Tool gripe/ Murphy's corollary?

[Patrick Lamb]

Ob bike: I was working on my bike today.

I have a three-way Allen/Bondhus wrench like the one shown at
http://tinyurl.com/zaxoj8 and it's a wonderful wrench set. Performs
well (if a tool can do such a thing), I'd buy another just like it,
blah, blah, blah.

What I want to know is why the 5 mm wrench disappears so readily?
Seems like every time I put it down, the 5 mm end falls into a black
hole, and I have to stop what I'm doing, carefully focus on the
blessed thing, and read each size before I can identify the 5 mm that
I usually want. I can usually tell the 4 from the 5 by sight, but the
6 also looks like the 5. By sheer chance, you'd thing 1/3 of the time
without looking I'd get the 5. A glance to eliminate the 4, and the
statistician would say I'd get the 5 one out of every two times. I
think I hit zero out of 25-30 times this afternoon.

Is this a known property of black tools, or is Murphy's Law hard at
work?

Pat

Email address works as is.

 

[richard]

Why not simply put a bit of red nail polish (or equivalent) on a
conspicuous place on the 5mm tool if it's used more often than others?

On Sun, 10 Sep 2006 18:43:34 -0500, Patrick Lamb
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Ob bike: I was working on my bike today.
>
>I have a three-way Allen/Bondhus wrench like the one shown at
>http://tinyurl.com/zaxoj8 and it's a wonderful wrench set. Performs
>well (if a tool can do such a thing), I'd buy another just like it,
>blah, blah, blah.
>
>What I want to know is why the 5 mm wrench disappears so readily?
>Seems like every time I put it down, the 5 mm end falls into a black
>hole, and I have to stop what I'm doing, carefully focus on the
>blessed thing, and read each size before I can identify the 5 mm that
>I usually want. I can usually tell the 4 from the 5 by sight, but the
>6 also looks like the 5. By sheer chance, you'd thing 1/3 of the time
>without looking I'd get the 5. A glance to eliminate the 4, and the
>statistician would say I'd get the 5 one out of every two times. I
>think I hit zero out of 25-30 times this afternoon.
>
>Is this a known property of black tools, or is Murphy's Law hard at
>work?
>
>Pat
>
>Email address works as is.

 

[Brian Huntley]

richard wrote:
> Why not simply put a bit of red nail polish (or equivalent) on a
> conspicuous place on the 5mm tool if it's used more often than others?

An elastic band is even easier - and they come in various colours,
too.

Not all of us have red nail polish in our tool boxes. I have Coleman
Green and Black, which happen to match a couple of my bikes. If I could
find Celeste Green, I'd add that.

 

[Dane Buson]

richard <[email protected]> wrote:
> Why not simply put a bit of red nail polish (or equivalent) on a
> conspicuous place on the 5mm tool if it's used more often than others?

Ah ha! Yet another I can do with the multiple colors of electrical tape
in my toolbox.

--
Dane Buson - [email protected]
Any road followed to its end leads precisely nowhere.
Climb the mountain just a little to test it's a mountain.
From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain.
-- Bene Gesserit proverb, "Dune"

 

[Chris Z The Wheelman]

methinks Murphy has little to do with the unreadability of a black tool.
Entropy of the eye's focasing mechanism might, though. IOW, you're
getting old. (hey, it happens to the best of us).

Chris "Now where did my reading glasses go?" Zacho

- -
Comments and opinions compliments of,
"Your Friendly Neighborhood Wheelman"

My web Site:
http://geocities.com/czcorner

To E-mail me:
ChrisZCorner "at" webtv "dot" net

 

[[email protected]]

On Sun, 10 Sep 2006 18:43:34 -0500, Patrick Lamb
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Ob bike: I was working on my bike today.
>
>I have a three-way Allen/Bondhus wrench like the one shown at
>http://tinyurl.com/zaxoj8 and it's a wonderful wrench set. Performs
>well (if a tool can do such a thing), I'd buy another just like it,
>blah, blah, blah.
>
>What I want to know is why the 5 mm wrench disappears so readily?
>Seems like every time I put it down, the 5 mm end falls into a black
>hole, and I have to stop what I'm doing, carefully focus on the
>blessed thing, and read each size before I can identify the 5 mm that
>I usually want. I can usually tell the 4 from the 5 by sight, but the
>6 also looks like the 5. By sheer chance, you'd thing 1/3 of the time
>without looking I'd get the 5. A glance to eliminate the 4, and the
>statistician would say I'd get the 5 one out of every two times. I
>think I hit zero out of 25-30 times this afternoon.
>
>Is this a known property of black tools, or is Murphy's Law hard at
>work?

Yes, and no.

Paint your spanners, etcetera, with colours that indicate their size.
The resistor colour code is easily applicable:
Black, Brown, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green Blue, Violet, Grey, White
(0-9)

 

[Pat Lamb]

Dane Buson wrote:
> richard <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Why not simply put a bit of red nail polish (or equivalent) on a
>> conspicuous place on the 5mm tool if it's used more often than others?
>
> Ah ha! Yet another I can do with the multiple colors of electrical tape
> in my toolbox.

Ooh, I like this one best. And the yellow (to match my yellow bar tape)
will make the thing visible in the dark parts of my garage, too!

Pat

 

[Pat Lamb]

Chris Z The Wheelman wrote:
> methinks Murphy has little to do with the unreadability of a black tool.
> Entropy of the eye's focasing mechanism might, though. IOW, you're
> getting old. (hey, it happens to the best of us).
>
> Chris "Now where did my reading glasses go?" Zacho

If I could find my bifocals, I could help you look for them.

 

[Claire Petersky]

"Pat Lamb" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Dane Buson wrote:
>> richard <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Why not simply put a bit of red nail polish (or equivalent) on a
>>> conspicuous place on the 5mm tool if it's used more often than others?
>>
>> Ah ha! Yet another I can do with the multiple colors of electrical tape
>> in my toolbox.
>
> Ooh, I like this one best. And the yellow (to match my yellow bar tape)
> will make the thing visible in the dark parts of my garage, too!


This is like my great discovery: putting a strip of reflective tape on my U
lock. When I'm in the dark parking garage at work, it used to be hard to
find which of the many U locks hanging from it was mine. Now it's easy - I
just spot the one with the reflective tape. Even when it's dark outside, I
can find it.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
http://www.bicyclemeditations.org/
See the books I've set free at: http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky