Hand Tools in the Field

Later in the week, I’ll be heading out of the shop for some field service work.
I’ve never broke down and acquired a separated set of tools for working in the field.
Typically, I’ll take an empty magnet wire bucket from our shop winding department,
open up my tool cabinet, and commence to tossing what tools I feel I’ll need for the
particular job, into the bucket and deal with the un-organization in the field.
I’m not in the field very often. Yet having a system of organized tools seems only
sensible, and professional for being out in the “plant public” as well.

I guess my wandering, generalized, goofy question on this topic is this:

What’s been the best approach for you in carting hand tools out into the field?
A hard toolbox? A soft bag? Wheels? Shoulder strap?

With so many options available for storing sockets,
wrenches, screwdrivers, pliers, miscellaneous hardware like tape,
wire nuts, and the list could go on, what’s works best for you?

I appreciate any energy you feel inclined to putting into replying
to this somewhat goofy question. Thank you.
I’m ready to get organized!

Enjoying the forum,

John

Most of our technicians prefer hard toolboxes and some use soft bags with velcro clousures. We are a big site so we also have a few "satelite" shops apart of the Maintenance Building shop to keep some tools available. Also we have a golf cart for each Maintenance Group (Maintenance Supervisor + 6 to 8 technicinas) and additional tricycles to move around the site and carry tools/parts.

John,
It's not goofy. We are going through an excercise just now to improve the hand tool situation.
Some sets of spanners came with plastic tool rolls but they weren't up to the job. We asked a local leatherworker to make up tool rolls for our spanner sets. They are very good. They stand up to all the nasties we have on site, and to the weather. Also, be opening the roll, it's easy to see if spanners are missing. We are aiming to extend this to screwdrivers, pliers etc.
It would be interesting to hear how other folk keep tools in order.
We are having the Mac Tools rep in next Thursday. Are they good quality.
Regards,
Joe Mc Cormack

Hand Tools in-the-Field continued…

Thanks for your replies Eugene, and Joe.

Hand Tools, and how we use them can be such A-Matter-of–Fact, Fact.

I made it through my service call this past week, and as usual, did it… sorting through
a bucket of tools.

Before I left our/my shop, I plucked from my personal tool box; sockets, wrenches,
a couple of screwdrivers, a few specialized tools for the job, a couple of hammers, pliers,
Allen Wrenches, and so on… and tossed them all into a plastic bucket used originally for magnet-wire shipment to our “outstanding” Electric Motor Winding Department.

We, (mentioning my great co-worker here) had to work in a food processing environment
during this particular repair. And fortunately, they (the Customer) were not “in production”
in the area where we were having to do our work.

At the core in this issue of Hand-Tools-in-the-Field for me… (within this forum anyway) stems from not being satisfied with what’s available in the way of (tool organizing) “tools” for use in the field.

Socket holders that really don’t serve any high productive purpose.
Wrenches that fit in holders that beg to be pulled from.
Tool Bags that are filled with pockets holding nothing but voids.
Tool Drawers that fall off their tracks.

Anyone whom works in the field likely gets my drift here.

Most (perhaps) whom actually do spend most of their time in the field could likely care less
about this topic because they’ve adopted what’s worked best for them, and don’t read anything
on a computer screen during their day-to-day livelihood anyway.

I toss the question out again in spite of this cold hard fact.

What works for you?

John

I work for a pharmaceuticals manufacturing company. Here we have a dedicated set of tools inside the manufacturing area to be used on the manufacturing equipment. The tools at the Maintenance Building (MB) shop can not be used in the manufacturing equipment unless sanitized before. The tools at the MB shop are used for the external utilities equipment and in those units located in non processing areas.

Hand tools Revisited.

Okay, The idea of a dedicated set of tools makes sense.
(Acknowledging your last post Eugene.)
Most anyone working on a specific project “at hand’ would likely agree.

Does it make sense to also add that it would be very useful to read/see/hear how anyone who has to work in the field during their daily routine, organizes their equipment/slash/tools?

I am sincerely interested, and ready to adopt any ideas that prove useful in “their’ thinking.

There’s some great ideas out there.
I’d like to make use of them.

John

So, not many subscribing to this forum
actually do any work with tools other than with
a keyboard, statistics, data bases, and...

Where's the mechanics actually doing the work?

I have to stir the pot, and see who's really
out there working! (Said politely of course.)

Don't hold it against me.

John

Okay, here's my input.

For in the plant I have my roll-cabinet. It's half a ton of toolbox that I roll around when I'm doing a big job. It has a sign on it that was made by a previous co-worker and it says "Rolling Thunder" and that's a pretty apt description. It's a beast. It's not appropriate for site work.
I also have a small soft-sided Kuny's satchel which has a rope on it. I hate carrying tools up ladders, so I put the tools in the satchel, go up the latter with the end of the rope tucked into my pocket, in my teeth, wherever, and when I get to the platform I can pull up my tools.
For site-work one of the nicest systems that I have seen for a fair assortment of tools are those plastic toolboxes with wheels that sort of look like modern luggage.
Some guys swear by a 'bucket boss', but I don't.
If you take a van to the site then a sweet thing to have along is a rolling service cart. Light weight, and you can lay out your tools (and the parts you remove!) so you can see them. After the job you can dump the tools back in your bucket, put the bucket on the bottom shelf, roll it back to your van, and go home. If you're arriving in a sports car then you're out of luck.

This is what I mean by a service cart:
http://www.pencoproducts.com/Pages/ServiceCart.htm

I prefer the ones made by Gray Tools here in Canada, but this manufacturer came up first when I googles for 'service cart'. You can even get them with a couple of drawers if you'd like, but I think you're best off with an 'empty' two shelf cart so you can put the bucket(s) on the bottom and lay your tools out on the top.
Oh, and those magnetic tool trays work fabulously for hanging onto fasteners as you remove them from what you're working on...

Someone else mentioned tool rolls for wrenches. There aren't any decent ones left in the world (I checked) so I, too, made them custom. I just sat down with a sewing machine and some heavy canvas and made it happen. Hey, a sewing machine is still a _machine_, so it's within my purview. <g> Anyway, rolls rock for site work, and if you make them to fit the size of your service cart then life is beautiful.

Having a separate set of tools for site work _sounds_ great, but unless you're doing it all the time it's just not worth it, because you'll find yourself swiping tools from one set or the other because you prefer one tool or another, or just don't see the one you need at the moment (trust me, it'll happen) and that'll come back to bite you, and then you'll start checking your inventory before leaving to the site, and in that time you could have just grabbed what you needed. Having a few 'staples' is fine, like wrenches, a hammer, etc. just don't expect that you'll be able to run out the door with your magic toolbox and things will be okay. You always need to stop and think.

Try http://www.kleintools.com

Go to the catalog section. They make tool bags and boxes for maintenance and field service.

Howard

quote:

Originally posted by EFerris:
[You should have checked Princess Auto. They have some for sale. Page 318 of the newest catalouge.

I don't have that catalogue, and the on-line catalogue is miserable, so I was unable to find "tool roll" or "wrench roll" or anything else like that on-line. However, at the time that I was making mine I _did_ actually check PA, and they didn't have anything that I considered decent. Perhaps I should specify what I consider to be a decent wrench roll:

- made of a long lasting material, like leather, canvas or pack cloth. NOT vinyl.
- having a flap that folds over the tops of the wrenches such that when the roll is rolled up the wrenches CANNOT fall out of the roll
- having storage for a full set of wrenches from 1-1/4" down to 1/4" or beyond, or the metric equivalent.

In my case I have 16 wrenches in each roll (one imperial, one metric) and those rolls are only used for site-work, or when I need several of one size of wrench. They are not wrenches that I use every day.

When I was searching for a decent wrench roll the closest I came was a roll made by Snap-On which had been discontinued but was still available here and there. I made my own.

quote:

Originally posted by MotorDoc:
Try http://www.kleintools.com

Go to the catalog section. They make tool bags and boxes for maintenance and field service.

Howard

In the plastic toolbox section there's a camping-cooler-sized unit with wheels on one end that is similar to the 'luggage' type boxes that I mentioned previously. I think that one could work nicely. It would suck to get in and out of the van, though, if it's full of tools. The nice thing about the cart-and-bucket idea is that you can lift out the buckets one at a time, so you're not going to split a seam. Another thing that I've done similar to that idea is to have a few smaller toolboxes that were rectangular in cross section so that they could be stacked, and just haul them all at once on a 2-wheeled dolly. Dollies are pretty easy to move around, and certainly they're easier to get up and down stairs than a service cart, but the dolly doesn't give you a flat surface to work off of.
If your tools aren't horribly heavy then of course you have a whole lot more options available to you.

Some guys like this kind of thing:
http://www.kunysleather.com/products/detail002.asp?partNo=SW-1530
My problem with these is similar to my problem with the Bucket Boss kind of thing - stuff hanging on the outside tends to get lost while you're hauling the bag around. I _love_ the smaller versions of these for in-shop use. Like this:
http://www.kunysleather.com/products/detail002.asp?partNo=EL-740
These are great as long as you're not throwing it in the trunk of the car and whatnot. If it goes from sitting on a bench to sitting on a machine in the plant then you're not going to lose anything important, and everything is visible. Not to mention the fact that Kuny's makes them with top-grain leather so they will outlive your great-grandchildren. They will make them in pack-cloth, too. I used to use a zippered soft-sided briefcase affair, but when it's unfolded it takes up a lot of room so it's hard to find surfaces big enough to hold it when you're working on a panel. The little case in the second link above is small enough to sit on the box you're working on (or in some cases _in_ the box you're working on).

For mobile use, though, I need a plain, contained box or bag.