/tg/Station 13

Mark your tools and guard them with your life, even if you aren't working with or around toolthieving assholes, it's way easy for people to borrow something and forget it, or pick it up thinking it's theirs. Paint markers are a good option, nail polish is another, just slap your initials on there, or if you're feeling crafty get a pack of those stickers that are letters, apply to tool, then paint, then remove the stickers.

Put your allen wrench set on a padlock and initial that because you can't initial each one realisticly and expect it to last, then people (AND YOU) can't separate them, someday leaving you fucked on a project missing the one size you need, an incomplete allen wrench set is a liability, and annoyance.

Keep all your welding tips stick or brazing rods in one central location preferably with a lock.
You don't have to be a greedy asshole who won't share, but YOU need to control who gets your shit, People will be learning around you, and that leads to a lot of false starts breaking sticks and fucking up, you don't need to bankroll this.

Don't neglect marking your clamps either, C-clamps, gators, all of em, they wind up getting passed around like the village whore, and by the time you get em back, people have been fucking them up, and they won't spin free anymore because of grit grease and weld splatter are all over them.

Extension cords too, it's a tool.


Drillbits are harder to pin down and mark, but mark the set as best you can at the bottom, and mark the box the set came in, best you can do.
While we're at it don't buy an automatic drillbit sharpener, They honestly don't work, the machinist handbook (PDFs everywhere, but a good physical copy is a little pricy but worth it) has a whole chapter on how to fix em up good, and you can even use an angle-grinder rather than a belt sander once you understand the geometry you are looking for.

And even moreso on drillbits, even if you got a fifty dollar tungsten carbide bit, don't drill tempered steel unless you absolutely must, oxyacet torch it instead, easier, save money in broke bits. and if you do drill, cutting oil isn't optional

once you've marked the tools THEN MARK THE WORKBAG WITH THE SAME STYLE AS YOUR TOOLS! all one color and theme, consistent, then your tools match your bag, and you can go to your manager if there is an actual dispute over ownership of the tool (Most likely not, if the tool is marked the otherguy will surrender the item)

It sounds like I'm telling you to be harsh and stingy, but you want a slight reputation for being completely anal about your tools so people will treat them with respect when they borrow them anyways (It happens no matter what)