After you hear this story you will think twice about neglecting your tools.

Today was like any other day for our bad mechanic. Ill call him Joe. Joe was a great mechanic although he was lazy and sloppy. He could fix your car quicker than any mechanic around, but you wouldn't get your car back clean. He was always a mess and his shop was a mess. Tools were thrown everywhere. The tools he would use on your car would be covered in grease and just dirty.

Joe figured he was a mechanic and mechanics get dirty. Why bother cleaning the tools when they are just going to get dirty again? Today was going to change his mind about that. Joe started off his day like all others, get to the shop, open up, and get to work. His first customer of the day came in for a simple oil change. He drove the car in the shop and raised it up on the lift. Now the car is 6 feet up in the air and Joe starts to look for the tools he needs. Since he doesn't keep track of things, this takes him about 30 minutes.

While walking back towards the car with the tools he needs, he stumbles over his air hose and smacks his head on the lifted car. Not to bad so he shrugs it off and gets to work. He notices the oil filter is in a strange spot and he need to take off the driver side tire. He grabs his air hose and connects it to his impact wrench. He hears air coming from the hose where he connected it but thinks nothing of it. He grabs a socket that will fit the lug nuts on the tire and puts it on the wrench. He doesn't care that it is NOT a socket made for impact wrenches. Instead of lowering the car, which would take a matter of seconds, he decides to take the tire off where it is.

He takes off one lug nut, no problem. He starts taking off the second one and hears what sounds like metal cracking but figures it is the tire or something and keeps going. He starts on the third and the socket shatters. Pieces everywhere but none hit him. Lucky guy. He grabs another socket this time the right kind. He finishes the third and starts the forth lug nut. He notices his impact wrench is not holding the socket on right but he only has one more so he continues.

Joe starts on the fifth lug nut then it happens......Joe gets sprayed in the face with water from his impact wrench, since he never drains the compressor tank or cleans his wrench. This causes him to drop his impact wrench. The wrench hits the floor and the already damaged air hose pops off with pounds of pressure and hits him in the groin. At the same time the loose socket is knocked off and rolls towards him. Joe stumbles around, still in pain from the air hose, and slips on the socket. As he falls he smacks the back of his head on the car and ends up on his back facing the undercarriage of the car. The impact of his head hitting the car causes the already loose wheel to come off. It bounces and hits the lift release causing the car to start falling down. Joe, still in pain finally opens his eyes just as the car is about a foot away from his face. Then BANG. The car stops just an inch from his face.

Joe slides out and sees the tire that had fallen off rolled under right next to where he was laying. That along with the other three tires still on the car save him. The customer had heard the noise and ran inside and asked Joe if he was OK. Joe simply replied "I need to get new tools". Don't be a Joe. :) Always take care of your tools. Clean, inspect, maintain and respect your tools.