I love it when I find new tools.........

lmorris · August 9, 2011

Aquired a chrome 13mm socket, at least I think it is chrome. It was in the turbine housing of the turbo I took apart on my current headgasket job.

Alex Bruene · August 10, 2011

Will you mail it back to me?

Brad Clayton · August 10, 2011

Thats funny right there...

Matt Saunoras · August 10, 2011

My personal best is a snap-on 8mm 1/4'" drive swivel socket I acquired under the intake of a 6.4

I think I've given more than I've recieved, though

Brad Clayton · August 10, 2011

Holy shite, that things about 40 bucks on the Snap-on truck. Nice find!

Keith Browning · August 10, 2011

MANY years ago... before automatic tensioners were common place I found a Snap-On 3/8 ratchet and a 9/16 socket still attached to the alternator bracket of a 351 engine.

Jim Warman · August 10, 2011

I once found a half inch drive extension stuck down a gas filler neck... That has to rate as a unique place to "drop" something... The engine valley on the V10s has always been the most likely place for my small tools to wind up.

Bruce Amacker · August 10, 2011

I've found many tools over the years, but not as many as I've lost! Notably a 1/4" drive Snap-On ratchet, long extension, and swivel socket under the hood of a car. Once I ran out of gas on the highway and had to walk a mile or so to the next exit. The amount of tools I collected on that walk was quite incredible- screwdrivers, sockets, and all kinds of stuff. It was really quite surprising.

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Jim Warman · August 10, 2011

Back in the '80s, one of my wifes cousins moved to Slave Lake to work as a heavy duty mechanic. He had his own hand tools in a company supplied service truck. One dark winter night, coming back from a job in Wabasca the compartment door where his tool chest was stored swung open... Not sure how long things were left bouncing in the wind... the the drawers had all vibrated open and most were very nearly empty...

He was one of those "gotta be SnapOn if it wants to live in my box" guys...

Like Bruce, my box score is running in the negative and if I am lucky enough to find a replacement for something I lost, I have usually traded a good one for a cheapie... Posted Image

DieselD · August 10, 2011

I once found a half inch drive extension stuck down a gas filler neck... That has to rate as a unique place to "drop" something... The engine valley on the V10s has always been the most likely place for my small tools to wind up.

better question is who the hell was using a half inch extension around the filler neck!?

like you guys I have lost more then I can count. I have spent an hour before tracking down lost sockets Ive dropped. I have found a few but typically its just a cheapy china tool. Its one thing if I loose it myself. Its another if I loan it and that dude looses it. Better yet my foreman that loves to borrow tools. expensive ones...He lost my trailer plug tester which was the final straw.

Keith Browning · August 10, 2011

Have you ever lost a tool while working on a truck and eventually give up looking for it knowing that the truck is likely rolling out the door with your tool? I have done that once or twice conceding that the cost to replace whatever it was I lost was far less than the time it was going to waste to recover it.

Bruce Amacker · August 10, 2011

Once I road tested a truck just moments after one of my techs road tested another truck. As he had pulled out of the shop and into the street, a RACK of his S-O sockets had fallen off the cab step and into the road, scattered across both lanes! I collected them, assembled them back on the rack and waited until the end of the day when he was putting his stuff away. He's looking all over hell when I said, "You looking for these?"

Another time one of my 3/4" impacts came up missing. I'm sure it went out laying on a frame rail, crossmember, or somewhere and fell onto the road.

Another time a tech left a NGS case complete less scan tool (extra cards, cables, etc) laying on the flat area in the rear of a wrecker during a RT. I missed it immediately and went looking for it but it was gone forever.

These are just the stories I remember off the top of my head. This is the reason I use Craftsman most of the time, and the SOs sit in my box unmolested (and unlost!). Believe it or not, I actually prefer Harbor Freight's color coded sockets as my eyesight isn't so great anymore, and at $6 a SET who cares if you trash them!

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Jim Warman · August 10, 2011

Trailer plug testers never, EVER get "lost".... Donated - yes.... given away - yes.... Forgotten - yes Lost? - NEVER.

Attach the emulator to something small.... say, something like a 4x8 sheet of 1 inch MDF ... with a short piece of sturdy System 7 chain...

This is the only sure way to assure that it will resume it's rightful place of residence... well... nothing is 100% shre...

Matt Saunoras · August 11, 2011

One time when I worked for lincoln I came across our tranny tech a few miles away who appeared to be hiking back to the shop. I stopped and asked him if he needed a ride, he replied. "No thanks, I lost a socket and heard it fall out on the road here"

Actually I got a pair of my pliers back about 10 months after I lost them, they returned under the hood of the car I originally left them in. They were a little rusty

One of the funniest things I've ever seen was a guy driving a car off the alignment rack with a head still attached. he made it all the way out of the parking lot onto the highway before it came off

Jim Warman · August 11, 2011

Have you ever lost a tool while working on a truck and eventually give up looking for it knowing that the truck is likely rolling out the door with your tool?

Yes I have... and I live in constant, abject fear that this tool will surely contact something rotating swiftly, become a fast moving projectile and alter the profit picture of our service department for the current period.

I have spent a good deal of my life overcompensating for a lack of self esteem. I'm good... I know I'm good... I just can't convince myself that I'm good. And I make enough mistakes to remind me, on a semiregular basis, that I am a mere mortal...

If life was fair... I'd be rich instead of good looking.....

cbriggs · August 11, 2011

I lost my vacuum guage, for over 2 years I managed without it, found it T-ed into the pvh system of a (thankfully) returning customers superduty almost 2 and a half years later.

I lost a 16mm crowfoot line wrench undoing the ebp tube nut on a 6.0l when doing exhaust manifold gaskets. Found it 4 years later when doing head gaskets on same truck.

A few months ago I left my 18" needle nose pliars under a car, test drove and parked the car. (At this point I didnt even know they were missing) The towns street sweeper pulled up infront of the bays, the driver held up the pliers and said "who's CB?".

I have about 14 flat blade el cheapo screwdrivers I have found under hood, and a few chineese sockets. Never anything good.

BLittle500 · August 23, 2011

Had a 6.0 in just doing some normal maintenance, went to put the oil drain plug back in and heard it hit something. Looked up at an angle with a light and saw what looked to be a piece of hex stock, almost like an oil pump driver out of a 302. So with some crafty pick work and a little luck, I pulled out the piece. It was a long Torx bit cut down, I use a similar setup for injector hold downs. Must have fell out of whomever's socket, and now I got two of em!

lmorris · September 19, 2011

After I don't know how many years of being missing my 15MM deep impact socket showed up this morning. Was lying on the floor by a hoist across the shop. Pressure washer must have disturbed it from it's resting place during the weekend shop cleaning. Posted Image

cheezit · September 21, 2011

foudn a snapon prybar under a hood had it for 2 weeks. left the same way it came in.. bummer.

got a new to me 1/2" mac rachet a few weeks ago. 2 new to me snapon screwdrivers. about 6 months ago I got a new to me kersha knife.

working on a 67 mustang found a 3/8" snapon rachet cover in 15 years worth of grime stuck up in the a-arm. cleaned it up took it out to the truck and got the head rebuild for free Posted Image good times.

sadly I think I have lost more then I have found.

Brad Clayton · September 21, 2011

Just lost an 11mm deep impact socket under the turbos of a 64. When the motor blows up and it will, someone will have a Snappy socket to add to there collection. Fished around for about a minute and started gettin' real real mad, so I wrote it off.