Can I borrow your tracking gauges?
Discussion
NO, that's what I said to my mate yesterday when he asked... He was a bit put out... But I explained that in the last 12 months he has:-
Borrowed my MIG welder and when he gave it me back said he had modified it to accept the bigger reels of wire... I said what about all the small reels I have in stock? Both mild steel and stainless steel... Plus one of the wheels had been broken and replaced with a plywood one.
Loaned my Torque wrench, and gave it me back a month later, still wound on to its highest setting
Loaned my brake pipe flaring tool and gave it me back with one of the dies broken. At the same time he borrowed a brake pipe clamp which he did not return.
Last month he borrowed my best Binks Bullows Spray gun... (had it for 30 years... its pristine) I told him I wanted it back as clean as it was when I gave it to him.
last week he returned it... I looked in horror to find he had used a course wire brush to clean the spray cap, so hard that it had damaged the air holes, and the nylon paint needle. He also hands me my brake pipe clamp... sprayed silver...
I made the pipe clam when I was 16, and an apprentice, and I have used it all the time over the last 40 odd years... It seems when he changed the rear wheel cylinder on his Peugeot, he left it tight on the flexible hose… for 9 months.
The MOT tester spotted it when there was no reading on the foot brake on the driver’s side rear wheel… When he released the clamp, they lost the rear brakes altogether, and had to bleed them… Looks like he never bleed the rear brakes when he changed the cylinder…
So I said “NO” to loaning my tracking gauges…
To say I am hacked off about the spray gun is an understatement
Borrowed my MIG welder and when he gave it me back said he had modified it to accept the bigger reels of wire... I said what about all the small reels I have in stock? Both mild steel and stainless steel... Plus one of the wheels had been broken and replaced with a plywood one.
Loaned my Torque wrench, and gave it me back a month later, still wound on to its highest setting
Loaned my brake pipe flaring tool and gave it me back with one of the dies broken. At the same time he borrowed a brake pipe clamp which he did not return.
Last month he borrowed my best Binks Bullows Spray gun... (had it for 30 years... its pristine) I told him I wanted it back as clean as it was when I gave it to him.
last week he returned it... I looked in horror to find he had used a course wire brush to clean the spray cap, so hard that it had damaged the air holes, and the nylon paint needle. He also hands me my brake pipe clamp... sprayed silver...
I made the pipe clam when I was 16, and an apprentice, and I have used it all the time over the last 40 odd years... It seems when he changed the rear wheel cylinder on his Peugeot, he left it tight on the flexible hose… for 9 months.
The MOT tester spotted it when there was no reading on the foot brake on the driver’s side rear wheel… When he released the clamp, they lost the rear brakes altogether, and had to bleed them… Looks like he never bleed the rear brakes when he changed the cylinder…
So I said “NO” to loaning my tracking gauges…
To say I am hacked off about the spray gun is an understatement
ChemicalChaos said:
So, after the first one, or maybe 2, instances, why the hell did you continue to let him borrow your things?
Have to say that this is what I was wondering as well. There are very very few people I will lend tools to. Two, to be precise. I'll happily use my own tools to work on a friend's car/boat/house for free, but wont lend them the tools in question.
Oli.
Unreasonable? Not a bit. I'd have torn a strip off him after the first few. Don't get me wrong, I believe in giving people chances and helping mates out, but if someone takes the piss, that's it.
One of my best mates returned my once-pristine MIG welder filthy, rusty, covered in overspray and with a worn-out liner through keeping it in a damp garage and letting the wire go rusty. Another very good mate left my sheet metal folder in a leaky shed, so the previously beautifully shiny, machined steel surfaces are now rusty and pitted. And one of the handles is AWOL so instead I now have to use a long bolt with the right-sized thread.
Neither one of them will be borrowing anything less robust than a wrecking bar off me now, and while I feel something of a tight b
d refusing to lend them my gear, I don't spend money on tools just for other people to trash them.
One of my best mates returned my once-pristine MIG welder filthy, rusty, covered in overspray and with a worn-out liner through keeping it in a damp garage and letting the wire go rusty. Another very good mate left my sheet metal folder in a leaky shed, so the previously beautifully shiny, machined steel surfaces are now rusty and pitted. And one of the handles is AWOL so instead I now have to use a long bolt with the right-sized thread.
Neither one of them will be borrowing anything less robust than a wrecking bar off me now, and while I feel something of a tight b
d refusing to lend them my gear, I don't spend money on tools just for other people to trash them.itcaptainslow said:
OP, on a side note...what gauges do you have? I don't want to borrow them, but I wouldn't mind investing in a set of my own...
They are a set of Dunlop Optical. Very accurate, and have the advantage they can be calibrated at home by putting them together and adjusting to parallel. Bought off EBay a few years ago for £50 with a broken mirror!I have also modified them with a laser to do the rear track... that with my home made camber gauge made out of a digital level and some home made turn plates means I can now set up most suspension! It made a HUGE difference to my MX5... But my SLK was already spot on the manufacturers settings.
hidetheelephants said:
He either thinks you're a mug(you are being one) or he's so cackhanded that he shouldn't be allowed near tools without supervision; either way why are you continuing to lend him anything more complicated than a screwdriver?
...which you'd probably receive back with a chipped tip and the handle beaten half way down the shaft where it's been used as a chiselA bit like the pish taker relatives of mine who want to borrow a 7 seater. When I say no they speak to their parents/my aunt/uncle who speak to my mum and dad who give me ear ache. Despite me reminding them, I just know that when I get the car back it will be full of rubbish, dirty and empty of fuel.
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