some days i tell ya

[sawyer massey]

Made the pattern and the core
Machined it
Then in my infinite wisdoms lol
Notice it was 90 degrees out of orientation

 

[gld]

Well last week was drilling a hole in a cast iron head for exhaust port. Then noticed the bit emerging in an intake value chamber.Dam.
A couple days later, drilling on another head, made the same dam mistake again. Some days it just doesn't pay to go to the shop.

 

[John Antliff]

Yes, I have days like that and at the slightest hint that things are not going well I give up and go inside and do something else. I know that one has to be "in the zone" when successfully practising workshop technology and some days its just not there! I can go for weeks without breaking something and then ONE DAY ............

 

[tornitore45]

Mirror image is my favored way to screw up a part, waste the last piece of stock and a day work.

 

[John Antliff]

Yes, I believe we loose some spatial awareness as we age. I had a career which required me to drive all over GB and when I was half as old as I am now I would only need to look at the map on the first trip and then subsequently I could repeat the navigation faultlessly. BUT NOW.... I have to have a sat-nav device or a good map to get to my destination and even then it might take 5 trips before I can reliably repeat the journey unassisted. Do you have times when tool you just used is nowhere to be found and yet after a cup of tea it miraculously reaapears on the bench in front of you?

 

[BaronJ]

I get days like that as well ! Like putting the small "O" ring at the wrong end.

I made this plug to go into a hydraulic cylinder using "O" rings to seal both the shaft and the cylinder. Its 29.5 mm diameter, made from Nylon 60.

I spent ages getting this plug machined ! That internal "O" ring being a pain to get just right. Too loose and it wont seal, to tight and the piston rod becomes hard to move.


This is what it should have looked like ! Still I didn't spot my error until I did the drawing for the whole job.

 

[davidyat]

I know what you mean about "can't find the tool you were just using". My Dad gave me some advice, it might sound weird, but it seems to work. If you put something down, put it near a corner. It could be the corner of your bench, corner of your machine. Just some kind of corner. Everyone I tell this to, tells me when they've tried it, they don't spend hours looking for that tool.
Grasshopper

 

[ShopShoe]

A variation of what davidyat said: An electrician I worked for one summer in high school told me to put everything right in the middle of the room so that it is easily visible. I don't know how many tools and pieces I lost by placing them on top of heating ducts or near furniture in customer's houses "just for a minute because I'll need it next." Years later I was a "facilities" guy and found lots of tools from contractors on top of heating ducts or in other places above drop ceilings. In that later job, I followed the rule from the old electrician and only lost the tools I loaned to people "just for a minute."

--ShopShoe

 

[packrat]

Quote "found lots of tools from contractors on top of heating ducts or in other places above drop ceilings"

When I was working as a HVACR mechanic I would find lots of lost tools up in the ceilings{that workers had lost} in large buildings, and would even find stolen items hid in the ceilings that people would hide and return later to get..

 

[mcostello]

I have a 16'x18' shop, pretty small. I lost something in it. I figured I would duplicate My searches so I started a list of every place I searched. Thought I would knock it out in a couple of days. Did not label the list so now I don't know what I was searching for.

 

[Apprentice707]

Isn't growing older wonderful?? I have suffered from all these things over the years now beginning to watch my children going that way too Heh Heh great fun.

Happy Making Guys (and Gals) and then remembering where you put it!!

B

 

[toolingjim]

I build machinery for a living. One of the great unspoken truths you learn is "Look under the shop rag." Why? You work, you put the tool down and wipe off your hands, you throw the rag on the bench--on top of the tool. A friend of mine laughed at this until he found his tool under the shop rag about ten minutes later.
As for "some days", I keep a little part in my toolbox at work. A lovely part, a tiny C shaped bracket for holding a precision optical sensor, with the c shape pointing left instead of right like it had to. I look at it whenever I get to feeling a bit tooo perfect.

 

[propclock]

O.K. it might just be me, but in my experience, never put that rare/expensive/unreplaceable item somewhere "SPECIAL".
I never find that "special" place later, but I never learn.
Just my 1.414 cents worth.

 

[stackerjack]

A variation of what davidyat said: An electrician I worked for one summer in high school told me to put everything right in the middle of the room so that it is easily visible. I don't know how many tools and pieces I lost by placing them on top of heating ducts or near furniture in customer's houses "just for a minute because I'll need it next." Years later I was a "facilities" guy and found lots of tools from contractors on top of heating ducts or in other places above drop ceilings. In that later job, I followed the rule from the old electrician and only lost the tools I loaned to people "just for a minute."

--ShopShoe

Years ago, I was installing central heating in my house and I found a tin of solder flux under the floor. ...........and I'm still using it.
Jack

 

[Cogsy]

My parents were heading out of the house for a short trip when my father realised he had his bulky shed/gun safe keys in his pocket and didn't want to drag them around in his pocket for 2 days. He was in the house and remembers saying to my mother "I'll put them in here so they'll be safe". That was 5 years ago with countless hours of searching and he has since moved house yet those keys have never turned up...