If you work on mechanical stuff, you've probably been there…

I’m reposting two images from a mechanic’s forum I belong to. If you’ve ever worked on mechanical stuff, you’ve been there before. If you don’t…

These images were posted to cheer me up after I posted a long saga about my search to replace a socket I lost. You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to get an exact match… Anyway, just found these funny because guess which socket I lost…

Grouse

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been there done that,I lost a 9/16 wrench once,searched for ten minutes for the dang thing.
I had it in my left hand the whole time.

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I’ve come to the conclusion that there are 8,426 standard sizes of Spark Plugs, and I never have the right socket for the plug I’m trying to replace.

S.R.

That’s the one always missing for sure.

Steve Root wrote:

I’ve come to the conclusion that there are 8,426 standard sizes of Spark Plugs, and I never have the right socket for the plug I’m trying to replace.

S.R.

Wrong!

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Iowaboy1 wrote:

been there done that,I lost a 9/16 wrench once,searched for ten minutes for the dang thing.
I had it in my left hand the whole time.

I looked for my 19mm for about 20 minutes today. Gave up and grabbed a 3/4 instead. When I sat down for lunch I heard my wrench hit the chair and said you got to (f)in kidding me. I thought I checked my back pocket twice. But it still was hiding. Right there next to my wallet. And guess what happened after lunch. I couldn’t find my dang 3/4.

I was trying to find a pen so I could sign off some paperwork to get one of our drivers on his way. Could have swore I had one but could not find it on me or where I had just been. Finally the driver pipes up and asked me what was wrong with the one behind my ear. . .

Whenever I have nut/bolt I’m not certain of the size and i dont want to drag the whole toolbox over to whatever it is I’m working on I’ll usually grab the one i think it is and one size up and down from there. Almost without fail it will be one more size past that (or metric).

too many pockets in my coveralls get me every time. Especially that 10 mill box end in the leg pocket.
Now, I have not seen him but I am sure there is a gremlin named Bob messing with me. Fellow worker accused me of losing the wrench early in the day. Showed him I did not lose it the next day after I was looking for my wallet to pay for coffee.

Too funny

The newest tool in my tool box is a damn 10 mm socket too lol

I prefer dropping 10mm in the engine bay, never to be found lol.

Charles wrote:

I prefer dropping 10mm in the engine bay, never to be found lol.

Did that with a 8mm when I was doing my head gasket on my old ford. We searched for a long time and then said, well let’s hope for the best. Nothing bad ever came from it.

I’ve been there!

This has nothing to do with tools, but it’s a similar situation to some here.

We still laugh about this story from when I was a kid (I was 8-9 and my sister was 1-2). We were getting ready to move, and we were looking at houses. My dad looked at my mom and said, “Where’s Michelle?” To which my mom responded, “you’re holding her.”

I’ve bought a few of those over the years, but unfortunately not from my doing. I was always wondering where the h*ll my sockets were going. Then one was found tumbling around in the dryer. Turns out my stoner step brothers would steal them out of my tool cabinet, jam a tube into them, and use them for pipes….

My truck has eaten at least 1 10mm…My ATV’s probably have 1 sitting on top of the skid plate under the engine on each one…

OK, the short version of my 10 MM woes would actually make a great blues song.

Somehow, somewhere, I lost my 10 MM. This is just from my El Cheapo working set in the garage and it’s already a mix of 4-5 brands, so how hard can it be to find a 12 point 10 MM?

Well, as it turns out, damn near impossible. I was foiled at every turn, no kidding you’d think this would be either a 10 minute trip to Menards or three clicks on Amazon, but what resulted was a comedy of errors. A few highlights.

– Went to Menards. 10 MM 3/8 drive sockets were backordered and hadn’t been in stock in any store in months. Global shortage.

– Ordered online from Amazon. 12 MM socket showed up. Twice. Wrong bin, no 10 MM actually in stock.

– Ordered from eBay. 10 MM socket showed up. Victory? Oh hell no. It was a 1/2 drive. Seller thought sockets were all the same.

Honestly, I considered spending like $10 on a tool truck replacement just to end my pain. Finally I found one at an Ace hardware. Literally the last one on the rack.

Grouse

Every hex key set I have ever owned,the 1/8″ size went MIA.Chip conveyors on machine tools seem to eat them.

Crazy. Was it a deep well socket or what?

My word, hate the 10mm lost and found gremlins.

7/16″ is another one.

Did the same thing with menards and the dreaded 7/16″. Backordered and ended up buying a couple 11mm that were cheaper anyways vs the 7/16″.

blank wrote:

Crazy. Was it a deep well socket or what?

No, but the set is a 12 point so wanted to replace with same. That was my undoing, apparently.

I do have another set of sockets, so it’s not like I was dead in the water, but I was down to my last standard 10 MM 3/8 socket for over a month..

I guess what made the whole thing groan-out-loud funny was the “come on” factor of having something that should be as common as a flathead screwdriver take over a month and multiple go-arounds to finally find.

Grouse

I’ve been looking for my pliers for years.

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I have only 1 socket in my desk at all times…

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TheFamousGrouse wrote:

OK, the short version of my 10 MM woes would actually make a great blues song.

Somehow, somewhere, I lost my 10 MM. This is just from my El Cheapo working set in the garage and it’s already a mix of 4-5 brands, so how hard can it be to find a 12 point 10 MM?

Well, as it turns out, damn near impossible. I was foiled at every turn, no kidding you’d think this would be either a 10 minute trip to Menards or three clicks on Amazon, but what resulted was a comedy of errors. A few highlights.

– Went to Menards. 10 MM 3/8 drive sockets were backordered and hadn’t been in stock in any store in months. Global shortage.

– Ordered online from Amazon. 12 MM socket showed up. Twice. Wrong bin, no 10 MM actually in stock.

– Ordered from eBay. 10 MM socket showed up. Victory? Oh hell no. It was a 1/2 drive. Seller thought sockets were all the same.

Honestly, I considered spending like $10 on a tool truck replacement just to end my pain. Finally I found one at an Ace hardware. Literally the last one on the rack.

Grouse

Had to laugh cause this is essentially my story for a 13MM socket a couple years ago. Like lots of things, it would be funny if it weren’t so tragic.

big_g wrote:

I have only 1 socket in my desk at all times…

But big g, is it a 12 point

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big_g wrote:

I have only 1 socket in my desk at all times…

Now I’m really confused, how the heck do you drink a Mai Tai in Hawaii with a socket???

Btw, I stopped by Menards today on south Robert st. They had a 3/8 drive 12pt 10mm socket. Of course they didn’t have the 1/2″ ratcheting wrench that I was looking for!