I found it in the street.....

[Jim Laumann]

On my way to work on Monday, I came around a corner and spotted what looked to be a utility knife. I pulled over, looked - sure enough - it was. A little knicked up, but perfectly useable.

This got me to about other stuff I've found....in no particular order....

a Craftsman channel lock - which Sears replaced under the lifetime warranty - one of the "teeth" was broken off

a 14" adjustable wrench

a 24" Quik Grip clamp - found this in the spring after the snow melted - rusted, but some elbow grease and steel wool brought it back to life.

assorted sockets

a chain binder

gobs of bungy straps

So what have you found?

[Bay Area Dave]

I don't look down at my feet when I walk, so I've found nothing! :)

dave

Jim Laumann wrote:

[Tom]

I lost a 14" adjustable wrench and some sockets.

[Grandpa]

[Mark Jerde]

I have no pride when it comes to pawing through neighbors' trash. My shop cabinets used to be in the next door neighbor's kitchen. The hollow core door I use for assembly came from the trash 4 houses up the street. An old claw hammer and a servicable bench brush were liberated from other discard piles just hours before their internment in the city landfill. The desk in the downstairs office is in such good shape I knocked on the neighbor's door to make sure they were throwing it away.

Businesses throw a lot of stuff away in office moves. Two discarded whiteboards were ripped to fit in the panels of my garage door. Two desks became my 3' x 5' drafting table, two 4-drawer roll arounds, and a number of jigs and misc -- including the top of my drill press table.

I've found many sockets & misc hand tools just lying around. The #2 Phillips in my tool belt was left behind by an MDU (Montana - Dakota Utilities) crew over 25 years ago. ;-)

-- Mark

[Bob Gramza]

[Mark Jerde]

P.S. I also return the favors... Space is limited in my one car garage shop so when I decide something has to go I put it out by the curb a couple days before trash pickup and label it with a "Free" poster. It's mostly guys in pickups that have taken the shelves, fence posts, partial rolls of wire, unneeded lawn equipment, etc. When I got tired of the dripping oil & mess from the almost never used chain saw and grease gun, I took them to the neighbor 2 doors down who has a weekend tree trimming business & offered them to him. I walked back empty handed, and now he waves whenever he sees me.

-- Mark

[John Grossbohlin]

Hmmm... let's see:

On the road...

1/2" combo wrench 9/16" socket Craftsman slip-joint pliers 2 1" spring clamps Large straight blade screw driver $450 cash nail set No 1 Phillips screw driver stubby Phillips Stanley ratcheting close-quarters screw driver

In the woods... rifle shotgun typewriter sword broken piggy bank camera and other assorted stuff that was burglary proceeds--turned over to the state police.

[Mark & Juanita]

Obviously never spent time on a farm. :-)

[kenR]

My wife found a drill bit, and picked it by driving it into a tire :( She also found a scratch awl much the same way. It didn't stick in the tire, but it sure made a noise in the wheel well.

[Greg]

Greenlee hydralic powerpac for a huge tubing bender.

10' jon boat

[Silvan]

Me too. We have a free pickup twice a year where they come and get damn near anything. People drive around and look at other people's trash, and a lot of it never actually makes it to the dump.

I guess I'm not the only one who would rather throw something away and/or give it away for free than have a yard sale. I hate yard sales.

This past time, my most noteworthy giveaway freebie was a perfectly functional garden tiller that I just don't use, and which was eating too much precious space in my shed. I even started it before I rolled it out, just to make sure it still worked. It lasted about two hours.

[Silvan]

If anybody found any of that stuff in Raleigh, NC, it might well have been mine. One time my side box flew open while I was making a turn, and it ejected my toolbox into the street, right in front of a pickup truck that ran over it. No harm, no foul, no damage, but it was a very busy street, and I wanted to get the hell out of there before somebody decided to see how good my company's insurance policy was, so I left a lot of my sockets and whatnot in the street.

[charlie b]

I worked on a survey crew and spent a lot of time on the street - literally - often dodging cars that couldn't see big orange plastic cones, flagmen with big orange flags and guys wearing bright orange vests. While we were risking life and limb our crew chief would be checking out outside corners of major streets and highways because that's where things fell off of trucks. He had half a garage full of found tools, toys, car parts etc. and probably a half ton of lead tire weights.

Me, I kept one eye on the idiots who kept trying to kill me with their cars. Figured ending the day with all parts in working order was far more valuable than anything that might fall off a passing truck.

charlie b

[BUB 209]

...my hubcap. It was missing for about

4 months and I found it jammed in the wheel well. It must have come loose on the road, ricocheted off the pavement and back up into the car...

[David Babcock]

Those plastic gas cans, so many I think they procreate. Construction companies, landscrapers lose them. One of those big cooler jugs, the size of a shop vac, comes in handy at the high school football game. Found a boat on the shoulder of the highway once, darn blacktop does a job on the gelcoat after skidding a couple hundred yards......oh yeah, the owner came back for it anyway. Lost a flat tire......my SWMBO didn't think it was any good anymore, "It was flat!" Found an entire Craftsman top tool chest, full of tools, right beside another flat tire. Guess it was too heavy to put back in. And lastly.......found my SWMBO.....she get's lots of flats, and yes I changed it for her. She was impressed with my lug wrench technique.

Dave

[P©WÉ®T©©LMAN]

- found this in the spring after the snow

Found??? nothing, but have lost:

a Craftsman channel lock with a tooth missing

a 14" adjustable wrench

a 24" Quik Grip

some assorted sockets

a chain binder

several bungy straps

a rusty clamp

& most recently a utility knife

All lost in your area......where did you say you lived?

[Test Tickle]

I once lost my spare tire . . . you know, the kind that stores up underneath the back of a pickup. The cable that holds it in place rusted, and the tire must have fell off somewhere. That must have had some scrounger scratching his head.

I also lost my virginity. If anyone has found that, or the tire, let me know.

tt

[kb8qlr]

Hey Charlie, I know where you're coming from there. Before I retired, I worked on my county's roads for 30 years. I found a 12 ton hydralic jack, a sheet of plywood, a large ratchet holddown, etc. Joe

[Silvan]

Or in Mom's back yard. She has six dogs.