How do you feel about lending your tools to someone else.

Rob Keeble

Member
Messages
12,633
Location
GTA Ontario Canada
Hello everyone,

Here is a topic that I though would be interesting to see opinions on.

Chuck and Jonathan made me think of starting a thread when reading Chucks thread
http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=12079

I am rather perplexed about this subject. I would like to help friends out and be a good neighbor but some people dont seem to appreciate or care for tools when you lend them out. What I try and do (which drags me into their dilema) is to rather help them accomplish the task that is needed by my tool as opposed to letting them have the item they need with them not having any knowledge of how to use it.
But then there are those that dont buy any tools and sponge off you perpetually. I try and avoid those people.
My SWMBO says dont sweat they are only tools, but hey I have carefully selected my tools and paid good money for them and expect them to last because I know I will look after them. Why should you put up with someone else wearing out your tools.

Whats your view on this subject. Maybe you can help me be more flexible on the matter or NOT.
 
Rob, I lend mine out, and borrow others all the time. That said, those that I lend to and borrow from know that the borrower must live up to the golden rule..."Thou shalt treat tools with the same respect as their owners" :D

My MIL recently let her neighor borrow here mower. He brought it back after using it saying "it doesn't work right anymore, sorry" She quickly said what happened, he said he didn't know. She was speechless and he just walked away. After fuming about it, the next morning she knocked on his door at 6am and after 10 minutes he came to the door. She said, "I leaving this mower on your porch and you are going to bring it back in the same working order you borrowed it!" He said OK and went back up to bed. Later that day it was back in her driveway, still not working...I'm not sure what she will do next, but I'm not asking either...she is not happy, I think her neighbor is ranking up their with Stu's neighbor to the apartment rehab. :rolleyes:
 
I don't loan out any tools. Saves me from picking and choosing who I would loan to. I will try to help anyone within my limits. They are my tools, they can go buy their own like I did. Loan out your wife's underwear, tell her, "but dear, it is only underwear!!" Oh, then duck!! :rofl::rofl::rofl:
 
Good question. I suppose the answer is dependant on what tool and to whom?
I would be reluctant to loan lathe tools to someone I don't know very well.
I once loaned my stock trailer to someone I knew. He had a friend of his help. Several weeks later my trailer was missing from the farm. A few days later it mysteriously reappeared. After many phone calls, I traced it to a friend of the helper. The helper had "loaned" my trailer to his friend.
Folks is unpredictable.
Hard to answer. Would be on a person by person and tool by tool situation.
 
There's an old saying. There are three things you never ask to borrow from a man;
His wife
His truck
His tools

Not necessarily in that order.:rofl:

That being said, I do have 1 or 2 people I will lend to - for some tools, not all.
 
will loan out to family and those i trust, all others have no chance! i have been burnt by other's and dont go back for seconds much. i even clean up rented tools better than i get them.
 
For me it depends on the friend and the tool. Had a period where my son would loan out my tools. After paying to replace a few, he stopped that. I typically have a good brand and a cheaper brand of most everything. The cheaper brand usually gets loaned. Having more than one of everything I picked up from my Dad...or half of them were his tools before he retired. :D
 
I've got a next door neighbor who raked leaves about 2 months ago. The rake has been lying on the lawn ever since and is now covered by about an inch or so of hard packed snow. Last weekend - knock, knock, knock. Do I have a wrench they can borrow? Sorry man - I've seen how you treat your tools, and it ain't happening with mine.
 
Rob,

I might look at it a little differently because I'm kind of anti-social and keep my stuff pretty closed. To me, taking care of my tools also means I don't put them into harms way. That means if I can't see it being used, it doesn't happen. Taking good care of your stuff, to me, includes not letting someone else have the chance to wreck it.

I don't lend tools out to anyone who isn't known to be skilled with that tool. I have woodworking friends that I'll swap tools with because I respect their knowledge and abilities. I've seen it firsthand. So they can borrow my stuff all they want.

But neighbors? Nope. Unless they were a fellow woodworker and I could see how they treat their own tools, I have no problem saying "Nope, sorry. I just don't loan out my tools. It's a matter of policy and nothing personal."

Since i only have woodworking friends and don't socialize much with my neighbors, my perspective may be somewhat skewed. I don't often confront the compassion for a close friend's problem along with a lack of trust in their tool handling abilities.
 
There have been a couple of times when I was really surprised how long the tools were gone, so I guess I'm rethinking letting others go. I much prefer to have neighbors and friends bring their work to my shop.
 
Here I do not have such problem, for the moment nobody has asked me to lend them any tool.
If I lived in my in-laws place, which is a small village, and having seen the way people treat their own tools and their neighbours ones, what I would do is have a specific box of tools "to lend", those would be tools I don't care about because they are crap and obviously I would neither sharpen nor clean them.

People would find them in the same way they(or the previous borrower) left them.

As per the "true" tools as some others said it would depend to whom.

I guess that most of us for the same token would think twice to borrow a tool from another woodworker fellow, unless being it offered:dunno:

And If I broke it I would buy a new one inmediately.

Long time ago I lend a chisel to a guy, it came back dirty and dented. I kept it and the following time the guy came to ask for it I lend him the same one in the same condition as he returned it, and he even had the hard face to say. "Hey Toni, this is not sharp!!" I said nothing, picked up the chisel and sent him to a place that the COC rules don't allow me to reproduce.:)
 
I never lend anything that I won't mind never seeing again. That being said, some things come back that I was hoping to never see again ;-)
 
I make my living with my tools so theres no chance of loaning them out....none, zilch, nada.

Only guy who'd stand a remote chance is that grey bearded shotgun totin outlaw from Delton.
 
Fortunately, I have no friends, so the issue doesn't really come up. :rolleyes:

Seriously, I have no woodworking friends within driving distance. I have a couple co-workers and neighbors to whom I'll lend certain tools, but only "loaner" tools like a Black and Decker 1/4 sheet sander that I never use. There have been a couple cases where I simply gave away a cheap tool instead of loaning it. For things things like wrenches and screwdrivers, I've inherited enough duplicates of most of them that I'll lend old ones, but never any of the sets that I use myself. I have a brother-in-law that I'd let use my tools because I know he'd take care of them, but he's 800 miles east of me, so that situation doesn't really come up very often.

Like Scott, I'm much more likely to offer to do the work for someone in my shop than lend them the tools to do it themselves.

I've had a few bad experiences with other people using my tools in the past (specifically an electric chainsaw that was used to dig out a stump, and an axe that looked like it was used to split rocks), so I don't let others use any of my edge tools anymore. My wife won't even use my kitchen knives. (Then again, she doesn't use much of anything in the kitchen besides the microwave anyway.) :rolleyes:
 
Rob,

I might look at it a little differently because I'm kind of anti-social and keep my stuff pretty close ...................... snipped ...........


Jason ... you must be my long-lost twin brother!! I would have posted almost your exact answer....

The older I get the easier I find it to say "no, I won't lend you my tools, but when I have a few minutes I'll be happy to help you with the job and I'll use my own tools"

cheers

John
 
depends who it is, Wifes cousin and I use each others stuff all the time. Of course our shop doors are only about 60 feet apart. If him or I can't find something we just pick up the cell and call to find out where it is.

My nephew Wade can have anything I own. He would do the same for me

Most others , forget it
 
I make my living with my tools so theres no chance of loaning them out....none, zilch, nada.

Only guy who'd stand a remote chance is that grey bearded shotgun totin outlaw from Delton.

i`ll betcha i could come borrow sumthin`;)

i`ll loan power tools to friends-n-family, same with mechanic tools, or welding/metalworking.....edge tools is where i draw the line, if i`ve gotta sharpen it i`m the one who uses it.
 
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