Hello everyone, My father and I have recently started our own company and have done a handful of smaller jobs and now we are starting our first big job. We are building a subdivision and doing all the dirt work and pipe work and so on. The question I have for all of you guys is about our tool truck. We came across an old Mac tool truck for a good price so we picked it up to have onsite to store compactors, pumps, tools ect. Being we are new and we don't have a mechanic yet, we are putting a handful of hand tools in our tool truck as well. What are some good methods you guys use or have come across for keeping track of everything as far as tools. I have worked for companies where nothing was ever accounted for and as careful as everyone was it seemed something always came up missing and on the flip side i have worked for a company where you had to sign a piece of paper anytime you got anything out of the job trailer. Im just exploring options for how we want to set our truck up to make sure everything is accounted for. Thanks in advance for any input! Conner
Get three 9/16 wrenches, throw two out across the work site. You will always know where those two wrenches are. Buy cheap tools for the crew, good stuff needs to stay on your pick-up.
Not sure what size equipment your working on. But that little cheap toolset from ACE is darn handy. Got English and metric wrenches and sockets all in a little organizer that seems to be holding together fairly well (lots of duck tape). I like tools that come in heavy woven canvas "bags". Got one set of wrenches that my dad and I have been using for as long as I've been alive (18 years) and literally looks brand new. Does a good job keeping wrenches from getting lost (unrolled it gives you a little place to put tools to keep them out of the dirt). I'm not a pro wrench turner though.
I carry my tools in my pickup in a crossover tool box behind the cab and the tools are there for my convenience too but in my case I bought those tools with my own money so I watch them pretty closely.I have a 20" crescent wrench for example which comes in pretty handy for changing hydraulic hoses but they are not cheap.I work for many outfits where I am the mechanic too so having the tools I need with me is a benefit as well.I like working alone and the variety of my daily tasks is welcome.Ron G
If everything has a place its more likely to get put away or missed before its to late use socket rails, wrench organizers ect not just a loose mess in the drawer if your going to have other guys with tools there then paint the company tools to its easy to tell The plastic case tool sets are wonderful to grab and head to a machine with saves a lot of running around until you get it apart and find what other tools you may need then everything has a place in the set so you know its there I really like the cresent brand one has wrenches, sockets screwdrivers, pliers ect always the first thing I grab
Just make sure you replace things as they get lost. The first time you clean up and don't find it, buy a new one. Nothing wastes more time than not having the tools you really need to get a simple job done. I've worked plenty of places where half the drill bit in the index are missing and the other half are dull. You ask someone about it and they have no idea what you're talking about. Or someone lost the medium size channel lock pliers so the boss threw a $1 pair from Harbor Freight in the drawer to replace them. The fist time you use them you bust your knuckles or round off the thing you're working on. You should have just spent the $20 and bought the right tool.
Paint all the hand tools bright day-glo pink and green, the crews will hate them, but they're easier to find, harder to overlook if you drop them, and a whole lot less likely to go home in somebody's truck by accident while they're cleaning up. I used to work for Rain Country Construction (company logo was a duck on a pond in a rainstorm) and we marked everything RCC with an engraver. Didn't help at all but made the owner feel better. The head pipelayer there liked to steal stuff, made a game out of it. Hated asking me to buy tools or rigging for him, he would just steal what he needed from the shop or my truck or the mechanic's service truck. It was all in the company so I didn't mind EXCEPT when we got on a jobsite and 0-dark-thirty and the 3/4" drive socket set was missing, or the soft chokers we used to lift heavy components with. I got so I would just inventory his cube van on Monday morning before he came in, anything I spotted he had "borrowed" I would just order new ones for the shop and charge it all to his truck. Games. Also bought every employee a round point and a square point shovel one time, told them to take them home, I was tired of the owner chewing me out because the laborers couldn't find any shovels on the jobs. Games. Keys for equipment are another pet peeve, one summer we were going through a couple hundred bucks a month in equipment keys, it's easy to do and with all that I still got a couple butt chewings because a job crew was standing around scratching themselves in the morning, nobody had a key that fit the excavator on the job, though they all took one home the night before? Good luck with that one.
Those f*ing keys are 50 bucks apiece or more on some brands.I went to the Cat dealer one time years ago and they gave me all I wanted for free but I took care of them,I still have some that have never been used.Cat had a well thought out program,their ignition keys fit their padlocks etc.I have found some tools that somebody else lost over the years.I lost a Craftsman 1/2x9/16 open end wrench years ago and as far as I know that is the only tool I misplaced in all my years.I replaced it when I needed it with another brand and every time I use it I regret it.lol.Ron G
I'm OCD so I'm pretty good at keeping track of things. My tools and truck are kept locked so if you need something I'll get it for you. It take more time, but it takes a lot more time if I have to go buy something someone misplaced.
I make my own wife in my personal shop sign out tools. I love the system where each mechanic leaves a photo ID "****" with each common tool borrowed. I am a big fan of shadowed boards with tools individually identified and located. Then missing tools can be noticed with a single glance. My buddy John runs a company making tool clips. www.toolclips.com for such shadow rack applications. While the keys to my shop are limited, very few tools have walked in a years. I have helped set up many shops and tool trailers over the years, missing tools has not been a major issue. The last time I had a major problems, meth was to blame. That was fixed with a visit to a very good swap meet near a sears craftman plant and lost tools were replaced out of low cost bulk stock. Each piece of equipment has a dedicated kit, and the master kit is under my lock and key control. Howard
Sounds just like one of my ex-bosses. At the quarry he worked at before transferring to ours he said he always ordered double the number of shovels as employees. That way there was a chance there would be one available when needed at the job.
Yep. Never could understand anybody stealing something that required work to make it do something. Dang shovels always made my foot sore trying to kickstart them.
I said Crescent because I could not think of the name I wanted at the time but my 20" wrench is a Proto and I have a 15",a 12" and a 10" that are Craftsman and a 6" that is a good wrench but could be anything,my mind has gone but it may be a Craftsman too,I try not to buy junk.Ron G
I've never worked on a construction site, but in a machine shop, it's always the hex keys. If I bought 10 sets at the first of every month, we wouldn't be able to find a complete set by the 30th.
The best method I've come up with is having someone who cares about the tools and takes care of them that is in control of the keys to the tool box. We're a small outfit as well with a International 4700 service truck set up with a lot of tools, air comp., welder, bulk oil, etc. We can do minor repairs and service in the field. One of my operators doubles as mechanic and that's his truck. I ask permission to get tools. That's the best way to do it for a small outfit, one person needs to be in charge of tools. The problem is finding the person that cares and takes it seriously. On the topic of tools, I've started buying the Pittsburg brand from Harbor Freight, not everything but sockets and wrenches. Of course the quality is not that of high end tools but for the price the quality is pretty good and they don't get used on a daily basis either. I've been able to outfit our service truck with more tools due to the lower cost. For example, their line wrench set is around $40 and is a life saver when you need them. At $40 a set I can afford to have a set in each truck. Same with the ratchet wrenches. Harbor Freight's set is 1/2 of what a Gear Wrench set costs so for the same money we can have metric and standard. Now Harbor Freight has junk too but I think the hand tools are decent for the price. I know this doesn't work for everyone but it's handy to have multiple sets of tools in each truck that didn't break the bank.
Cm1995, a lot of my guys used to give me crap for having harbor freight tools. This is after they ask for the tool out of my personal truck with my personal tools. They are decent tools and like you said not used everyday. Back to op. You will lose tools, it happens And it's very hard to find people that care enough to do the job right let alone care about "your" tools. Buy cheap ones for the job trailers and keep the expensive ones for yourself. Under lock and key
Also when you need to modify a wrench to get that last bolt out it don't hurt so much to take a torch to one of those!
FWIW, My method is to keep only cheep basic hand tools available to the operators. And to buy more cheep basic hand tools, often. (we have lots of dropping and loosing, not thefts...)
You hit on something that I always hate, it seems that the cheap line wrenches always spring the jaws and round off whatever you are working on anyway only this time on all 6 corners. Besides that the wall thickness is too thick to fit where you want it anyway. What somebody needs to make is a slightly undersized set of line wrenches that have to be hammered onto the fitting with extra stiff walls, because whenever I reach for a line wrench it is because things have already gotten bad.
That is my line of thought too Birken,I never know when the pressure I am putting on a socket is beyond the design strength of the socket and I may be going ass over bandbox off the side of a machine and break my back or leg or something because I expected too much from my tools.I recognize the argument of the HF tools and their guarentee is good,I have used it on tools bought by others,walk in with the defective tool,walk out with a new one.I can afford to use good tools because that is what have.I must confess my 3/4" drive set came from them but I just needed the large size for an axle nut to change some wheel bearings and HF was close to me at the time.Ron G
Exactly. I haven't had that issue with these line wrenches but they only get used a couple of times a year, if we have a good year they don't get used at all.
The sockets and ratchets from HF work very good. The premium screwdrivers are good. Pliers no thanks. Most corded power tools are OK. The wrenches...... not for me LOL
Ya I've busted several of the HF wrenches I've had in the past.