ARgggggggggghhhhhh!

About six to eight times out of ten, when I go looking for a 1/4" or 5/16" nut driver, I can not find one. So, I go buy more when I am at the tool place. I now have them on my nightstand, in my truck ashtray, and various places around the property, except in the little tupperware bin I keep my bits in.

It's like those plastic grocery bags. You know, the free ones that you have about a seven year supply of under your sink. And still put every last one you get in with them. Hell, the plastic is decomposing on some of them, it's so old.

How many unfindable nut drivers do you have. Insert your favorite thingus in the "nut drivers" location.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B
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I have the same problem with phillips screwdrivers, can never find one no matter how many I buy. I think they turn into allen wrenches. I always have too many of them.

73 Gary
Reply to
Gary

Utility Knifes, I must have twenty of them some place. Trip over the darn things till I need one, then they all go hide with all the little parts that I drop.

Reply to
Jim Geib

It's actually simple. A place for every thing, everything in it's place.

I have two sets of nut drivers, one in my shop that live in one of the small drawers in a Kennedy rollaway, and the other lives on my electronics bench in a jar. Every time I'm done with a job, I try very hard to put away my tools. The key is having a place *to* put them away. If you just vanish them into some handy crevice, or balance them on top of some light fixture, all just to make them disappear, you will have a terrible time finding them.

I do still have a hard time finding some things, though. But I'm getting better at it.

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

Insert your favorite thingus

Tape measures, chuck keys and scales. I don't know why, but I'm ALWAYS losing them. Now, things like that 19/32 socket that came in one of my sets, I couldn't lose if I tried. LOL

Reply to
Rastus

Its a variation on the "Law of Selective Gravitation", ie a dropped tool will always land where it can do the most damage. And tools hate light (a little known fact) - given the SLIGHTEST chance , they will hide themselves in a dark corner, or under the bench, or teleport themselves to the far side of the room. (This is proved by the fact that, you can be sitting at your bench, put a tool down, and days later it will re-appear on the other side of the room, a place you havent been for months...)

And its no good buying spares - all tools belong to the same union, so, one out, all out...

If you are a neat and tidy person, you can delay or impede these things, but they will ALWAYS get ya in the end....

73 de VK3BFA Andrew.
Reply to
Andrew VK3BFA

HEX KEYS!!! We buy all the sizes

Reply to
Tom Gardner

I once asked a friend of mine, who I deemed terribly anal about having to have things in their place.

He told me, 'Oh, it's not about having everything in its place. It's about being able to find it the next time I need it."

Now, that I could understand. My putting things back has gotten better, but only slightly.

Some days, I will do nothing but "put stuff up." Meaning, I will take handfuls of things that are laying here and there willy nilly, and put them in their drawers, on their hooks, and in their bins.

So, for a while, I'm organized. Feeling good about it. Then, for some unknown reason, AND EVERY TIME, it all goes to hell in a handbasket.

I think a clean shop is the sign of a sick mind. But, then, I like a mechanic that has a clean shop. Guess I'm just hypocritical.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

I use those grocery bags for litter box cleaning so I don't have the huge bag buildup.

Pete C.

Reply to
Pete C.

Given the choice between bag buildup, and a litter box, I'll gladly take bag buildup.

Steve, who has owned several cats

Reply to
Steve B

There was one time I couldn't find any ball point pens, but 15 minutes later I found 4 of them in my shirt pocket.

Reply to
reply

the loss of hex keys, specifically 3/16 and smaller, is amazing

The way I see it, at the price they sell for in bulk, I'n not all that concerned.

But my partner's opinion (Dad) is a wee bit different.

Reply to
Jon Grimm

I never lose anything. Whatever I need at any given time is around here somewhere. I know it is cause I just saw it a couple days ago.

michael

Reply to
michael

I had this problem with screw drivers.... I could never find the right kind.... So I tried an experiment Every time I went to Sears, or Home Depot I bought their medium quality screw driver set.

I did this for six years, I STILL could not find the right kind of screw driver.

Then we moved from NH to CA and I cleaned everything up. At the garage sale I had about 6 5 gal buckets full of nothing but screwdrivers. I had so many screw drivers it was shameful.

I've almost given up on saturating the environemnt with tools to solve my organizational issues.

I've given up on screwdrivers , they are all in one toolbox drawer.

Tape measures on the other hand.. may never reach saturation because you break one once in awhile.....but the Jury is still out we've only been in this house 4 years.

Paul

Reply to
Paul

I have done that many times. The 19 screwdriver set, right?

Then I only use about two of them, and one weird sized one about once a year.

So, I ended up with two worn out screwdrivers, and seventeen pristine ones.

Yes, it's time to go through the tool chest, a 3 cabinet Craftsman. Like spring pruning. Steve

Reply to
Steve B

And I put it exactly where I knew I would be able to find it on a moments notice, the only trouble being that that moment occurred a couple days ago. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

Reply to
Gerald Miller

Guys in some circles around here call those plastic handled grocery bags "Safeway suitcases" which is a reference to homeless people storing their belongings in them ..

GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

Funny! It's the same for me. But just _Philips_ _Screwdrivers_. No problem at all with pozidriv-bits, or Torx screwdrivers. Just the Philips.

Nick

Reply to
Nick Müller

Reply to
Lial

I always put all my tools down very carefully, where they'll be right at hand when I need one. They're always right where I put them -- if I could remember where the hell that was other than "around here somewhere" or "I just had it in my hand _ten seconds ago_, DAMMIT!"

Amazing how cluttered a "primitive" blacksmith shop can become -- and how quickly.

Now that I have a mini mill, I wonder: Will I always remember where _its_ tooling is? :)

Reply to
John Husvar

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