ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area What I do better than any electrician

I lose more device screws than anyone on the planet. I excel at this in both speed and quantity. I drop them down heating registers, into my clothes, into piles of sawdust, crawlspaces. I haven't swallowed one yet, but it's a matter of time. Sometimes I just put them down and 1 second later they're gone.

I'm adding a new Murphy's law for this. The more unique the fastener, the more likely it will get lost.

I agree, in fact I keep every one out of every old device I take out. I just know I will need it someday, the "odd screw and bolt" compatrment in my truck has saved the day more than once.

I lose tools. Attics and crawl spaces are littered with things that fall out of my tool pouches. The only tools I don't lose are the old, dull, stiff spares.

I solved this, by putting them in my pouch. Always have one this way. And for some reason they don t go missing. They only try to escape when you need em and don t have one LOL

The pieces that I collect whenever I find them are the cap screws off wall fixtures. They are apparently a different thread, not a 6 or 8. I was installing a light on the front of a boat house. I dropped the cap in the lake. I have replacements now. Never again.

I had tools stolen a few months back. So when I looked in my truck the other day and realized my fluke meter, amp meter and wiggy were missing, I was disgusted thinking I had been hit again. Two days later I found my wiggy in the front seat under a book, my amp meter I had left at home and my fluke I had left at ace hardware when I wire the propane pump. No thievery, only incompetince on my part. I felt stupid but glad to have my tools back. I also apologize to all the honest people who walked by the truck who I looked at with suspicion.

A lot of my tools have secret legs. This property of tools to go walkies has uncannily coincided with me getting older. This strange phenomenon has also affected my spectacles. I solved it by buying cheap glasses on t'internet. Now, I have up to 48 pairs wandering about al fresco making a pair easy to find. You just lassoo a pair from the herd as it stampedes past, heading for some remote corner of the county. Yeeehaaarrr!

I often called our family apartment a black hole... all kinds of stuff can disappear here. Like we have around 6 of those folding metal desk lamps (funnel shaped metal shade on a long folding arm with 3 joints and springs to keep it balanced) but only 2 or 3 of the "feet" needed to clamp them to the desk.

i do bad things on ladders

on the bright side, i've developed a rather keen sense of balance

~S~

I have never owned a razor knife for more than 24 hours.

Hey this really is a feel good thread, I do all of these things and it is reassuring to know I am not the ony one...

I actually have been cleaning up after a job, had tools and garbage in hand, and tossed the whole works into the trashcan! At least before I left the job I had the sense to look in the trash for my “missing tools”.