longest time of tool loss?

larry merlau

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Location
Delton, Michigan
well i found one today that had been gone for at least a year, i had a small cordless bosch drill that i had used on a installation job and hadnt seen it sense.. well today was shop clean up day or sorta like that any way,, changing filters and refilling the hardware bins that had gotten emptied.. well normally i just grab a bucket to stand on to do this , being lazy to go get a step ladder but i felt better about gettin a ladder today so i got a different vantage point and in the process found the bosch cordless drill, it was on top of my finish room fan and outa sight unless you had a ladder.. still had battery life in it even,, so those lithium batters do last a long time:) so how long have you gone with a lost and found tool
 
I was recently going through some boxes of my son's stuff that is in the back of my shop and came across one of my ratchets my parents gave me for my HS graduation I though I had lost. Turned out that he forgot that he borrowed it even though he said he hadn't . :doh: ;) So about 4 years so far, still have a few more boxes of his to look through/re-pack.

Though I guess my dad has that topped, he found a few tools of his when working on something in my shop a few months back, guess that would make it about 25 years for him. :D :rofl:
 
I have a small knife I have had since college and use it all the time. Aout a year ago I was on a job and thought I left it there. The Job was 60 miles away and I figured I was a gonner. Not long ago I was cleaning in the shop and found my knife. Now it lays in my ink box back home in the art studio.
 
This past week I found a screwdriver I had left on the floor under the fridge when we installed the new kitchen. That's nearly 2 years.

:huh::eek: WAIT A MINUTE! Did I just admit to not cleaning under the fridge for almost 2 years? :bang::rofl:
 
I don't have any stories (that I will admit to) about me losing tools, but a number of years back, I had a '72 VW Camper Bus that started giving me problems... actually the first EX --- something about the way she drove... it would die at every stop sign or intersection she approached... anyway took it to VW dealer where a good friend worked and he tinkered with it for a time, gave it back supposedly fixed.... same problem, took it back, they gave it back "fixed", same problem, took it back...etc... about 19 trips all told.... finally the service manager decided I wasn't starting it correctly, so he sent my friend out to take a look at how I started it in the mornings.... it started and I went to work no problem, but while I was getting ready to start it, O.B.(My friend) opened the engine compartment and looked in... he found one of his screwdrivers laying in there that had made numerous trips around town, to and from the dealership where he and other mechanics had worked on the vehicle, and it even made a trip from Foster City, California (near San Mateo) across the bay to Oakland, California to the VW training center where they trained the dealership mechanics.. don't know how long it was in there, never hear it rolling around and O.B. said he'd been looking for it for 6 months.
 
Oh i have had this experience often but i cannot remember at a glance what they were. :rofl:

@ Darren i had to laugh because my dad and i would often go back and forth on who took whos tools. Since his tools were old he like to borrow mine when i was around his place going way back. I drove him crazy just like my sons drive me crazy borrowing my tools. :rofl:
 
Well, I won't win the prize on this one, but I lost a rubber mallet 1 1/2-2 years ago. Found it last week when I was looking for a 10mm socket I think I dropped. Socket hasn't found it's way home yet. Might have left it in my wife's van when I changed out the oil pressure sending unit, but it wasn't on the battery post or the radiator support. We'll see how long it takes for me to fine it! Jim.
 
The only way available to post on this thread at this time was to reply with quote. So I did that. I just deleted everything Jim said between quotes---except a period.

Anyway, I don't lose things for long periods. I just lose thousands of things for short periods. I tell my family and friends, "Once it leaves my hand it is lost." That is why I follow Glenn's advice when I can. You all know he says, "Don't set it down; put it away." He is right; it is where it can be found.

Enjoy,

JimB

ps That is the way I lost my mind. I put it down somewhere instead of putting it where it belongs.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I removed Jims quote from Jims post. Jim, were you not able to click on reply? Or was there no reply button to click? I'm confused.
 
well i found one today that had been gone for at least a year, i had a small cordless bosch drill that i had used on a installation job and hadnt seen it sense.. well today was shop clean up day or sorta like that any way,, changing filters and refilling the hardware bins that had gotten emptied.. well normally i just grab a bucket to stand on to do this , being lazy to go get a step ladder but i felt better about gettin a ladder today so i got a different vantage point and in the process found the bosch cordless drill, it was on top of my finish room fan and outa sight unless you had a ladder.. still had battery life in it even,, so those lithium batters do last a long time:) so how long have you gone with a lost and found tool

I was gonna guess it was that screwdriver I put in the wrong place last fall:D:D:D
 
Larry,

I had a split-blade starting screw driver I dearly loved using. Bought it while I was living and working in Chicago. Moved it to Idaho with me. Years later, the thing disappeared. Couldn't find it. Missed....checked with a bunch of tool retail places. Bought some substitutes but they just weren't the same quality and I didn't like them. Several years later I got asked to help deinstall an x-ray room in Moscow, Idaho. I hadn't worked in that x-ray room for 3 or 4 years. A large wall hung cabinet, the x-ray tube rotor controller, was mounted above head height on a wall near the x-ray control unit. I grabbed a ladder and removed the cover on the rotor controller to find my long lost spit-blade starting screwdriver. I know it was mine as it had my intials carved into the top of the handle. Then I remembered working on that rotor controller....several years prior.
 
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