loaning and borrowing tools

I have loaned many a tool. These days, I am a little more reluctant. My best friend borrowed my Makita grinder, it was like new. It came back with cracked casting, he broke the lock to get the wheels off, and it has been run through the ringer, all this black sticky s*it all over it.

He returned it, and told me he liked it so much he bought a new one for himself. WTF?

I loaned a lawn roller to my other friend, I haven't gotten it back yet. It's been 6 months, I asked him if he had used it yet, and no he hasn't. I said I like it back multiple times and he says when he's done.

So needless to say, I think I am done loaning.

I wound up replacing my makita with a HF unit. So far I'm pretty happy, bought 3 of them for $9.99. Would still think he should have replaced the totally F'd up makita and kept that one.

Jeff, If he is truly your best friend: a. He would have never returned the tool in that condition and b. You should have no problem educating him on proper tool care/responsibility...

You may have something there. I would never have returned a tool that way.

Want to borrow a tool? Oh, I'll cut/chop/tighten/loosen it for you.

If you can't afford to give it as a gift you can't afford to "lend" it either.

yeah that is the way to do it

that has been my approach and it works great to keep some people away

you loan them the money knowing they will probably not pay you back they will do everything in their power to avoid you after that

known as a blessing in disguise

exactly why it usually does not work

sounds like two strained friendships right there

yup

i might have proposed that idea to him in clear terms that are easy to understand and not misconstrue in any way

i do not have a makita grinder but if i get a grinder it will be a makita

they seemed to have nailed this tool niche

I have a neighbour of nearly 20 years, he has a ton of tools. I have asked him if he had things in the past, he usually said, what are you doing?, would grab the tool, come over to my place, do the job, and take the tool back home with him. He is over 80 now, I buy or rent the missing tool. Rather share a beer and chat, than go down that road.

I have two sets of some tools. My tools and loaner tools. I will help people by doing some operations that need my tools to do the work. If people want to fix or build something themselves, they can borrow my loaner grade tools or buy their own. The loaner tools are things I will never miss if they don't come back, but I do keep track of who has what.

Did you tell him so???

Take a "security deposit". You want my skil saw, bring me your lawn mower. I get my saw, you get your mower.

Make sure it's something he will need in the next couple of weeks.

I keep a bunch of sacrificial HF multimeters around so people don't borrow my Flukes. The Flukes are kept out of sight.

I came home a couple of months ago and my neighbor, who I'd met only a handful of times, was walking out of my garage with one of my ladders. My wife let him borrow it, so OK, I lost that one. I told her never to do that again. Too much of a liability problem, particularly with someone who I don't know. I ended up repairing his roof (didn't have to get off the ladder) because he couldn't even use a hammer.

I first thought you were going to say "first born son" but then figured it might end up a "Ransom for Red Chief" sort of deal.

clever idea

no hard feelings that way

how do you keep track

am curious because i can barely keep track of what i have

that is another downside to loaning

you forget you loaned it then spend time looking for it only to remember you loaned it

Electric Comet wrote in news:nqaffl$cq6$3 @dont-email.me:

Some people have a pencil and paper they keep in a certain spot. You could probably store it in your phone, even "feature phones" sometimes have some kind of note app.

Puckdropper

I've also seen a "broken" sticker on the trusty VOM-of-choice

If you're sure the item will be returned, go ahead and loan out the Fluke; that's the meter with a robust set of protective fuses.

I can only say that I am generally much more careful with other people's tools, cars and houses than I am with my own.

And although I haven't done that much lending, I've had much better luck. I recently loaned a sander, a biscuit joiner and two routers to a friend of mine. The fact those tools are more for fine work than random destruction probably helped. But the guy who borrowed the individual tools has also "borrowed" my home shop a couple of times. Each time he left it cleaner and neater than before he started. So the human factor was in my favor as well.

But the Fluke costs 100x what the HF costs. Unless the features are necessary, there's no reason to take the risk. I would but few would be willing to buy me a new Fluke if the screwed it up. I don't care about the HF. It's bait anyway.