'lost' tool funny one.

[ENG18LT]

Was using the bucket of an old skid steer as scaffold to work on a soffit, put my cordless drill in the bucket and got down, parked the machine. After eating lunch I proceeded to take the loader over to the gravel pile and began taking gravel to the house where I was backfilling a perimeter drain. Boy was I glad I had the skidsteer to move 100 tons of gravel. The next day I couldn't find the cordless drill... where could I have left it? Yep you guessed it, it's under 100 tons of gravel. That was 12 years ago, it's still there. That story still gets brought up by my coworkers from time to time, I'll never live it down. All the other stupid shat I have done and that's the one story they remember.:laughing:

 

[Bird]

When we were living out in the country in a new double wide mobile home, I went to get my black electrical tape in the shop for something, and it was missing. I was sure I'd had a nearly full roll of that tape, and I always kept it in the same place. Quite some time later, I started to go under the house for something, and when I opened the skirting, there was my roll of tape, along with two or three hand tools. Then I remembered working under there a month or so earlier.

 

[Bird]

And the most expensive "lost" tool incident I ever knew of was when we were building a new auto pound. One of the bulldozers broke down. I don't really know what the problem was since it belonged to one of the contractors. Anyway, a mechanic worked on it and had to pull the head. When he finished and tried to start it, the explosion blew a big hole in the side of the block. He had left a small wrench in one cylinder on top of the piston. Needless to say, it was expensive for the contractor, and a mechanic was sent looking for a job.

 

[chopped]

Ill add yet another one fresh in my mind even after 15 years.
I was working out of state at the time and my wife and kids stayed at the house. So the cat goes up a tree. way up there.I take out my wooden ladder and extend it to max.
I climb up and still couldnt reacht he cat so I took two tuna cans filled with some tuna and used wire to hold it ont he rung...
Left for work for the week. My wife caleld the FD and they sent someone by and went up the ladder and got the litty down.:thumbsup:
Alls well. Thena maybe three weeks later im looking for my ladder.
hmm did it get stolen??Eventually i saw it against the tree in the woods.I went and grabbed it as it swung back the rain water and rotten tuna etc splashed out onto my head:confused2:
Almost as bad as the time i was taking down insulation and as I did several no haired baby mice fell and went down my shirt.( I wear it open and loose). Luckily also not tucked in.. so they fell through and out.:thumbsup:

 

[ruren]

After I owned my used tractor for a couple of years I pulled the sides of the hood off for whatever service I was doing. In the process of lining up the front of them when I put it back together I looked down and saw something red between the radiator and grille. A closer look and I realized it was the handle on a nice pair of large snap-on pliers, slightly rusted. I never owned a pair so they must have been the previous owners that fell down there year's ago. Too bad I didn't have a number for him, it would have been fun to return a tool he lost years ago and probably looked all over for.

 

[gary d]

While working on dental equipment at a dental school I found a long open end wrench 7/16 By 3/8 inch with my name etched into it. It seems I left in in there a few years earlier when I did some work at the school.

Feels really good to retrieve a lost tool you never knew you lost.

 

[ajmbonaire]

Wow, I don't know what to think about all this! I have never misplaced or lost any of my tools.

 

[k0ua]

Wow, I don't know what to think about all this! I have never misplaced or lost any of my tools.

Uh-Huh.

 

[bullbreaker]

More fun losing tools on our own than by losing them to jerks that borrow them and don't return them ! :thumbsup:

Boone

 

[The Haymaker]

Hard to even think of a title for this. but I got a few good laughs from it and then thought about over the years how its happened before.
I am in the middle of doing some renovations, and in the process I was eliminating a small closet which backs up to the bathroom. The bathroom will be redone in another year or so,and this closet will add to the space in the bathroom.
So untill then the ''closet' will become an empty 'box' so to say untill I tear out the bathroom side.
Now come the funny part.,I ripped the door and frame and studded it in.Using a 4 foot level to level the studs..Then proceeded to hand the drywall on them, followed bu the jointing and paint trim etc.
Today I need the level and looked everywhere. Can t find it. drove me nuts. a four foot level where could it be..
This evening I thought about each step i took and realized that the level is now inside the wall.:confused2::laughing::laughing:
I will retrieve it in a year I guess when I rip the closet wall open on the bathroom side.:laughing::thumbsup:
Its not an expensive one so im not to concerned. reminded me of the nice vice grips I lost in a fender well of a car, and a nice screwdriver that was left under the hood of another.
Funny how it is with tools that way. Maybe 10 years ago I wanted a good entwistle framing hammer but couldnt afford one. One day My dad hands me one. it found it in the road.:thumbsup:
Anyways hope this makes someone else laugh and not feel like they are alone in these things lol If you have any similiar stories please share them...

Have you seen your wife today?

 

[kebo]

More fun losing tools on our own than by losing them to jerks that borrow them and don't return them ! :thumbsup:

Boone

Yeah, but then you have no one but yourself to blame, it's easier to blame the shmuck who borrowed them!!!

These are all funny stories though, good reading! I can only add that I know of one of the top of my mind. I lost a small, Craftsman metric socket inside the frame of my '83 Toyota truck I was working on many years ago. You know how some sockets don't fit snugly onto the ratchet handle?? This one fell off at the worst time/place and dropped into a hole in the square tube frame. The frame was angled where the hole was and I could hear it roll down a few inches. It's still there, and believe it or not, I still have the truck! It doesn't run now, but maybe one day I'll figure out a way to retrieve my socket!!

 

[The Haymaker]

And the most expensive "lost" tool incident I ever knew of was when we were building a new auto pound. One of the bulldozers broke down. I don't really know what the problem was since it belonged to one of the contractors. Anyway, a mechanic worked on it and had to pull the head. When he finished and tried to start it, the explosion blew a big hole in the side of the block. He had left a small wrench in one cylinder on top of the piston. Needless to say, it was expensive for the contractor, and a mechanic was sent looking for a job.

Funny you'd mention that. A broken head bolt required the replacement of the headgasket the the Cummins unit I drive at work. The found half of a wrench laying in the head. No one seems to know where it came from. Riiiiiight......

 

[johnrex62]

Timely thread. I just finished planting 15 shrubs. I used my pocket knife to clear some tree roots from the edge of a couple holes and to open some root stimulator packages. Odd thing is after all is done, I can't find my pocket knife. I ran a magnet through the grass all around the areas I was working in with no luck.

Either it is in one of the holes with a shrub or I have put it someplace "safe". In any case I am now missing a pocketknife.

 

[k0ua]

Timely thread. I just finished planting 15 shrubs. I used my pocket knife to clear some tree roots from the edge of a couple holes and to open some root stimulator packages. Odd thing is after all is done, I can't find my pocket knife. I ran a magnet through the grass all around the areas I was working in with no luck.

Either it is in one of the holes with a shrub or I have put it someplace "safe". In any case I am now missing a pocketknife.

Lying there just under the dirt, all cold and alone, missing you. Even now the first particles of rust are starting to form... Wondering what it did wrong..sad...

 

[bullbreaker]

I guess if there from HF it must hurt less.

Boone

 

[Ken]

Planted a row of shrub bushes 10 and couple of months later bush hoged them down same height as the weeds.
Thats life .
ken

 

[tractchores]

Funny reading this i just remembered i left tools in the woods. I was putting a boulder in the bucket, saw i forgot some tools in tbere and took them out and set them aside... Then promptly forgot. Probably wouldn't have remembered if i didn't read this thread!

 

[speedy2]

In 1964 I was doing front-end and brake work for a General Tire store and a job for a salesman on a chrysler. I did a front end alignment and brake job and installed 4 new tires. A bout a month later he came back for a tire rotation. I found my 7/8 snap-on combination wrench still on the caster and camber adjustment nut. I told him about it and he said he had been to California and back since the brake job. I still have the wrench.

 

[LBrown59]

Hard to even think of a title for this. but I got a few good laughs from it and then thought about over the years how its happened before.
I am in the middle of doing some renovations, and in the process I was eliminating a small closet which backs up to the bathroom. The bathroom will be redone in another year or so,and this closet will add to the space in the bathroom.
So untill then the ''closet' will become an empty 'box' so to say untill I tear out the bathroom side.
Now come the funny part.,I ripped the door and frame and studded it in.Using a 4 foot level to level the studs..Then proceeded to hand the drywall on them, followed bu the jointing and paint trim etc.
Today I need the level and looked everywhere. Can t find it. drove me nuts. a four foot level where could it be..
This evening I thought about each step i took and realized that the level is now inside the wall.:confused2::laughing::laughing:
I will retrieve it in a year I guess when I rip the closet wall open on the bathroom side.:laughing::thumbsup:
Its not an expensive one so im not to concerned. reminded me of the nice vice grips I lost in a fender well of a car, and a nice screwdriver that was left under the hood of another.
Funny how it is with tools that way. Maybe 10 years ago I wanted a good entwistle framing hammer but couldnt afford one. One day My dad hands me one. it found it in the road.:thumbsup:
Anyways hope this makes someone else laugh and not feel like they are alone in these things lol If you have any similiar stories please share them...

:laughing:Good one.

 

[kmtsuman]

My old boss used to be a service manager at a ford dealership in the 70's. He said a older woman brought her Lincoln in a few days after she bought it new with a rattle coming from the left rear tire. He said they were like "Great, a senile old lady hearing stuff." So one of the tech's take it for a ride and sure enough it has a rattle in the left rear tire area. The tear the rear brakes apart and think they find the problem and send her on her way. Next day she is back with same problem. This time they think its the hubcap. Week later the lady's husband brings it back and says it still isn't fixed and is getting upset. Now Larry(the service manager) determine to find the problem gets in the trunk and rides around while one of the guys drive it around. Sure enough rattle coming from the left rear tire area. They are stumped after many attempts to find the obnoxious rattle. Conversation takes place between Ford and the dealership for several months. Ford ends up saying its normal and its just too bad. Guy who bought the car. although upset, accepts it for what it is. About a year later the car is in getting serviced and while parked in the lot a stick shift truck left out of gear rolls down the ramp in front of the shop and caves in the quarter panel of the Lincoln. Obligated to fix it, the body man cuts the rear quarter panel of the car to install a new one. On the inside of a boxed in area of the rear quarter panel brace, hanging by a wire, is a oem lug wrench with a note taped to it. The note said "YOU FINALLY FOUND ME!"