Clean up your shops!

[dbhost]

You never know what will turn up!

Like a pair of Harbor Freight roller stands. Yeah they were hidden behind boxes and bags o stuff!


Or a bullet level that was stashed behind the miter saw bench.


I don't even recall buying these toggle clamps but I guess it might be time to build a coping sled!, So THAT is where that 1-1/16" socket went! And hey, the outlet tester is always handy when you can find it!


But the piece that brings me more relief than any is my Blue Point rubber tip blow gun. I bought this when I was a professional mechanic (Career #1) before I decided to go back to college. It is close to 25 years old now. and much, much better quality than the stupid Campbell Hausfeld gun that I am always afraid will blow apart in my hands...


So get out to your shops and clean those poor things. You might just turn up some buried treasure!

[jussi]

Nice. I'm going to clean the crap and dust off my tablesaw and maybe I'll find a sawstop underneath.

[dbhost]

Nice. I'm going to clean the crap and dust off my tablesaw and maybe I'll find a sawstop underneath.

If that is how it works I will sooo keep cleaning off my table saw!

[LCHIEN]

i can understand losing track of a blowgun or toggle clamp or small level and other small items, but a pair of roller stands?

[dbhost]

The mess was that bad...

They were stashed under the extension wing of the table saw where the shop vac and Thien trash can separator usually live. Those are presently in the living room. My truck is broken, so I can't go rent an electric scraper to help me knock off some thin set from where I am going from tile to hardwood, so I have been trying to knock it down using my belt sander, which creates a TON of dust, the shop vac / separator are really helping out with that!

[lrr]

I had one of those HF roller stands. Gave it to Goodwill after I put my foot on one of those crossbars, to raise it up, and it bent. I have the "more rigid" Ridgid model now ...

[atgcpaul]

I can't remember the last time I saw my circuit tester. I know it's still in there somewhere so I don't buy another one because I know if I do, the first one will turn up.

[cwsmith]

I could only hope that finding certain lost tools would be that easy. My little basement shop is somewhat orderly; but I live by the philosophy that 'creative minds are messy minds'... or so was the excuse for my messy office when I was working.

But for the things that I have lost, and am at a total memory loss of where it could possibly be, or in the first case, how it turned up where it did:

My old Companion chisel. It's just a utility chisel and it came up missing back in the 80's when I was building my deck. Searched and searched, even crawling under the deck. Several years later I was doing a roof repair and there on the far edge of the roof I found my chisel. NO idea how it could have ended up there, unless some carpenter squirrel had borrowed it.

Lost a good slip-jaw pair of Craftsman pliers almost 15 years ago. Only used them in the house and we've since completely cleaned that house out of everything... still lost!

Currently I'm missing my linesmen pliers. Last I had them was up in the library, as I recall. Was running a new circuit under the bookcases over to the media center. I've gone back and removed all the base covers and still have not found them.

Somethings I miss, simply because I absentmindedly set them someplace. Such things usually turn up days or even weeks later, well after I've stopped looking. Frustrating, but I've learned to stop looking after an hour or so, knowing they'll turn up later.

Most mysterious to me is when I know I've just had a tool and now I can't find it. I look and look and an hour or maybe a day later, it just seems to appear... and I know I've looked at that spot! (I've come to know that the "blue men" have once again failed in thier responsibilities to my timeframe continuity.

And so it goes, and as a result I have a lot of duplicate tools.... like six different tape measures, etc.

CWS

[Cochese]

Woo, I thought my level of mess was bad.

Hopefully headed out to the workshop this afternoon to do some cleaning and prepare for the new arrival tomorrow.

[JimD]

I also use the multiple tool theory. I have 2 or 3 tape measures at the new house and at least one at the old. I buy cheap pliers sets at HF and put some in each car (and house). Lots of screwdrivers. The only thing that helps me find things is to have a definitive place where they go. With the move, that process is getting messed up so the opportunity to mis-place things also increases.

On the other hand, the old shop must get cleaned so we can sell that house. I have no doubt things will turn up that I even forgot I had.

[dbhost]

Funny you guys should mention surplus measuring tapes. I think I am up to 10 now. 7 are 25 footers, 4 of which were freebies from Harbor Freight... One of them that I KNOW I own is missing, an old Chrome Stanley that shocks me still functions... My favorite is my old black Craftsman from the late 80s / early 90s... It was bought either in 1989 or 1990 at the Sears in the Rincon Mall in Tucson Arizona... That thing has been a beast and put up with tons and tons of abuse...