Can't find the tool or jig I need!

[woodfab]

Don't you hate it when you can't find the tool, templet, or jig you need?

Last week I bought an 1-3/4" forstner bit and I just spent an hour looking for it.

Or last week I spent close to an hour looking for a jig I made last year.

Very frustrating!   

[ghostdive]

I find it helps to leave everything the same place every time I use it - which is, I think, over there about halfway down the pile of stuff...or maybe I put it in one of those boxes...hmm...

[Bizman62]

I have a scraper with a yellow handle. It took about a year to find it as it wasn't in my toolbox. I finally found it in the basket by the broom cupboard -  a place where my wife might put things she has used and might need in the near future.

[mistermikev]

14 hours ago, Bizman62 said:

I have a scraper with a yellow handle. It took about a year to find it as it wasn't in my toolbox. I finally found it in the basket by the broom cupboard -  a place where my wife might put things she has used and might need in the near future.

I often find myself about to curse... because my wife is maniacal about cleaning and freq puts stuff in the most random of places.  just happened the other day when I had bought groceries along with a new box of latex gloves... made the mistake of leaving it on the cupboard for 24hrs and now it is lost forever.  that said I always catch myself and give thanks that she keeps our place so clean and doesn't complain about how messy I am... she's a saint really. 

had a set of 2x15 fender/jensens from a late 60s bandmaster and one of them I didn't have a box for... she put a box right on top of it in the closet and the box corner tore a hole right through the cone.   i guess that was on me for not immediately finding a box.  still not over it. 

 

tools... man I'm trying to learn to put them back in their place as soon as possible.  that and guitar parts... I try to keep everything for a build in a box... but then I pull stuff out to measure or test fit... and I somehow loose the original tuner screws or can't find the nut I was gonna use.  at points along a build I will have every open space on every bench covered with stuff.  then I spend a half hour looking for the tool that was "just in my hand"!  tis the nature of the beast!!