Some of you may recall the thread I started about refinishing the hinges on
my trailer. After I was done with them, I moved on to freshening up the
white Rust-Cap paint that I used on the wheels a few years ago.

Well, as long as I had the wheels off and a can of black spray paint in the
shop, I figured I might as well freshen up the fenders also. There are 4
bolts that hold each fender to the trailer. Using a 3/8€� socket, I took off
the first 7 bolts with no problem. Reaching up under the fender I tried to
get the socket on the last bolt and it just wouldn't go on. There was
definitely something in the way.

When I reached in with my hand to figure out what was going on, I
discovered that the 3/8€� socket I had used the last time I took the fenders
off - 3 years ago - was still on the head of the bolt! It was very rusty,
but it came off with just a little effort. It had somehow hung on for 3
years and thousands of miles.

Does that mean there's hope that I'll find the other tools that have
disappeared over the years?

Only if you left them inside your trailer.

DerbyDad03 posted for all of us...

And I know how to SNIP


Some of you may recall the thread I started about refinishing the hinges on
my trailer. After I was done with them, I moved on to freshening up the
white Rust-Cap paint that I used on the wheels a few years ago.

Well, as long as I had the wheels off and a can of black spray paint in the
shop, I figured I might as well freshen up the fenders also. There are 4
bolts that hold each fender to the trailer. Using a 3/8? socket, I took off
the first 7 bolts with no problem. Reaching up under the fender I tried to
get the socket on the last bolt and it just wouldn't go on. There was
definitely something in the way.

When I reached in with my hand to figure out what was going on, I
discovered that the 3/8? socket I had used the last time I took the fenders
off - 3 years ago - was still on the head of the bolt! It was very rusty,
but it came off with just a little effort. It had somehow hung on for 3
years and thousands of miles.

Does that mean there's hope that I'll find the other tools that have
disappeared over the years?

No, your mechanic has them. He collects tools. I
used to throw open the hood just find what others
left behind.

--
Tekkie

On 8/8/13 9:41 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:

after finding a long lost tool:

Does that mean there's hope that I'll find the other tools that have
disappeared over the years?


Not unless you've already purchased a replacement or ten for the
lost one(s).

On Fri, 9 Aug 2013 21:36:17 -0400, Tekkie® wrote:

Does that mean there's hope that I'll find the other tools that have
disappeared over the years?

No, your mechanic has them. He collects tools. I
used to throw open the hood just find what others
left behind.

More than a few times, I've opened the hood and found my wrenches by
the radiator and frame.

On Fri, 09 Aug 2013 20:49:20 -0500, Dean Hoffman
" wrote:

On 8/8/13 9:41 PM, DerbyDad03 wrote:

after finding a long lost tool:

Does that mean there's hope that I'll find the other tools that have
disappeared over the years?


Not unless you've already purchased a replacement or ten for the
lost one(s).


Last month I went to help a friend cook meat all night for his pool
party. Dang! you have my orbital sander. It took awhile for me to
figure out when it was loaned to him. Sander is sitting here now,
with the packs of left over pads he bought.

"DerbyDad03" wrote in message

stuff snipped

When I reached in with my hand to figure out what was going on, I
discovered that the 3/8" socket I had used the last time I took the
fenders
off - 3 years ago - was still on the head of the bolt! It was very rusty,
but it came off with just a little effort. It had somehow hung on for 3
years and thousands of miles.

Imagine if for some odd reason you *had* to keep it stuck on there. No
epoxy or loctite in the world could have held it. There's probably an
endless list of things people have accidentally driven off with. I know of
a portable typewriter that made a ride of several miles on the roof of a
car.

I had a strangely similar experience this morning. I went to plug in my
TomTom portable GPS to recharge it and the mini-USB plug just wouldn't fit.
I tried two other cables because the USB socket is deeply recessed in the
GPS and only plugs with a fairly narrow overall plug size will fit.
Finally, after that failed I took out the magnifier. It turns out that the
tiny metal shield around the plug of the last cable I had used to charge it
had come off and was lodged inside the GPS jack. Just the metal surround
shield, not the actual connector was stuck in there. I took a pair of
needle-nosed pliers and pulled it out and all is fine again.

It once took me five years to find my favorite staple gun. I had gotten
interrupted tacking down the back edge of a very tall bookcase and had left
the stapler on top of the bookcase toward the back. Much time intervened
and it wasn't until I climbed up on a ladder in that room that I saw the
long lost stapler.

My neighbor's dog used to steal his tools - mostly screwdrivers and wooden
handled chisels - and bury them in the backyard.

--
Bobby G.

"Oren" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 9 Aug 2013 21:36:17 -0400, Tekkie® wrote:

Does that mean there's hope that I'll find the other tools that have
disappeared over the years?

No, your mechanic has them. He collects tools. I
used to throw open the hood just find what others
left behind.

More than a few times, I've opened the hood and found my wrenches by
the radiator and frame.

Better than closing the hood to hear that sick thud that says "there's a
wrench in the rain channel and you've just dented your hood." (-: I find
the most lost tools in the attic which I think comes from heat stroke coming
on and my running downstairs to cool off, forgetting stuff behind.

--
Bobby G.

The worst case of lost tool I ever experienced was when I was working on
some electronics and needed my needle-nose pliers.

I'm thinking "My butt hasn't left the chair for an hour, so it has to be
nearby!"

After more than five minutes of searching, I found it--on the edge of
the workbench, four inches in front of my sternum, with nothing covering it.

These things happen to keep us humble.

--
Wes Groleau

Armchair Activism: http://www.breakthechain.org/armchair.html

On 08-10-2013 16:22, Robert Green wrote:
endless list of things people have accidentally driven off with. I know of

Neighbor told me had had taken his new car to the shop several times and
they could never figure out what was the disturbing rattle. Finally, he
listened closely for a while, stopped, took off the inside door panel,
and found a paper bag with a bunch of bolts in it.

--
Wes Groleau

There ain't no right wing,
there ain't no left wing.
There's only you and me and we just disagree.
(apologies to Jim Krueger)

my moms 1968 chevelle malibu had a noise going around curves. finally traced to a wrench left in the gas tank......

i once lost a pair of pliars, at the time my boss was upset about replacing lost tools. found them a year later still right where i had left them in a machine....

gutting a home after a major house fire i once found all sorts of craftsman hand tools in the walls. some were new but others worn, i had sears exchange them/

i carry multiples of all my tools for my business repairing roll lamnators, that put plastic on paper. I lose some tools but always need certain tools, so i carry spares

On 8/10/2013 7:08 PM, Wes Groleau wrote:
On 08-10-2013 16:22, Robert Green wrote:
endless list of things people have accidentally driven off with. I
know of

Neighbor told me had had taken his new car to the shop several times and
they could never figure out what was the disturbing rattle. Finally, he
listened closely for a while, stopped, took off the inside door panel,
and found a paper bag with a bunch of bolts in it.


My late brother in law worked for a VW dealer back in the 1970's,
remember air cooled VW Beatles? When the mechanics and detailers
checked the new arrivals from the plant in Germany, they would often
find German beer bottles and the remains of some German fellow's lunch
inside various cavities of the little cars. ^_^

TDD

"Wes Groleau" wrote in message
...
The worst case of lost tool I ever experienced was when I was working on
some electronics and needed my needle-nose pliers.

I'm thinking "My butt hasn't left the chair for an hour, so it has to be
nearby!"

After more than five minutes of searching, I found it--on the edge of
the workbench, four inches in front of my sternum, with nothing covering
it.

If there is an afterlife, I hope it comes with a review of all the moments
in my life where I could have been killed or horribly maimed and I didn't
even know about it. There were plenty of times I did know I had just used
up one of my nine lives, but I'll bet there were just as many where I dodged
a bullet I never heard or saw. That rackety ride at the carnival. If you
leaned left the bolt holding the car would have broken - things like that.

These things happen to keep us humble.

Do they? (-: Several times this week I found myself saying out loud "You
know better than that!" I balanced a tray of screws in a precarious place
and it got knocked over about 10 seconds later, spewing screws all over like
a "Bouncing Betty" anti-personnel mine.

There were several other YKB's but I can't remember them which means I am
likely to soon repeat them. Oh yes, I hung my workshop Roomba by a wire
loop around the front wheel which, it turns out is press-fitted and spring
loaded. "YKB!" (Actually it was "YFKB, idiot!") is what I yelled out after
it hit the floor and the spring went airborne.

I still don't know how a flat razor blade from a pack I was using to strip
wallpaper got into the bed with me, but I felt something against my skin,
turned on the lights and WOW! The reality is that it probably wasn't too
dangerous lying flat against the sheets but I was pretty shaken up. I think
it got sweat welded on my forearm, out of the washup zone.

Now as for tools that make it inside the body, my surgeon friend who did ER
rotations said the humble screwdriver is the one most often retrieved from
inside both men and women. Oddly, an impressive number of plastic handled
screwdrives I own that I *know* haven't been sexually active have begun to
stink and I mean *really* stink.

The stink issue is probably proof that HALT's (Highly Accelerated Aging
Tests) are no substitute for good old Father Time. As I recall one of the
"stinkdrivers" was a well-known and possibly guaranteed name-brand.
X-celite? CRS!

I think what we're seeing is the "miracle" slowing evaporating from the
miracle plastics of a number of years ago.

--
Bobby G.

"Wes Groleau" wrote in message
...
On 08-10-2013 16:22, Robert Green wrote:
endless list of things people have accidentally driven off with. I know
of

Neighbor told me had had taken his new car to the shop several times and
they could never figure out what was the disturbing rattle. Finally, he
listened closely for a while, stopped, took off the inside door panel,
and found a paper bag with a bunch of bolts in it.

I've noticed a rather regular exchange program that goes on in auto shops.
Apparently elves take small change out of the change tray but they often
leave vacuum nozzles, screwdrivers, bolts and other things behind. I always
count the change in the tray before I give the car up for service because $3
or so is a small price to pay to find out you're giving your car over to
thieves. Interestingly enough, while I've lost money in several places,
there are many places where I have not. Nor has anyone ever taken
everything, which leads me to believe there are multiple thieves, all taking
*some* of what is left.

Had a very weird but very faint rattle in the front fender of a Jag sedan I
was restoring. Took someone hitting that fender to solve the mystery. The
fender contained a large number of nuts peculiar to Spain, a bunch of
decaying Spanish newspaper bits and lots and lots of Bondo and nylon mesh.
I couldn't say whether the nuts built up in the fender by driving through
nuts on the grounds with an existing hole or whether they were a very
peculiar idea for fender filler - EUREKA! I thought of a third possibility
just this moment. The car was sitting in a shed for 5 years. Critters!!!!

You've helped solved a cold case mystery that's bugged me for over 40 years.
Who put the nuts in the fu&ing fender! You can't imagine how surprised I
was when these brown, acorn looking nuts came pouring out of the hole I
knocked into the bondo to repair it. Good work, detective. I don't know
why but it feels good to resolve a mystery concering a car long gone from my
garage.

--
Bobby G.

"bob haller" wrote in message
news:2c4637f0-a148-4623-b75a-

my moms 1968 chevelle malibu had a noise going around curves. finally
traced to
a wrench left in the gas tank......

That just ain't right! I'll bet it took a long time to figure out, too,
since it could land and resonate in any number of different places in the
tank. Was it small enough to fit in the filler neck? Angry neighbors and
moonbats in general like to put things in people's gas tanks.

You've given me a terrible revenge idea, though. Instead of wrenches, pour
some ball-bearings into the gas tank of a neighbor who's offended or injured
you. A few large bearings rolling around should create some seriously
troubling noises.

There was a "One Step Beyond" or some such TV program from my youth about a
wrench left inside a submarine hull by a Nazi slave laborer that drove the
crew insane.

i once lost a pair of pliars, at the time my boss was upset about
replacing lost tools. found
them a year later still right where i had left them in a machine....

I love finding that old tools that went missing didn't fall in the trash. I
found my favorite pair of Klien romex strippers that I lent to a friend.
Then I discovered he was also cutting CATV with a copper-clad steel
core. )-: Many nice little nicks in the unnotched section of the blade.

When it went missing I bought a slightly different, but better replacement
that can pull the outer jacket and the inner conductor jackets off 12 and
10/2 Romex in one motion. Takes some experience to figure out how to rock
the blade carefully to "dig in" before you pull (hard - actually now harder
than my old wrists will allow) and do the one-pass multiple wire strip. I
had read about it and wondered what kind of a job it did so I got one and
found out it DOES work and under production pressure, it's got to save at
least 30 seconds per strip.

gutting a home after a major house fire i once found all sorts of
craftsman hand tools
in the walls. some were new but others worn, i had sears exchange them/

I have to ask: Is that a builder thing, sealing up tools in the wall? I
had enormous trouble in this house with a long flexible bit I was trying to
drill from the wall switch down to the sill. It skittered, it chattered, it
got hot but never caught. When I finally opened up that stud bay through
the plaster, there was a broken off hammer head and other debris lying on
the sill plate. Is it a house building ritual to bury broken tools in the
bowels of the house they helped build?

i carry multiples of all my tools for my business repairing roll
lamnators,
on paper. I lose some tools but always need certain tools, so i carry
spares

All professionals do that. Photographers carry at least three cameras, cops
almost always have a backup gun, etc. (-; How professional can you look if
you have to stop work and say "I can't find my (whatever)" and go on a
scavenger hunt for the missing item? Tools break all the time and you know
if you're somewhere where a tool can fall into an open sewer or a cesspool,
one of those little buggers on your toolbelt is going to make a run for it.

--
Bobby G.

On Sun, 11 Aug 2013 01:20:26 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

"Wes Groleau" wrote in message
...
The worst case of lost tool I ever experienced was when I was working on
some electronics and needed my needle-nose pliers.

I'm thinking "My butt hasn't left the chair for an hour, so it has to be
nearby!"

After more than five minutes of searching, I found it--on the edge of
the workbench, four inches in front of my sternum, with nothing covering
it.

If there is an afterlife, I hope it comes with a review of all the moments
in my life where I could have been killed or horribly maimed and I didn't
even know about it. There were plenty of times I did know I had just used
up one of my nine lives,

When I was young and invincible I used to work on my car all the time
with it just held up with the jack. You couldn't pay me to get under
a car today that didn't have jackstands holding it up but back
then.....

On Sat, 10 Aug 2013 16:22:08 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

"DerbyDad03" wrote in message

stuff snipped

When I reached in with my hand to figure out what was going on, I
discovered that the 3/8" socket I had used the last time I took the
fenders
off - 3 years ago - was still on the head of the bolt! It was very rusty,
but it came off with just a little effort. It had somehow hung on for 3
years and thousands of miles.

Imagine if for some odd reason you *had* to keep it stuck on there. No
epoxy or loctite in the world could have held it. There's probably an
endless list of things people have accidentally driven off with. I know of
a portable typewriter that made a ride of several miles on the roof of a
car.

I had a strangely similar experience this morning. I went to plug in my
TomTom portable GPS to recharge it and the mini-USB plug just wouldn't fit.
I tried two other cables because the USB socket is deeply recessed in the
GPS and only plugs with a fairly narrow overall plug size will fit.
Finally, after that failed I took out the magnifier. It turns out that the
tiny metal shield around the plug of the last cable I had used to charge it
had come off and was lodged inside the GPS jack. Just the metal surround
shield, not the actual connector was stuck in there. I took a pair of
needle-nosed pliers and pulled it out and all is fine again.

It once took me five years to find my favorite staple gun. I had gotten
interrupted tacking down the back edge of a very tall bookcase and had left
the stapler on top of the bookcase toward the back. Much time intervened
and it wasn't until I climbed up on a ladder in that room that I saw the
long lost stapler.

My neighbor's dog used to steal his tools - mostly screwdrivers and wooden
handled chisels - and bury them in the backyard.


I wish someone could tell me where I put the box and accessories for
my super duper Automobile Multi meter. I know I put it somewhere "I'd
be able to find it later"

Has to be a German word for that.

Lunchendriven?
Trashendervagon?
Bottleendrtrashenspacen?

..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 8/11/2013 12:04 AM, The Daring Dufas wrote:


My late brother in law worked for a VW dealer back in the 1970's,
remember air cooled VW Beatles? When the mechanics and detailers
checked the new arrivals from the plant in Germany, they would often
find German beer bottles and the remains of some German fellow's lunch
inside various cavities of the little cars. ^_^

TDD

That brings back a memory. I checked a circuit breaker
panel one time, in a wall. Below were a diags and some
other tool. Magnet on a string, and they came home with
me.

..
Christopher A. Young
Learn about Jesus
www.lds.org
..

On 8/10/2013 8:54 PM, bob haller wrote:

gutting a home after a major house fire i once

found all sorts of craftsman hand tools in the walls.

some were new but others worn, i had sears exchange them/

"Ashton Crusher" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Aug 2013 01:20:26 -0400, "Robert Green"
wrote:

"Wes Groleau" wrote in message
...
The worst case of lost tool I ever experienced was when I was working
on
some electronics and needed my needle-nose pliers.

I'm thinking "My butt hasn't left the chair for an hour, so it has to
be
nearby!"

After more than five minutes of searching, I found it--on the edge of
the workbench, four inches in front of my sternum, with nothing
covering
it.

If there is an afterlife, I hope it comes with a review of all the
moments
in my life where I could have been killed or horribly maimed and I didn't
even know about it. There were plenty of times I did know I had just
used
up one of my nine lives,

When I was young and invincible I used to work on my car all the time
with it just held up with the jack. You couldn't pay me to get under
a car today that didn't have jackstands holding it up but back
then.....

Had a VW jack pop and the handle swing up so fast you could hear it whoosh.
Stopped right against my jaw. If I was more bent over, it would have
shattered it.

Switched to jackstands but was a victim of my own (at the time) young
person's perpetual poverty and bought some flimsy welded cheapo JC Whitney
jackstands. THEY buckled and the car (2 ton Jag sedan) pivoted on me and
pinned me. My 4'10" mom noticed the silence and came out to the garage and
lifted it enough (it was teetering on the front right and rear left stands)
for me to slide out.

It was one of several times I saw my life flash before my eyes. Another
time was getting sucked under by the "undertoad" at Harvey Cedars, NJ. It
was the first time I had experienced such a strong tidal suction but
fortunately I was young and the "flashing" was over pretty quickly. It was
just like falling into the clutches of a huge invisible monster.

You're right, you couldn't pay me.

--
Bobby G.

"Ashton Crusher" wrote in message
stuff snipped

My neighbor's dog used to steal his tools - mostly screwdrivers and
wooden
handled chisels - and bury them in the backyard.


I wish someone could tell me where I put the box and accessories for
my super duper Automobile Multi meter. I know I put it somewhere "I'd
be able to find it later"

There are three powerful spells in the world of lost items. The most common
is:

"I am going to put this someplace I'll be able to find it quickly"

That spell can disappear things for days.

The second, which can make stuff disappear for months adds:

"I am going to put this someplace SAFE where I'll be able to find it
quickly"

The third, which can make it disappear forever is:

"I am going to put this someplace SAFE where no one will be able to steal
it."

--
Bobby G.