. Discussion. Her firmly shutting drawers and doors confirms this. Everything has been put in its place, including me.
And then I realize "organize" is less an absolute and more of a relative or subjective word. Like pretty, or smart, or right. Or wrong.
But will she use "my tools", much less misplace them? No. And I don't know why. I am sure she's more than capable to turn a screw, cut a board, fix a leaking tap...
She keeps (and keeps) reminding me the bathtub tap drips. "The cat keeps drinking out of the tub." (As though our weird cat is an indicator of our plumbing problems.) I suggest either letting the cat lick the the old porcelain tub or stop her from doing so. I don't care. In any case it's not a leaky tap. The rubber tap washers are fine. It's the water left in the shower stack leaking past the diverter. That rubber washer in the diverter might be leaking, but it's not a big deal. If you hold that plunger valve open for a minute after every shower there'll be no water left in the line to drip. True the cat might go thirsty but we can always leave the toilet seat up. She grimaces and I reassure her I was only joking...about the toilet seat, not about the dripping thing. But then the next day she reminds me about the tub dripping. And the cat. (It's not even MY cat FFS.) But will she tackle this annoying problem? (She's annoyed with the dripping, I'm annoyed with the reminders.) No. They are "my tools". I consider the possibility of gifting her a set of her very own tools, maybe then I'd get my own set of whisks and wooden spoons, but I'm not a total idiot. I don't want to shift the battle lines from bathtub to kitchen. I've grown fond of the kitchen. I like baking the occasional loaf of bread, scratching up the odd winter soup now and then. Last week I made a selection of casseroles. I was pretty proud of them. She loved them so much she even forgave my having misplaced the wooden spoons again. But I did notice at breakfast the next morning the spoons had been separated back into their organized places.
And after she went to work as I sipped a second cup of coffee in a quiet kitchen I heard a faint "lap lap lap lap lap..." It was the weird cat again tucked behind the shower curtain in the old porcelain tub... licking. And then I made a mental note "where's my adjustables, and where'd I put those washers?"
It might be her cat but it's my plumbing problem.

 

[Guest]

What about an ugly soldering iron? That's what I use to cut webbing for seats.

Getting a clean cut in (most) webbing is easy, in a pinch a razor blade and Bic lighter will do, but I still prefer to use a metal blade putty knife for one-second, easy aim cut straight along the weave line, with no melted nylon or poly crust at the end. Same for making a diagonal cut across the webbing, which is more convenient when the bitter end is passing through a ladder lock or tri-glide (passing through a crusty webbing end really sucks in that application).

But I use a nail head for melting sealed holes for grommets. Actually one of three perfectly sized nails for sealed-edge grommet holes; I have 3 different sized grommet kits and keep the right sized nail for the grommets in the kits. Nail, vice grips, propane torch, wood block with crosshairs and recessed target.

P8021102 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

(FWIW the point of a 20 penny nail will melt a perfectly sized hole for 3/16” machine screws)

The 24 grommets went through micro-fiber pillow cases, so I could use S-hooks to hang them from a cord as curtains in the tripping truck.

Melting holes in micro-fiber fabric produced a weird, stationary lingering smoke; I was running an exhaust fan in a window a foot away and the smoke just kinda hung in place on the bench instead of being sucked out the window. I mentioned afterwards to a friend that this was a good way to get stoned in the shop.

It must have been, I still haven’t found either of my propane bottles.