# I have developed a foolproof way



## jacksdvds (Jun 13, 2015)

I have developed a foolproof way of locating a lost tool that is holding up a job without it. I lost a set of 4" scroll chuck jaws. Ordered a new set hoping for speedy delivery. This mornings email assured me that delivery of a replacement set was scheduled for today. Anticipating that I went into the shop to assemble all the other tools I thought I would need in case there was other tools that would have crawled away into some unlikely location just to hamper any progress again. Wouldn't you know it, the first tool I pick up was the wayward jaws hiding in the wrong place I had stored them last use. But I guess I will never ""NOT"" put them in there place again. I think my feeble old brain is just over full of to much nonsense stuff!


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

Brother, Jack you and I must have the same condition; Sometimers. Some times I remember sometimes I don't.
I have misplaced tools for days, searched high, low, far and wide then given up. Only to find them is the most obvious of places. Really makes one shake their head don't.
Hang in there buddy we'll get thru this.
My best,
Bob


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

Yup, I hate it when that happens ;((


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

That's for sure, the best way to find something misplaced is to buy a replacement, that way you can misplace two of them.


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## tomd (Jan 29, 2008)

Lately I've been finding tools that I forgot I purchased.


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## JBrow (Nov 18, 2015)

Jack Lewis,

My condition is similar to yours, though perhaps more acute. I can have just had a tape measure, tri-square, ruler or pencil in hand. I set it down and, needing it 5 minutes later, look where it is supposed to be. It is not there, so I spend untold time looking for it. I keep my shop uncluttered and generally clean to avoid these never ending searches. That helps but obviously not enough. After a few minutes to an hour I find the wayward tool, right where I left it.

My conclusions are that my brain leaks from time to time and that the wayward item is always in the last place I look. Perhaps one day I will wise up and look in the last place first. That would save a lot of time.


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## woodsmithshop (Sep 10, 2008)

I am very bad about misplacing a tool, and not finding it until I replace it with a new one, or laying down a ruler, pencil, etc, and spending an hour looking for it, then after finding it I forgot what I was doing to begin with. lol


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## 000 (Dec 9, 2015)

I have disappearing floor syndrome. Drop a screw and it disappears.


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## saddletramp (Mar 6, 2011)

I swear …........... hmmmm, yes I do but that's not where I was going with this. Ahhh …... oh ya, I swear that I do not have alzheimer's but I do have a serious case of oldtimers. lol


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## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

That's kind of the way it works for me as well, although in my case I usually don't find the original until I've used the replacement once or twice….making a return impossible (or not moral, you pick).


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## Ripper70 (Nov 30, 2015)

Have you ever searched for that smallish 12 ft. Stanley tape measure and found it…in your hand? I have.

And how many times have you scoured your bench top looking in vain for your safety glasses and realized that you were actually wearing them? Guilty as charged.

Not to mention that every time I'm in Home Depot I think that I need a backup of that 2-part epoxy so I throw one in the cart. When I get home I discover I've already got 3 backups.

Sheesh!


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## Gene01 (Jan 5, 2009)

When the time comes for the estate sale, most people will wonder why I had so many tape measures. Woodworkers will know.


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## splatman (Jul 27, 2014)

> Not to mention that every time I m in Home Depot I think that I need a backup of that 2-part epoxy so I throw one in the cart. When I get home I discover I've already got 3 backups.
> 
> - Ripper70


My parents have done that with seasoning mixes. I've done it with 1/2" sockets.

The only solution I can think of is to make a whole another kind of shopping list: things NOT to buy.


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## BurlyBob (Mar 13, 2012)

Sure is nice to know I'm not the only one with this problem. I'm still looking for that pair of needle nose pliers I used doing the wiring in my garage. I'm thinking they are somewhere inside the wall now. Guess I'll be missing them for a long time.


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## canadianchips (Mar 12, 2010)

Your preaching to the choir here.
I buy another one…..try putting it in safe place so I can find it…...."Viola" thats where the one I lost is ! EVERYTIME !
And I wonder why I have 2 of everything !


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## JCinVA (Feb 16, 2016)

Oh yeah… I spend more time looking for tools or parts than actually using them sometimes. All part of the CRS disease (can't remember s*@t). I might have to try the 'order a replacement' trick.


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## DavePolaschek (Oct 21, 2016)

I used to have that problem with tape measure / rulers. When I built my workbench, I bought a 8' long Starrett rule, glued it to the top of the bench, then covered it with three coats of spar-varnish. I haven't managed to lose it since then.


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## wabower (Mar 17, 2015)

I'd like to know if somebody has developed an app to enable folks like us to track the amount of time we spend looking for stuff. Not that I would recommend buying it, because it might be really depressing if we actually knew.


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## Ripper70 (Nov 30, 2015)

> I d like to know if somebody has developed an app to enable folks like us to track the amount of time we spend looking for stuff. Not that I would recommend buying it, because it might be really depressing if we actually knew.
> 
> - wabower


How about an app that reminds you what you came to get, when you get to the place you went to go, to get the thing that you can't remember why you came?

I'd pay good money for that.


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## htl (Mar 24, 2015)

The other day I was putting things up getting organized and set my glue bottle on the small table of my harbor Freight disk sander that sits right in front of me on the tablet, I got to needing the glue and looked all over that shop looking for it.
I'll bet I sat there and looked though it ten times then not seeing it got up to look from a different angle and still not seeing it!!!
It was 6" higher up than my mind would accept so it was invisible to me.
I finally did find it and man did it hurt to realize where it had been all this time.


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## realcowtown_eric (Feb 4, 2013)

hear you bro…been there done that. many times moving shop, yu find tools/materials etc you forgot was there. Like going to a garage sale of a person with your own tastes only yu don't have to pay agin! Trubble is yer so focused on moving that you cannot appreciate the moment!

And then you find the round-to-its, the stuff you wanted to accomplish but life got in the way. Whole other set of thoughts feelings etc.


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## Jim Jakosh (Nov 24, 2009)

I hate it when that happens! I know exactly what you mean. I have rebought stuff for the same reason.

Cheers, Jim


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## Quanter50 (Feb 11, 2012)

I always have a problem finding my caulking gun. I run downtown and buy another one. A few weeks later I find the old one. Next time I go to use some caulk I can't find either caulking gun. Ok, cheap enough….I run downtown and buy another caulking gun. It keeps happening. Now I must have 4 or 5 caulking guns hangind up in the rafters down in my basement. I have done this with other tools too. Glad I'm not the only one that can't find stuff.


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## jumbojack (Mar 20, 2011)

I mostly want to know where the 16,000 pencils I've purchased over the years have gone.


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## Ripper70 (Nov 30, 2015)

> I mostly want to know where the 16,000 pencils I ve purchased over the years have gone.
> 
> - jumbojack


Have you checked behind your ears? That's where the ones I can't find always are.

It's always the last place you look where you find stuff.


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

I think I'll take a picture with my smart phone everytime I lay something down. Then I will find out how smart the phone is )


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## woodbutcherbynight (Oct 21, 2011)

> I think I ll take a picture with my smart phone everytime I lay something down. Then I will find out how smart the phone is )
> 
> - TopamaxSurvivor


ROFLMAO


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## edavis (Mar 27, 2016)

My wife helps out and does the lathe work. She will walk into the shop and ask. "what are you doing?" I say, "I measured this piece of wood, walked to the saw, cut it and came back to the bench and now I can't find the tape measure!" She says " It's there", "Where?" "Right there" "Oh"


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## saddletramp (Mar 6, 2011)

Hey Top, that would never work for me 'cause then I would be able to find the phone.


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

Yeah, all that precious info might force the phone into hiding ;((


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## saddletramp (Mar 6, 2011)

Just read my last post. It should have read: ...... I would* not* be able …... But, along with everything else that I've forgotten, I forgot the "not".


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

The replacement method is indeed the most surefire way to find the misplaced tool.


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## jacksdvds (Jun 13, 2015)

> I think I ll take a picture with my smart phone everytime I lay something down. Then I will find out how smart the phone is )
> 
> - TopamaxSurvivor


Where the heck is my smart phone?


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## devann (Jan 11, 2011)

I know the feeling Jack. Nothing like not putting something up, leaving it close to where you last used it but in a lil' safer place. Thinking while you stash it that "I'll remember where I left it later". I have a couple tools I'm still looking for….


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## Ripper70 (Nov 30, 2015)

> Where the heck is my smart phone?
> 
> - Jack Lewis


C'mon, Jack. All you need to do to locate a misplaced smart phone is to call it and simply wait for it to ring.

Remembering your own phone number? Aye, there's the rub!


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## splatman (Jul 27, 2014)

> Remembering your own phone number? Aye, there's the rub!
> 
> - Ripper70


My Dad's solution to that problem is to write the # on a piece of paper and tape it to the back of the phone.
Of course, that would do no good if the phone went AWOL.


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## TheDane (May 15, 2008)

Yesterday, I was fumbling around looking for my glasses. Took a break in the necessary room, looked in the mirror over the sink. Guess where my glasses were?


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