I was wondering what the most bizarre place to find a long lost tool is. Yesterday I found two tools lost for many years. Demolishing part of a cavity wall I found an open ended spanner then taking down the lath and plaster ceiling in the living room, along with all the laths and plaster came my long lost 2 foot steel rule. I assume that the spanner was being used as a weight when dropping a cable down the cavity but why the steel rule was under the floor is beyond me.
Kevin
Your day job isn't, I hope, a surgeon?
I found my favorite 'Ding Dong' 12" hacksaw in my Brother's shed. Most unusual place to find it as he swears that he never even borrowed it!! I was pleased to find it as I bought it when I was an apprentice 28 years ago, still using it regularly!!!
The message from "Kevin" contains these words:
In the sump of an Austin Allegro. It wasn't my spanner, but someone had left it there down among the gears. Found it when the nut on the layshaft came adrift because the tab on the tabwasher snapped off.
Never lost me tool in me life...always put it back in me trousers after use. :-)
Ah, now I know where I left it. Don't suppose it was a beige Allegro, by any chance ?
The message from "The3rd Earl Of Derby" contains these words:
Well greased, I hope.
I found a small tyre lever in a motorbike tyre once (not mine, I hasten to add)
A wooden stool was found in a wing tank of an aircraft. (I wasn't the finder).
A pair of spring loaded, long nose, bent pliers was also found in a wing tank. This time I was the finder. They proved to be very useful :-)
Wife bought Stan Boardman's football song last week and asked me to make a copy for her friend. She accused me of losing it. I said that it was within 2 feet of my computer. 3 days later, I moved an envelope and there it was ;-)
Dave
In the news yesterday. A man had a prized 1962 Ford Prefect and it was stolen 25 years ago. A few weeks ago he gets a letter from the DVLA saying there was a change of keeper logged on it and could they change keepers. He got it back, right down to the bottle od lucozade he left in the boot.
Long time ago, I did a routine service job on a Hillman Minx estate car. I must have dropped a spanner and forgot to recover it. The same spanner, after much earlier (just after I did the job) searching, was found 2 years later on the structure that was just under the radiator. It was a bit rusty, but still serviceable :-)
Dave
Weren't they all ?
I lost a 13mm ring spanner _inside_ a front suspension wishbone of a Renault 15 (made from welded top and bottom plates). A couple of years later I stripped the suspension down and out it fell, good as new. It was old Britool, back when they knew how to plate them.
Not sure whether they count as a "tool", but I lost my spectacles once. I didn't need them for close work, so I put them down beside me while I did some writing. A little later, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a pile of papers fall from a shelf on top of them. Half an hour on, just about to go out, I picked up the pile of papers and there they were, gone! I searched everywhere, moving everything in that corner of the room, and missing the meeting I was supposed to be going to. Eventually, I had to buy a new pair. About 10 years later when I moved house and cleared a bookcase, there they were, behind a row of books. They must somehow have sprung off where I'd put them, closed themselves, and slid down behind the books.
Chris
The message from Ian Cornish contains these words:
Metallic blue 1500 estate. FPU22T it was, and I loved it dearly. Spacious, adequately powered and very reliable.
The message from Dave contains these words:
You'd think with a wooden stool they've have had time to get to the bog first.
The message from Dave contains these words:
I left a socket jammed on a nut under the wing of an Austin 1100 and found it several years later when I removed to wing to do some welding.
In 1997 the rules about the strength of seats in minibuses changed and I found myself doing a lot of work upgrading seats to meet the new rules. Afterwards I used to take them to the test centre for certification. One day a happy smiling face appeared in the window waving a molewrench I'd left clamped underneath.
The message from chris snipped-for-privacy@postmaster.co.uk contains these words:
I took a book off the shelf a couple of years ago and there was £100 in
20s tucked inside the front cover. It was my book, I'd read it about five years previously and no one else would have read it - but I had no recollection of putting the cash there.
I was going to post about the three legged stool found in the fuel tank of an aircraft, but was beaten to it. When I was in the RAf there was a training film showing foreign objects found in aircraft, very dangerous if they foul control lines. Anyone working on aircraft follow very strict rules on tool usage, shadow boards are inspected before and after work is carried out. I do know how the three legged stool got into the tank. It was found because the aircraft did not balance properly, when taken out of service it was completely stripped, and that was found to be the reason.
Peter
I once found a tool sitting on a C shaped structural member near the front bumper, a couple of months after I'd lost it. I knew this wasnt exactly a fast car but didnt realise it was that bad. In hindsight you cant expect much from 3 driving gears and wooden body parts.
NT
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