Loaning Tools

[Dirtboy]

Since the subject of lending labor came up, I might as well toss this out there. Many years ago I had a truck with plow, and after doing my yard I would go over to my moms and do her yard. The woman that lived next door is a an older widow, with mostly no-show kids. Felt sorry for her when the snow started really building up in her yard one year, so the next time I was at moms I figured I would do her driveway. Long story short, forgot I had the hitch on the back, slid a bit in close quarters and dented her garage door. Showed it to her and pushed out the dent. She said don't worry about it, the door is old and one more dent wont matter. That spring one of the no show kids hands me an estimate for $500 to replace the door panel! Well, they got a new panel off me but I learned my lesson. The following winter I went over to moms to plow after a deep snowfall and plowed her yard. Than went in the house and got a hot cup of coffee, & went back outside and watched the no-shows shoveling after telling them I did not want them throwing the snow onto moms lawn. Now THATS Karma!

 

[camr]

Too many bad experiences in the past when tools got loaned to friends or neighbors. The last straw was whan I had to chase down a larger piece of shop equipment that had been on loan for several months. Because it was large, the borrower had been storing it out in the elements because "it was taking up too much space in my garage." Any request now is politely turned down. The only exceptions are my two sons. They are welcome to anything I own. Heck, it'll all belong to them eventually, anyways.

 

[farmer steve]

i guess i'm the oddball of the bunch on this thread. i lent my ms 290 to the guy that helps me saw and haul wood in the winter because his old pu lan just didn't cut it.we had drug a bunch of logs up behind his barn before spring thaw and his girlfriend told him to cut them up. he told me he has them cut up and split and to bring the dump trailer over and load it up. he is the only one i would loan my saw to.

 

[OnTheRoad]

I used to loan anything to my friends, including my time. I couldn't tell you how many hours I spent remodeling houses, building toys, and working on cars that weren't mine. In fact, I spent nearly every free minute for five years working on a buddy's race car. That hitch alone was probably a couple thousand hours. When I needed his help working on my house, he just couldn't find time to help me. Same story with 90% of the people I helped over the years.

The past several years I've declined to help unless it is a true emergency like when my buddy Josh needed money last fall. His wife was pregnant with their second child, he had just switched jobs and their only car was to be repossessed in a couple of days. They only had two payments left, and I couldn't see this young family without transportation so I loaned him $700 to pay it off. He said it would take a couple of months to get back on his feet and return my money.

You can probably finish the story for me, so I'll stop here.

 

[OnTheRoad]

Oh, and loan out a saw?

I'm not in that business, but Home Depot is!

 

[Brush Ape]

Dirtboy that's the way people roll today. You should see what all they will try to hook you into on a roof job or tree job if you reach out too far to do some one a favor. People today as opposed to people in say 1977 have fertilized and aerated my roots in cynicism. And I didn't need any help with it.

 

[wrx-snowdrift]

I'll lend out pretty much anything to someone I know with the exception of something with an engine (dirt bike, chainsaw, ice auger, vehicles) items like those I make sure they know what they are doing. It's nice to loan things when you get something in return. Sometimes favors are better than cash especially when you need help shingling, painting, landscaping, etc. I always try to put my name on my stuff too. It seems like I used to have issues with smaller items not being returned but if they have your name on them they seem to find their way back a lot better.

 

[svk]

The past several years I've declined to help unless it is a true emergency like when my buddy Josh needed money last fall. His wife was pregnant with their second child, he had just switched jobs and their only car was to be repossessed in a couple of days. They only had two payments left, and I couldn't see this young family without transportation so I loaned him $700 to pay it off. He said it would take a couple of months to get back on his feet and return my money.

You can probably finish the story for me, so I'll stop here.

Thats a pretty shady bank if they were going to repo a car with two payments left.

I'm guessing you didn't see the money again?

I lent money to a family member in need with no terms other than pay when you can. After about a year this person started avoiding us. Then about a year later a check showed up for the whole amount. I'll be darned.....

Sold a good bicycle and a older used car to the same friend, never saw a penny. Although this guy has given me sweat equity since and is there if i need him so I dont think he owes me anything.

 

[OnTheRoad]

Thats a pretty shady bank if they were going to repo a car with two payments left.

I'm guessing you didn't see the money again?

I lent money to a family member in need with no terms other than pay when you can. After about a year this person started avoiding us. Then about a year later a check showed up for the whole amount. I'll be darned.....

Sold a good bicycle and a older used car to the same friend, never saw a penny. Although this guy has given me sweat equity since and is there if i need him so I dont think he owes me anything.

It was probably a title loan; he said the car was paid off at one time. I should have told him at the time to consider it a baby shower gift for the two children.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

Been trusting and burnt enough times like the rest of you.

OnTheRoad got it right.
I'm not in the Lending Business. There are 'business' that are.
Kid bought a car from us years ago and wanted to make payments. I'm a carpenter, not a banker. He got the money from his grandma the next day.

Don't know if this story is true or not as I heard it third hand.
A friend makes his living, or used to, doing tree work. He came home from fishing, or something, and his wife had lent out one of his saws to one of his friends that had dropped by. He told her I earn a living with those tools, and that saw (he has many of course) puts food on this table, and... your not eating until it comes back! Cost him a friendship too. Never asked him about it, as I know him pretty well, and if it isn't hundred percent true it is close. I do know she doesn't lend out his stuff, and he doesn't lend out her stuff. It is the same here at home.

Generally speaking, if I can not afford it, I don't need it. If I still need it, I go rent it.
I rented a wood splitter the first four years we were married and buying washer/drier, repairing cars, a bed/furniture, wood stove, wood beater pickup/plow, and the like, and the tools I could afford.

One of the guys on here said a while back, "I ask if they can afford to replace it?" If the answer is yes than go buy it yourself. If the answer is no, then I don't lend it because I can't afford to replace it either.

 

[DIYDoug]

I loaned my Stihl 056 chainsaw to my dad and his friend to do some charity work at a church. I sounded reasonable. They put the wrong gas in it (un-mixed, according to the repair shop), and the piston seized. They paid to rebuild the engine. Another time I loaned the same saw to a guy at my church and a tree fell on it. They also gladly repaired it.
I'm seeing a pattern here. My church friends are very cooperative and take responsibility for things they damage. Now, if I can help them with prevention, they'll be in an even better position.


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[dwasifar]

Regarding labor moochers:

Maybe it will dent my reputation here to say so, but I work with computers for a living. I have a buddy who gets a lot of used PCs from his work, and I used to help him whip them into shape if I was over there, so he could pass them along to family and such. That was fine, and I liked doing it, so no issue there; this is just the introduction to what came next.

One day I went over there and he was working on the dirtiest machine I'd ever seen. The inside was literally inches deep with dust, dirt, and cat hair, held together in giant lumps by a thick goo of tobacco. I knew it couldn't be one of his used medical-imaging machines. "George, where did you get THIS?" "Ahhh, it belongs to my sister-in-law. She's a major mooch. My wife stuck me with trying to fix it for her." So, because I was there, I helped him out with it, and we did eventually get it going. The sister-in-law showed up near the end of the evening and watched us.

Fast-forward a couple of months. I stopped by his house unannounced for something and the sister-in-law was house-sitting. She started making awkward small talk, and I'm thinking, why does she want to chat? I've met her exactly once before; we're not chums or anything. So after about two minutes of that, the real goal came out: "Say, could you give me your phone number so I can call you for computer help if I have a problem?"

What nerve.

I politely declined, citing time constraints. I told her I don't even do that for family, because it cuts into my work schedule too much, and if I do it for one I wind up doing it for everybody. But really! George warned me she was a mooch, but that's gotta be world-class mooch right there.

 

[dwasifar]

Thats a pretty shady bank if they were going to repo a car with two payments left.

What banks aren't pretty shady these days?

Although actually I can kind of see the bank's POV on that. If they didn't follow through on repos for people with only two payments left, nobody would make those last two payments. Well, a lot of people wouldn't, anyway.

 

[svk]

What banks aren't pretty shady these days?

Although actually I can kind of see the bank's POV on that. If they didn't follow through on repos for people with only two payments left, nobody would make those last two payments. Well, a lot of people wouldn't, anyway.

You have a point but any decent bank will work with someone in a bind whether it is deferring payments, taking partial payments, etc.

 

[merc_man]

my neighbor wanted to borrow a saw si i got him one that didn't run and that was the last time he asked to borrow something. Sure was funny watching him lol.

 

[RiverLogger]

I like this thread. I have three friends that could borrow anything I own and they know it. Funny thing is, they are usually the ones that don't ask. I have loaned my boat, chainsaws and other "important" things to all three of them and never worried about them when they were gone.

My BIL is another story. He is a Firefighter/Paramedic. I wouldn't loan my pet rock to him. He is the biggest ******* airhead I think I've ever met. With that said if I ever needed medical attention he would be the guy I would want in the ambulance. He is a phenominal Paramedic.

 

[svk]

My BIL is another story. He is a Firefighter/Paramedic. I wouldn't loan my pet rock to him. He is the biggest ******* airhead I think I've ever met. With that said if I ever needed medical attention he would be the guy I would want in the ambulance. He is a phenominal Paramedic.

Great post. I know a few people like this. When they are in their element, they are dead on. Otherwise they belong in the National Lampoons movies. Not sure how the switch flips from one personality to another.

 

[7sleeper]

My family can have anything from me and if the chainsaw comes back from my dad with clear evidence that he was cutting roots in the ground that's ok with me. I prefer to do the work but if damage is done it's ok with me.

7

 

[BillNole]

My family can have anything from me and if the chainsaw comes back from my dad with clear evidence that he was cutting roots in the ground that's ok with me. I prefer to do the work but if damage is done it's ok with me.

7

I agree to an extent. For me, there are rules, friend rules, family rules and then Mom/Dad rules. Of course, my Mom and Dad are long passed, but when they were still here, they could do no wrong by me and they never did. I had complete and utter trust in them. The rest of the family still has to provide a little proof in terms of history to earn trust with tools. Some have it completely and some not so much. Friends are similar, but require a little more scrutiny.

I'm generally pretty free with my tools and believe that karma has a way of sorting things out. I have one neighbor that borrows stuff on a regular basis and I'm fine with it. He borrows from me about 5 to 1 compared to what I borrow from him, but it's not about score. It's about trust and doing the right thing when something happens.

Things are just things and can be replaced as needed. Good and true friends are harder to come by and to replace, however...

 

[Zeus103363]

Got my butt in a tight spot with my dad years ago loaning out his new saw. A tree fell on my cousins house in a big storm. My mom knew my dad had just bought a brand new stihl 026. He saved for several years to buy that thing too. He was at work, but I was told by my mom to loan it to her sisters son (my cousin). They cut that big oak off there house. They didn't even burn wood, or know anyone that did (except the owner of the borrowed saw they had). They "gave" it to someone who had a deer camp. After hearing all that flak from my dad i was driving by and could see the saw sitting under the carport. I stopped by and grabbed it. I felt awful. My dad's new toy...all the paint was gone off that stihl bar. Looked like it had been through a war. To this day, he never has let me forget either. My mom wouldn't let him say anything to my cousin though. I took the saw to the shop. I sent a copy of the bill to my cousins. didn't see any money for the repairs though. Worst part, there insurance payed my cousin big bucks to cut that off his own house. He could have bought his own saw. The nerve of some people...just walk all over you and smile doing it!