Loaning out tools

[choppinczech]

One of the things my Dad taught me as a kid was to return a tool promptly and in better shape than when I borrowed it.

I'm done with loaning out tools.

I always have to ask for them back, and they're always messed up in some way.

 

[05snopro440]

My dad is an automotive mechanic by trade, and he has had enough bad experiences loaning tools that it's his strict policy not to loan tools, and I do the same with my personal tools as well. A lot less stress. I bought the tools so I can use them, not for someone else to abuse.

 

[blacksheep]

Tools, trailers, cam corders (back in the day), tie down straps, and chains are off limits to my friends. It is a shame to be like that. But, it always seems when I get a trailer back from a friend, one tire is blown, or has 16 nails in it. When I say something about it, they blame it on bad tread on the tire. When I borrow something I always do something to improve it before I return it. Like welding a spare tire rack on a trailer, or repainting something that was rusty.

 

[05snopro440]

Tools, trailers, cam corders (back in the day), tie down straps, and chains are off limits to my friends. It is a shame to be like that. But, it always seems when I get a trailer back from a friend, one tire is blown, or has 16 nails in it. When I say something about it, they blame it on bad tread on the tire. When I borrow something I always do something to improve it before I return it. Like welding a spare tire rack on a trailer, or repainting something that was rusty.

Yeah, it's too bad not everyone has that mindset of sending something back in better condition.

 

[billy]

My policy is
I you need it once
I am glad to help
If you need it twice
Buy your own.

 

[Yankee Transplant]

my thing was my trailer always come back with a broke tail light or 2 days later a flat tire .. then they get mad because you wont lend it to them no more ... go figure .. I m like you Billy if you need it one time , (depending on who it is) I'll let you get it but , you need to go get your own ,, My nephew is the worst , he will come by while i'm at work and borrow stuff and I have no clue he even got it till I go hunting for it to use ..

 

[donsrods]

Everyone likes to be a nice guy, especially to help friends, but we have all had bad experiences with loaning tools to someone and after a while you just have to say no.

The old manager where I worked knew I worked on cars and was always borrowing a compression gauge or some other tool, and he was fast to pick them up but very slow to return them. I finally got to the point where I would tell him I was going to use that tool that night so could he bring it to work with him. Thankfully, he is no longer at our location.

I also had the tongue on my utility trailer bent and the trailer came back with the spare tire missing when another friend borrowed it to move. I never borrow tools, period. Even when I worked at the body shop I knew the guys made their living with their tools, so I set up my own box and kept my own tools, even though my job didn't require me to turn wrenches. But occasionally I would need some tool to so some little job and didn't need to ask anyone for thiers.

No faster way to lose friends than to loan them tools.

Don

 

[CR55]

The topper for me was years ago when I lent a tool to a relative..He broke it so he said "lets go to Sears and get another". He purchased a new one and gave me back the broken tool, keeping the new one for himself! Taught me a valuable lesson!

 

[echnidna]

borrow his tool a give him back the broken one

 

[Sam_Fear]

I borrowed my new neighbors trailer once to move my Caddy. If I ever use it again, it's gonna have new brake lights when I return it. Cheap price to pay for a trailer rental I figure.

 

[junker39]

I loaned my trailer out to a friend to "haul some scrap metal". I told him nothing over six thousand pounds. He agreed. I saw him and my trailer, the next day, with a Link Belt crane 8000# counter weight, on the trailer. Of course, he denied it. That was twenty three years ago and the trailer hasn't been loaned out since. As the saying goes, "just say NO".

 

[Torchie]

I have one friend that I will lend tools to and that is it. He is like me and always returns them promptly and clean and in good shape.
And at this point it is mostly becuse he might need a specialty tool that I have or vice versa and we are both to cheap to go out and buy or own.
Torchie.

 

[Old Iron]

All my friends try to get me to borrow their stuff all the time.
The only time I would even think of borrowing is in an emergency then, if I needed it again I just buy one.
When I was young, I was always broke and had to borrow. That's when I realized if I broke it, I always got them got new one and I still didn't have one.

 

[Tripper]

Never loan my tools out anymore. Lent a friend my floor jack & took 2 months to get it back & when I did it was screwed up. Then when I wanted to borrow something from him... he didn't come through. Best just to have the "NO" lend policy... IMHO!!!

BoB

 

[donsrods]

The mechanic who has a shop down from me has offered on several occasions to lend me some tool to do something but I always have the same answer. " Thanks, but I don't borrow tools." I figure he earns his living with them and you don't mess with a man's income.

Don

 

[smallfoot]

Depends on who it is with me. My brother or my bud have access to my place any time. They know if I have what they need to get out of a jam it's theirs and have keys to get to it. The rest of em, well, if I feel like helping out, I'll go with the tools....bring em back myself!

 

[Willowbilly3]

Back in the 80s I ran the 3 bays in a Texaco. I had a young assistant. It was a nice summer day and a drop-dead gorgeous young thing with huge "assets" came in wearing a skimpy, tight tank top that said "Don't kiss me stupid, F*** me silly" She wanted to borrow a pickle fork. She probably could have rolled a whole snap-on chest out,lol. We joked later that was the shirt her boyfriend made her wear to go borrow tools. And yes, she brought the pickle fork back.

 

[Bamamav]

With family, it's a crapshoot. Some I will loan to, some, no way. With friends, it really depends on the friend. I loaned my cherry picker to a friend that I though was trustworthy, but it turned out differently. He kept it two months, never brought it back like he said he would, and lost the jack handle. I ended up having to go get it myself. I said right then, never again. My wife loaned one of my small bottle jacks out some time later to another guy, when she told me about it I was pizzed. She said, he'll bring it back in a day or two, yeah, right. I haven't seen that jack since, never will. Now, almost nobody gets a loan of my tools. Too hard to replace them now days.............

 

[choppinczech]

People just don't have any reverence for tools.

I swear I can remember where and when I got every one of my tools.

And, I covet them.

 

[YBeNormal]

I'm right there with Torchie. I have one friend who is the only one I will let borrow tools he alway retuns them in better condition.

I will always return stuff better than I got it. In fact last week I was at the farm working on the tractor and had to use my uncles charger that was in the shop and one end fell off the other was bent and the whole case of the unit was bent with missing screws. I replaced both ends took it apart cleaned it and straightened the metal and pit new screws in it and put it back. A couple days ago my grandmother calls me asking what I did with cliffs charger I said it's back where it was at.[S. He had come over to get it and didn't think it was his because it was fixed and cleaned up.