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Your most unorganized tool drawer

#1

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

Little by little, each drawer is getting a little more in shape. Needle nose in one place, vice grips and channel locks in another. Philips head screw drivers on one side. Flat heads on another.

But there's one drawer that will never get organized.

The ELECTRICAL drawer. wire pliers, and the box(s) of connectors are easy. The briggs and kohler wiring connections, with enough wire left on them to splice if I need to. The lengths of wire coming out all the test lights, and soldering irons, not to mention all the wires from the headlight harnesses. Mixed in with the other electrical crap in that drawer, makes it impossible, for me, to organize.
And that's the only drawer that I can't organize.

What's yours?


#2

B

bertsmobile1

Electrical things including wire strippers heat gun & shrink tube all live in a tool box, a big cantilevered one I got for $ 10 full of old unchromed tools at a trash & treasure sale .
I play with motorcycles so go to a lot of these & always pick up old tool boxes for this reason.
Sockets all go on colour coded rails , metric/ blue US/red UK/black and they hang off bolts or nails all over the place but being colour coded I can locate the one I need form anywhere.
Screwdrivers are all in racks , all over the place but there would be better than 100 of them due to the afore mentioned tool box purchase and after a while the right driver ends up where you use it most .

I just about wet my pants surprssing laughter when some one takes me into their garage to show me their $ 5000 , 2000 piese rolling tool chest full of plastic & foam packing and no useful tools


#3

7394

7394

Good topic.

My most un-organized drawer would be the very bottom one, where I keep numerous motorcycles baffles, tid bits, + a wide variety of rubber hoses. lots of odd ball stuff, I just throw in there.
But many is the time I have found just what I needed from there.

And Bert- I also paint my metric stuff Blue, & SAE orange. Just makes things easier for me.


#4

B

bertsmobile1

7394 said:
Good topic.

My most un-organized drawer would be the very bottom one, where I keep numerous motorcycles baffles, tid bits, + a wide variety of rubber hoses. lots of odd ball stuff, I just throw in there.
But many is the time I have found just what I needed from there.

And Bert- I also paint my metric stuff Blue, & SAE orange. Just makes things easier for me.
Click to expand...

So that proves what I have long thought metrification really is a Democrat plot :devilish:


#5

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

7394 said:
Good topic.

My most un-organized drawer would be the very bottom one, where I keep numerous motorcycles baffles, tid bits, + a wide variety of rubber hoses. lots of odd ball stuff, I just throw in there.
But many is the time I have found just what I needed from there.

And Bert- I also paint my metric stuff Blue, & SAE orange. Just makes things easier for me.
Click to expand...

I forgot about my bottom drawer. But after looking at it, my electrical drawer is still way more messy.


#6

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

bertsmobile1 said:
So that proves what I have long thought metrification really is a Democrat plot :devilish:
Click to expand...

One or the other would be great. I could care less which. (That includes political parties too)


#7

7394

7394

bertsmobile1 said:
So that proves what I have long thought metrification really is a Democrat plot :devilish:
Click to expand...

Hadn't thought about it that way, but you may be on to something there.... ?


#8

H

HarmonySeeker

Having used both systems (depending on whether I'm working in Canada or the US) throughout my career, I was so amazed to find how easy the metric system is. The flaw detectors I used were international. With flip of the switch, it converted from English to Metric. No fractions to deal with is the first and best reason to go metric. I fought it, but I was convinced by practical demonstration and working with the system.
And since the reality of Covid is upon us, Democrat Bernie Sanders sounds like a prophet now that the flaws in our current medical system, 'The Best in the World' are being laid bare.
Let's discuss how the rich are getting tests and help, but the middle class and poor? Off to the graveyard. I assume you are among the latter two groups I mentioned.
And with that I will cease, unless someone wants to bring up politics again.
There are PLENTY of places to discuss politics on the internet.
Go somewhere else to drivel about politics.


#9

R

Rivets

If it was a Democratic plot, then one would be blue and the other red, not orange. When you ask which drawer, I have to ask which tool box. I have 6 at this time. One mechanic’s box at home and one at the shop. One dedicated to each of these, plumbing, electrical, woodworking. A bucket boss and travel mechanical box for service calls and finally one catch all box which will have supply’s and odd tools. This does not include tools hanging on two walls covered with pegboard in the garage. Don’t even ask about how many sets of metric or SAE wrenches drives, or sockets I have. I do know that I have sockets from 5mm to 2 1\4”. I would like to know what is the oldest working tool you have in your tool box. I have a SAE micrometer, which looks like a monkey wrench, research as about 1930.


#10

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

Oldest? WOW, you got us all bear that micrometer. I know what you're talking about though. One of my old machine shop bosses had one on his wall.
My oldest, I couldn't tell you. My ole man worked for International back in the 70's. I'm sure he bought both new and used.

I was just wondering, which of my kids I should leave these tools too. Neither of them like working on stuff at their ages now (mid 20's). My youngest is a welder and seldom needs a set of anything. Except for his welding stuff.


#11

H

HarmonySeeker

Rivets said:
If it was a Democratic plot, then one would be blue and the other red, not orange. When you ask which drawer, I have to ask which tool box. I have 6 at this time. One mechanic’s box at home and one at the shop. One dedicated to each of these, plumbing, electrical, woodworking. A bucket boss and travel mechanical box for service calls and finally one catch all box which will have supply’s and odd tools. This does not include tools hanging on two walls covered with pegboard in the garage. Don’t even ask about how many sets of metric or SAE wrenches drives, or sockets I have. I do know that I have sockets from 5mm to 2 1\4”. I would like to know what is the oldest working tool you have in your tool box. I have a SAE micrometer, which looks like a monkey wrench, research as about 1930.
Click to expand...
I have a monkey wrench from an old ford model T, I think.
It has the Ford logo cast into the handle.
The end has a nub which was used to help remove tires.


#12

B

bertsmobile1

HarmonySeeker said:
Having used both systems (depending on whether I'm working in Canada or the US) throughout my career, I was so amazed to find how easy the metric system is. The flaw detectors I used were international. With flip of the switch, it converted from English to Metric. No fractions to deal with is the first and best reason to go metric. I fought it, but I was convinced by practical demonstration and working with the system.
And since the reality of Covid is upon us, Democrat Bernie Sanders sounds like a prophet now that the flaws in our current medical system, 'The Best in the World' are being laid bare.
Let's discuss how the rich are getting tests and help, but the middle class and poor? Off to the graveyard. I assume you are among the latter two groups I mentioned.
And with that I will cease, unless someone wants to bring up politics again.
There are PLENTY of places to discuss politics on the internet.
Go somewhere else to drivel about politics.
Click to expand...

IT was a JOKE which is why I put the Imogie in there
Blue down here is the Liberal colour and out liberals are anything but liberal more conservative than republicans but not as market orientated .
The funny bit was we had both used the same colour for the metrics.


#13

R

Rivets

Politics, I thought we were talking color coding of sockets?


#14

7394

7394

My Dad used to color paint his tools, so I guess I got that from him, since I was his tool cleaner & put everything away slave labor kid, as a young lad. Actually wiping off all the wrenches & sockets taught me about properly reading a ruler. Dad would yell for me to get a 3/4" wrench & I was expected to know that from a 1/4" wrench. I did learn it well tho.

Blue & Orange are my colors.

Oldest, huh, well I still have my Dad's compression tester in one steel rectangular green box, & a vacuum gauge in another similar box. Both with original instructions etc, dated 1942. Yep, those are about my oldest I can think of.

I don't ever use either. But they are keepsakes of my Dad. He was a mechanic in the motor pool in the service.

And I do have a small cresent wrench with the word "Germany" embossed in the handle..

Dad taught me a lot, & he passed too early, way back in 1979...


#15

cpurvis

cpurvis

I consider a Kennedy tool box and cabinet the most useful "tools" I ever bought.

I once drew an unpleasant assignment of overhauling fairly complex pieces of machinery. Lots of them. I was assigned the "mechanics" I was to use, of which none were mechanics or had much mechanical aptitude at all. It looked impossible at first. I was given an essentially unlimited budget for tools, fixtures and shop equipment but could not choose the people who would use them to do the work.

Multiple people working out of multiple tool boxes is a recipe for disaster. Very few people have a built-in instinct to return tools they've used to the tool box. The only way I found to minimize the time lost to the "I can't find this or that tool" problem was to equip every tool box identically and position the tools in the tool boxes in the exact same place. Quitting time was 3:00 PM so at 2:45 we returned every tool to its proper place in the tool boxes. No leaving tools lying overnight; thus starting fresh in the morning. I also stressed taking the tool chest to the work rather than leaving it stationary and dropping tools on the bench. I showed them that it was just as fast, or faster, to work out of the tool box rather than having every tool in the box migrating to the bench where you're working.

I wrote explicit work instructions, which were needed at first. Torque wrenches for everything, since most unskilled people don't know when "tight is tight." You get a feel for it, but it doesn't come immediately.

In the end, the project actually turned out very well and I think a lot of time was saved by the organized tool boxes and the policy of putting everything away at close of business.

At home, I'm not nearly that strict with myself. I'm the only one working out of my tool boxes, so if something isn't where it should be, I should know where to look for it.


#16

PTmowerMech

PTmowerMech

cpurvis said:
I consider a Kennedy tool box and cabinet the most useful "tools" I ever bought.

I once drew an unpleasant assignment of overhauling fairly complex pieces of machinery. Lots of them. I was assigned the "mechanics" I was to use, of which none were mechanics or had much mechanical aptitude at all. It looked impossible at first. I was given an essentially unlimited budget for tools, fixtures and shop equipment but could not choose the people who would use them to do the work.

Multiple people working out of multiple tool boxes is a recipe for disaster. Very few people have a built-in instinct to return tools they've used to the tool box. The only way I found to minimize the time lost to the "I can't find this or that tool" problem was to equip every tool box identically and position the tools in the tool boxes in the exact same place. Quitting time was 3:00 PM so at 2:45 we returned every tool to its proper place in the tool boxes. No leaving tools lying overnight; thus starting fresh in the morning. I also stressed taking the tool chest to the work rather than leaving it stationary and dropping tools on the bench. I showed them that it was just as fast, or faster, to work out of the tool box rather than having every tool in the box migrating to the bench where you're working.

I wrote explicit work instructions, which were needed at first. Torque wrenches for everything, since most unskilled people don't know when "tight is tight." You get a feel for it, but it doesn't come immediately.

In the end, the project actually turned out very well and I think a lot of time was saved by the organized tool boxes and the policy of putting everything away at close of business.

At home, I'm not nearly that strict with myself. I'm the only one working out of my tool boxes, so if something isn't where it should be, I should know where to look for it.
Click to expand...

Being a one man show, I still return tools to the box after every repair. I get so tired of trying to find something I just had on the last job. With 3 work area's, in front of the shop, with a table. Inside work bench. And a smaller work bench with the magnifying glass with built in light for carbs. None the less, tools get put on one table and forgotten about when I start on something else.
Several people working out of one box, would be a nightmare for me.


#17

B

bertsmobile1

having the attention span of a flea I am usually working on 6 or more things at the same time.
And with the parts supply down here that can easily blow out to double numbers.
Currently there are 7 chainsaws all waiting for what should be commonly kept parts, 4 line trimmers in the same boat + 1 that has me beat + 5 ride ons , 2 waiting for parts, 2 almost finished waiting fr the rain tpo stop & one I have no idea about .
Thus it is multiple work spaces , each with their own tools that get used mostly at that spot .
The chainsaw bench seems to end up with all the 1/4" drive stuff .
The small ultrasound ends up with the 4" ratchet & driver ends
Being that I buy lots of old tool boxes I end up with lots of tools so it is just a matter of some peg board .
Being that I am a slob & don't tend to put away very often they all end up where they are used most so are handiest.
Rolling tool boxes are great if you have a workspace where you can roll it to the job or the job to the box or have the luxury of doing jobs one at a time from start to finish.
One thing I learned very quick is customer will only accept a 1 to 2 day walt for a quote and anything up to a month "waiting for parts" but telling them it will be a week before you can even look at their mower does not go down well\.
So it is always going to be multi tasking for this little black duck.
The kohler with the missing push rod end sat here for 3 days then was ( almost) done in 3 hours the 345 Husky will be 2 weeks waiting for a rim sprocket .


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