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Best tool you ever found?
Tuned
Joined: Oct 2005
Posts: 298
Likes: 3
You asked about finding tools?
I had a couple of good finds.
Once I got passed on the four lane by a pickup with the tailgate down, he gets up ahead a hundred or so feet and I see something come out and start sliding down the road (at 70mph). I get a little closer and tell the wife that's pipe cutter sliding along up there.
Lucky me, I start slowing (the truck doesn't) I try to pace it and it angles off to the shoulder. I get out and sure enough it a Rigid pipe cutter, a short style up to 2 1/2' and just a little road rash, works good.
About 20 years ago I lived in a small town, the police chief was telling me about some drunk they chased the night before. He said the guy was in a truck and when he went around the croner at 2 hwy's he went through the ditch, he tells me there were tools flying all over.....I said where? I went out there and it was like a trail of tools, first an old ( but useable) skill saw, then some cheap tin snips (straight, right & left cuts), and some other ones I have since forgotten.
My wife found a 9/16 Craftsman wrench one time, she picked it up in a new (week old) tire, thank god for road hazzard coverage.
I had a couple of good finds.
Once I got passed on the four lane by a pickup with the tailgate down, he gets up ahead a hundred or so feet and I see something come out and start sliding down the road (at 70mph). I get a little closer and tell the wife that's pipe cutter sliding along up there.
Lucky me, I start slowing (the truck doesn't) I try to pace it and it angles off to the shoulder. I get out and sure enough it a Rigid pipe cutter, a short style up to 2 1/2' and just a little road rash, works good.
About 20 years ago I lived in a small town, the police chief was telling me about some drunk they chased the night before. He said the guy was in a truck and when he went around the croner at 2 hwy's he went through the ditch, he tells me there were tools flying all over.....I said where? I went out there and it was like a trail of tools, first an old ( but useable) skill saw, then some cheap tin snips (straight, right & left cuts), and some other ones I have since forgotten.
My wife found a 9/16 Craftsman wrench one time, she picked it up in a new (week old) tire, thank god for road hazzard coverage.
Tuned
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 299
Likes: 2
From: Marryville, Tennessee
Found a 4" Mac crescent wrench when I was 9 years old. Put it on my key chain and it's been there ever since! Have had it now for 32 years. Changed 2 starters with it on my old 66' stang. Fixed many things over the years.
Elder User
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 550
Likes: 1
From: Effingham,IL USA
found my own leatherman on the road a half a block from my house after i accidently left it on the front bumper. also left a rail of snap on 3/8 sockets under the hood and drove 60 miles on the interstate. lucky they didnt go anywhere and i remembered i left them there. found a pair of chanellocks and a snap on 3 in ext. on road. also a really really big metal spike on rt 40.havent used it but its cool.
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Posting Guru
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1,133
Likes: 3
From: Dracut, Massachusetts
most of my finds are in junk yards. i went to a yard shortly before closing and opened the hood on a 78 f350 and found a nice 3/8" snap on extention. another time i was looking through all the junk in the back of a 85 f150 and saw a smashed toolbox. i went to move it and heard sockets rattleing around. must have been 100 1/4 drive craftsman sockets and a couple of wrenches. the best find was at my grandmothers house as a kid, i was in the back yard umder the telephone ploe and found some weird pliar thingies, still dont know what they are used for, but they have a spot in my toolbox for the day that i figure out what they are used for!
Posting Guru
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 1,070
Likes: 0
From: charlotte, nc
wow this thread is out of the history books! i remember when i posted that, that was many trucks and girlfriends ago!
i found a nice snap-on ratchet at a flea market in Fayetteville, i felt wierd being in a Army town being a Marine, but i got it for cheap, less then 5 bucks. The Snap-on man rebuilt it for me for free, so it works great.
i found a nice snap-on ratchet at a flea market in Fayetteville, i felt wierd being in a Army town being a Marine, but i got it for cheap, less then 5 bucks. The Snap-on man rebuilt it for me for free, so it works great.
Post Fiend
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 6,751
Likes: 3
From: Sin City
I once lost the lid off a Weber BBQ while on the freeway. After pulling over and walking back to retrieve it, I found a Craftsman 1/2 " breaker bar and a 1/2" Snap-On speed wrench. Both with 3/4'' Craftsman sockets on them. I'm figuring that guy was really upset with his flat tire.
Mountain Pass
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 169
Likes: 0
From: Klamath Falls, Oregon
A couple years ago I found a nice 034 Stihl chainsaw in the ditch on a fairly busy highway. I was hauling asphalt in a bellydump and couldn't slow down in time to grab it so I had to go another 15 miles to where I was getting unloaded. On the way back I just knew it would be gone, but there it was in all of it's orange glory. When I got home I gave it a couple pulls on the rope and it was running. I already had a nicer saw so I gave it to my buddy, and he still uses it.
