Anyone ever regret willingly thinning the herd?

[First Shirt]

And actually it's kind of hard to find a good church key anymore that is strong enough for the aviation cans. The ones we use at work, I ended up making out of thick stainless.

Have any that you'd like to sell? I'd like a couple of serious church key openers.

[Netpackrat]

No, I only have the one I made for myself. I made some extras for work, and the boss seems to have lost them. That's what I get for handing them over to him, instead of the stockroom. I was trying to avoid them being "lost" and winding up in guys' toolboxes. I figured if the only one my cow-orkers knew about was the one tethered to the service cart, then that would be less likely. At least that part of it worked out okay; the one that's in use has never wandered off.

OTOH, another special tool I made that got put into the stockroom hasn't really fared any better, since nobody knows where to find it when I need it. It's been miscatalogued and then moved to different locations at least 3 times that I know of. They entered it into the database as "control wheel straight edge" so it didn't come up in a search. Not sure where they got that idea, since I originally made it for checking adjustment/rigging of passenger seats. It illustrates why I used to just keep this stuff in my locker, but we went to 100% tool control earlier in the year, along with magic "level 5" tool boxes from strap-on, so I didn't really have any choice about it.

I've made a bunch of little doo-dads around there over the years to make things easier, and I'm constantly astounded at the ways people find to misuse them. I've actually taken to doing stuff like welding fasteners together, intentionally mangling threads, and even using anti-theft screws, and people still manage to fuck things up.

[toad]

You'll always have a thief and/or a fool in the shop. When it was too late, just before I quit working with metal, I finally started renting or selling my "home made" tools, cash up front, no credit. A "boss" told me since I had "obviously" made it on shop time it be longed to the shop. I put the tool in a vise, hit it with my heavy shop hammer and handed him $10. "There, I unmade in on shop time here's you costs."

You miss the damndest things. For instance a TDC indicator made from a used spark plug, some sheet metal, and a few scraps. You'd put masking tape on the sheet metal and pencil mark the high and low points for the particular overhead valve motor you were working on.

[Netpackrat]

What's happened a few times, is I will finally get fed up and do something about an ongoing issue that everybody else is willing to live with. Then somebody in charge will see what I've done, and either supply me with materials and tools to do more of it, or find a commercially made solution to the problem.

[Denis]

I really dislike selling guns just in order to get money. I sold my CZ75 SP-01 because I was temporarily short of cash to pay bills, and I still regret that one. Selling them to get room or funds for another gunny acquisition is another matter; I don't mind selling "surplus to requirements" guns from my small collection to good homes for what I consider a fair price (usually that's whatever they cost me).

On the reverse side, I have happily paid for guns from other enthusiasts who were stuck for cash, on the basis that I will return the item to them anytime for whatever amount I have in it.

I have made myself and other firearms-enthusiastic people very happy on several occasions by just giving them guns as gifts. In fact, I think that is the best and most satisfying way to thin the herd.

[HTRN]

You'll always have a thief and/or a fool in the shop.

I once caught a guy taking nitrile gloves out of my toolbox, shortly after I brought it in. Asked him where he got the gloves "Oh, that toolbox over there".

Cue pindrop.

I patiently explained that A)that wasn't a shop tool box, that was mine, B)he shouldn't be going into any toolbox, if he doesn't have explicit permission, and C)If catch him, or anybody else in my toolbox again, bad, BAAAD things will happen.

Word got around.

[Denis]

I patiently explained ...

Mwhahaha.

[Cobar]

I work in such a strange place.

When I started I locked my box. Couple of the guys told me not to bother. After awhile I realized that they were serious. No one takes something without asking or prior permission. No one steals anything. The worst that happens is a couple of the guys are scatter-brained and either forget to put stuff back or lose something. Everything that has gone missing has always turned up.

From what I am told the last guy that was an issue has been gone for about 10 years. He didn't even steal stuff, but he would break stuff then put it back in whoever's box without saying anything.

[Precision]

You'll always have a thief and/or a fool in the shop.

I once caught a guy taking nitrile gloves out of my toolbox, shortly after I brought it in. Asked him where he got the gloves "Oh, that toolbox over there".

Cue pindrop.

I patiently explained that A)that wasn't a shop tool box, that was mine, B)he shouldn't be going into any toolbox, if he doesn't have explicit permission, and C)If catch him, or anybody else in my toolbox again, bad, BAAAD things will happen.

Word got around.

different industry but ... as an up and coming Chef, people would often borrow my tools and they NEVER came back the same. At one location, I made an announcement to the group that if it continued, bad things would happen to those responsible - while looking at the primary culprit.

He broke the tip off one of my knives by dropping it on the tile. A week or so later, he left for a weeks vacation. I did not damage any of his tools. But, he did have a plastic Craftsman tool box with an unpinned piano hinge at the back. A thin piece of wire and boom, the box was open without touching the lock. Add one tuna blood line (weight roughly 3#), re-insert pin, then for the benefit of everyone else in the shop, wrap the box in 1/8" thick layer of saran wrap.

At the beginning of day 8. He opened his box after bitching about having to cut off the many layers of saran. It took him several weeks to get the funk out of his tools. He had to throw away the tool box.

My shit stopped getting "borrowed".

[Netpackrat]

A guy I work with got tired of the lock on his tool box being super glued closed... When the other guy left his box unlocked and unattended, every drawer was filled with sand, and neatly leveled off.