Finding tools in the road

Just been up to town for a meeting, and lying on the pavement outside
the door of the company I was seeing, was a really top quality long-
handled 8mm allen key. Made by WIHA to ISO 2936L, according to the
handle.

Earlier this year I picked up a nice pair of pliers that were just
lying in the gutter at some traffic lights.

Oh, and a 10-12mm open-end spanner was picked up from the roadside as
well, not so long ago.

Are any of you lot riding around with poorly secured toolkits? And am
I the only bod to find decent tools lying around, or has anyone else
tapped into this mother lode?

 

TOG@Toil says...

I started buying Snap-On gear after finding various examples of it left
under the bonnets of cars I was fitting alarms to. It's surprising how
long a screwdriver or spanner will remain under a car bonnet, even when
it's being driven every day.

Quite often, when I was trimming new cars, I'd find 6mm allen driver
bits left in seat bolts of Alfa Romeos. This usually meant the thread
had stripped on fitting, so the short reverse pulse to release the tool
from sticking in the fastener had no effect.

--
Lozzo
Triumph Daytona 955i SE
Suzuki SV650 K3
Honda CBR600 F-W
Yamaha SR250 SpazzTrakka
Suzuki GSX-R750L

 

There was a rather nice hammer lying in the road on the J20 roundabout
complex of the M6/56 ish, since I was doing about 55mph and trying to
merge with the HGVs I didn't stop to pick it up, and on reflection one
wouldn't like to be in possession of a murder weapon should it transpire
to be one. Less of an issue for allen keys in less pikey areas of the
country I imagine.

Cat

 

FOTBOAL?

 

Living in Nar-f*ck as I do you can tell what has just been dug up from
the fields and soon to be in the supermarkets cheap, by what's on the
roundabouts.

What with road kill on the straight bits one should never be short of
meat and three veg for free.

 

This summer (?) I found a Bosch angle grinder sans disc but in perfect
working order

 

Likely left under car bonnets. It all evens out in the end - the trick
is to find better stuff than you lose.

 

I found a very nice big 'ammer whilst on Salisbury Plain about 10yrs ago,
was very lucky to do so as it was spayed up in 'mercan camo colours, so had
obviously fallen off a tank or summat.

For the first time in ages I found a £20 note in the road outside my house
on friday night - it saved a detour to the cashpoint which was a bonus !

 

If you follow the trail of tools, it leads to an old lady living in a
cottage made entirely from vintage japanese motorbike parts. She lures
you in, feeds you up on belgian beer and claret until you're nice and
fat...........

 

I've never found any tools but I have a very exhaustive collection of
spare bolts and screws. The fact that I worked two years on a Peugeot
factory site helped a lot (all screws picked up in the parking lot!).

Even had the pleasure to come across a rubber cap which replaced very
nicely the one I had lost on the swingarm axis.

 

Sucking his keyboard for inspiration, TOG@Toil typed:

I was waiting to cross the road in Blackpool in 1975 when a car came round a
corner and a rather nice pair of slipjoint pliers fell at my feet. Nice
quality, with confy black handles. I still use them regularly. Bargain.

 

One of the perks of marshalling on the mountain section of the TT
course is walking your section before racing starts and pocketing the
goodies you find. Cameras, phones, packets of cigarettes, cash plus
all other sorts of crap flies out as soon as they gas it up the
mountain mile if they've been stopped in Ramsey and not zipped up
their pockets.

 

In message

Ah yes, that must be mine then ...

 

I found a Snap-On clip remover... It rather cleverly has a 10mm open
end enabling it to be used as a lightweight spanner... Excellent
design...

 

What, has Bullshit Bear been getting drunk again?

D.

 

"until"?

 

I have a vision of the Ukrm Fairy dispensing its largesse. Sort of like
the Easter Bunny, but wearing Altbergs.

 

Not quite "in the road", but a few years ago we found the remains of
someone's garden cupboard which had been washed away by the floods. The
booty it yielded included an small adjustable spanner, a pipe cutter, a
screwdriver and bit set, and a garden vacuum which worked perfectly once
all the silt had been rinsed out of it.

 

So how long's she been feeding TOG for then?

 

Not something I would fancy overmuch, having seen the aftermath.