Methods to discourage tool borrowing

[OilyRascal]

Giveaway thread was thought provoking.  I thought it'd be nice to hear input on ways to discourage folks from borrowing your tools. 

Mine - Give me your driver's license and I keep it in my top toolbox drawer until you return borrowed tool.  It works well as few people want to cough it up and never do they want to just leave without it.

[rusty]

I always figured a 12 ga hung from the top of the rollaway with a small sign that reads

"Tool return policy"

would work....

But it has some drawbacks....

Generally I just tell most people that I need that tool for the job I am currently working on....
(Unfortunatly, The old man is the worst offender, and since about a quarter of my working tools are tools he gave me, I can't very well refuse....)

More annoying is when people break things and don't tell me, and then I discover that the tool I thought I had , isn't. Had I known, I could have just gone and bought one, but now it's sunday afternoon and I have a truck with no brakes, and a flare tool with a broken 3/16 insert......gee...thanks -P

[Nolatoolguy]

Usually I just give them the crappy china tools I got and right there name on a dry erase board in the garge so next time I see them I ask them about it.

[Dustin21]

simple i dont loan out to tools. i bought my own so can they :)

[1930]

I will usually offer to use my own tool myself to help if needed, this is a nice way of saying I am willing to help but I dont like to loan them out, other times I just tell them I dont loan them out and at this point in my life dont feel much of an urgency to explain why.

[Branson]

There are a very few people who have won my trust enough that I will loan them a tool.  I do try to have back ups for most of what I have.  I will loan any tool I have to my wife.  She'll do anything to avoid using somebody else's tools, and it can be a fight to get her to borrow one of mine (I finally had to go out and get her a Makita even though I bought one especially for household use).  I know she will not abuse the tool, and if it should break, she would go get me a replacement.

Easier, like 1930 said, to loan myself with the necessary tool.

[RedVise]

I can and have said  no to most people, excluding my brother.
I have had a gent wrap the cord around my Sawzall and then close it in the formed plastic box, I was speechless when I opened the box, not so much the next time I saw him!!

Brian L.

[rusty]

Today in the shop;

I owe you a new 1/4 drive extension.

(me)..uh...why?

We bent it.

Bent it? How did you bend it?

We were using it to wind the spring on the overhead garage door.

uh..uh..oh..ok..uh..glad I wasn't here for *that* fiasco ;P

*Yeash*

[Papaw]

A few years ago the kid across the street was working on his car and came over to borrow a 12mm box end. I handed him a cheapie. He came back soon with it broken, so I handed him another cheapie, which he promptly broke!
I then went over there with a Snap-On, and got the nut loose for him myself.

[john k]

Shop I work in now, back when I started had a growly curmudgeon that groaned and whined about everything, mostly him first type.  He did have a heckuva set of tools, lots of little oddball stuff that made things easier.   If you got the nerve to ask to borrow something, he would flip open a little tablet, ring binder type, write your name down, make model and markings on the tool borrowed, date it, and you had to sign it, the book was old and was about half full.  Made you kinda pucker when he walked over to ask for it back.   And he made it a point, borrow it twice, and you need to buy one, NOW. 

[1930]

I can and have said  no to most people, excluding my brother.
I have had a gent wrap the cord around my Sawzall and then close it in the formed plastic box, I was speechless when I opened the box, not so much the next time I saw him!!

Brian L.

What does he care about your cord, he didnt have to pay for the saw.

[1930]

Today in the shop;

I owe you a new 1/4 drive extension.

(me)..uh...why?

We bent it.

Ive been down that road before as well, nice to say that he admitted owing you another but in many cases he is just waiting for you to say ahhh dont worry about it.

Should have just gone ahead and bought it and then explained what happened, if that were the case than he could borrow from me again no problem.

Bent it? How did you bend it?

We were using it to wind the spring on the overhead garage door.

uh..uh..oh..ok..uh..glad I wasn't here for *that* fiasco ;P

*Yeash*

[1930]

Shop I work in now, back when I started had a growly curmudgeon that groaned and whined about everything, mostly him first type.  He did have a heckuva set of tools, lots of little oddball stuff that made things easier.   If you got the nerve to ask to borrow something, he would flip open a little tablet, ring binder type, write your name down, make model and markings on the tool borrowed, date it, and you had to sign it, the book was old and was about half full.  Made you kinda pucker when he walked over to ask for it back.   And he made it a point, borrow it twice, and you need to buy one, NOW.

Thats prob. me and if I have to walk over to ask for it back than that person wont be borrowing anything again.

[amertrac]

When I had ny shop I bought a complite set of combo wrenches from 5/16 to 2 1/2( harbor frieght) I hung them on a rafter in plain site with a sign
THESE ARE FOR LENDING IF THERE IS ANY MISSING IT'S BECAUSE SOMEONE DID NOT RETURN IT
 The wrenches are still there (ALL OF THEM) They are the only tools (SCREWDRIVERS.PLIERS) that i will lend out.Except grandson.son in law.,son oh well Iguess i still loan tools bob w.   

[Papaw]

How about when you loan a worthless son-in-law your beater p/u and when you get it back, not only do you have to clean it out, you find a pawn ticket for the sawzall that had been missing for several months?
By the way, he is no longer our son-in-law.