All of you sheddies will relate to this

[bigfriendlyvegan]

[Mulger bill]

Been there, done that many times, did this...

[trailgumby]

I learned a long time ago working with R/C cars that ice cream containers have a second life after the contents have added to your waistline.

They are very hard for small screws to escape from. For some reason their little legs don't seem to be able to grip the walls of the container, so they can't get away.

My tools, on the other hand... the vernier calliper is a regular escape artist. I think it has an arrangement going with the torque wrench and the adjustable spanner, that when one diverts my attention one of the others makes a run for it. They almost got away with it a couple of times too. Shifty buggers.

[Chaderotti]

I noticed the problem only really occurs when seated.
When the bike is up on the repair stand on tiles, any small bits falls and bounces away for the next 10 minutes giving me plenty of time to go and chase after.

[rkelsen]

Yes.

One time I lost a torch.

A few months later, I found it again. Exactly where I had left it. On the l/h chassis rail of my car.

When I was about 14 or so, I remember an uncle of Dad's showing us this thing he'd bought. Essentially it was a long, thin, flexible spring which had a little claw on the end, operated by a push button at the other end. It was designed for picking screws/nuts/bolts/washers out of tight and hard to reach places. At the time, I remember thinking to myself, "What kind of a numpty would need such a thing?" I've since lost count of the number of times I wished I'd had one...

[gclark8]

My tools, on the other hand... the vernier caliper is a regular escape artist.

yes, this week, again... it hid in the bottom of a shopping trolley for 2 days!

[uncle arthur]

Don't ever work on rebuilding bikes outside.

Ball bearings vanish even better than screws.

[rkelsen]

Ball bearings vanish even better than screws.

There is a device which you can use to find them. The lawn mower...

[grantw]

I've since lost count of the number of times I wished I'd had one...

I've lost count of the number of ones I've lost

[greyhoundtom]

For me it seems to work the other way round......I generally seem to have one or two little screws and washers left over after I have reassembled the whole thing.

But my hammer.............that’s an other story.

[il padrone]

My tools, on the other hand... the vernier caliper is a regular escape artist.

yes, this week, again... it hid in the bottom of a shopping trolley for 2 days!

You're not wrong there. Mine had been absent for a couple of months..... long enough for me to buy a new digital one. The very day it arrived the old one showed up on the bench. Grrrr....

[igstar]

Now where did I leave those nails...



One thing I do when I can't find a screw I droped, I take another one and drop it hoping it will bounce in the similar direction - of course, rarely happens...

[jet-ski]

hahah this is why I stopped working outside in my car port - lost too many bearings.... now I work inside in a tiled area and so it is fairly easy to find things....

[fatherofmany]

One thing I do when I can't find a screw I dropped, I take another one and drop it hoping it will bounce in the similar direction - of course, rarely happens...

I heard that theory a while ago and have since applied it. Unfortunately the result was 2 lost screws

[Eugene]

Hi All

I work with tools and escaping parts for a living, I learned long ago about the ability of small parts to bounce distances so great, a post code change is likely when going to get them, I now have several of these http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp ... ir=catalog in different sizes, nothing escapes from them, you can even hang them upside down under a car etc and stick tools and parts into them, great for assembling small things over.

[mark field]

the smaller and more important the part, the further the distance and the greater the camouflage properties. you can drop a white screw onto a black surface and some how it magically vanishes. until you walk in bare feet 2 weeks later and find it buried in the sole of your foot as your putting on your sock, or sitting on the end of your spoon while your about to eat your cornflakes, or stuck to your shirt with gravity defying ability. when i was a teenager i used to build 1/35 scale military models and whenever i had to break out the tweezers i would start to sweat. ping..... of goes the little handle from the tank door. ping..... there goes the little lens from the spitfire gunsight. ping..... oh and there goes my sanity later on when i progressed to big boys toys....ping... there goes the fragile spring from the carter carburetter, ping..... there goes the tiny 1 millimeter part that lets me start my car. i learnt a trick from my mums partner who was a bush mechanic from way back, he used to have white bath towels streched out on his work bench,pinned with thumb tacks on each corner and because they are slightly fluffy, bearings and springs, screws, tiny nuts ect wouldnt bounce off and vanish but would get caught in the towel. i started practicing this when i was restoring my old 1960's and 70's skateboards ( of which i have aprox 50 or so) the loose bearing balls would never roll or bounce away. Now ive got towels sitting on everything.

[mark field]

Yes.

One time I lost a torch.

A few months later, I found it again. Exactly where I had left it. On the l/h chassis rail of my car.

When I was about 14 or so, I remember an uncle of Dad's showing us this thing he'd bought. Essentially it was a long, thin, flexible spring which had a little claw on the end, operated by a push button at the other end. It was designed for picking screws/nuts/bolts/washers out of tight and hard to reach places. At the time, I remember thinking to myself, "What kind of a numpty would need such a thing?" I've since lost count of the number of times I wished I'd had one...

i bought one of those a while back, quite usefull when sockets come off the rachet and drop down into the abyss that is called "the engine bay". you might need it once in 2 years but it will more than pay for itself when do use it.

[wqlava1]

For me it seems to work the other way round......I generally seem to have one or two little screws and washers left over after I have reassembled the whole thing.

Attempting to fix a 2nd gear problem on my Austin A30 when a poor student, I pulled the engine and gearbox out each evening for 5 days straight and replaced them back in the car to drive to uni the next day. There were at least 2 or 3 different extra bolts left over at the end of each time i put it back together, working, and I never found places for them the following nights! I was pretty quick though - each cycle was down to under 4 hours.

[Nobody]

For me it seems to work the other way round......I generally seem to have one or two little screws and washers left over after I have reassembled the whole thing.

That takes me back. Used to do that often when I was young. But the cars still worked surprisingly. I used to joke how I re-engineered the car with less parts...

These days I'm generally too thorough to have the problem. I even screw the bolts back into their holes often so I won't lose them or their relative positions.

[Nobody]

My tools, on the other hand... the vernier caliper is a regular escape artist.

yes, this week, again... it hid in the bottom of a shopping trolley for 2 days!

You're not wrong there. Mine had been absent for a couple of months..... long enough for me to buy a new digital one. The very day it arrived the old one showed up on the bench. Grrrr....

That's standard practice. If you really want to find the old one after a while, you need to buy a new one. Better having two than none. The only other way to find these things is to move house...

[Nobody]

One thing I do when I can't find a screw I dropped, I take another one and drop it hoping it will bounce in the similar direction - of course, rarely happens...

I heard that theory a while ago and have since applied it. Unfortunately the result was 2 lost screws

That thought came to mind as I was reading igstar's post.

[Nobody]

Hi All

I work with tools and escaping parts for a living, I learned long ago about the ability of small parts to bounce distances so great, a post code change is likely when going to get them, I now have several of these http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp ... ir=catalog in different sizes, nothing escapes from them, you can even hang them upside down under a car etc and stick tools and parts into them, great for assembling small things over.

Good idea, but can I assume it doesn't work as well for non-ferrous stainless and Ti hardware?

[David_G]

Yes.

One time I lost a torch.

A few months later, I found it again. Exactly where I had left it. On the l/h chassis rail of my car.

When I was about 14 or so, I remember an uncle of Dad's showing us this thing he'd bought. Essentially it was a long, thin, flexible spring which had a little claw on the end, operated by a push button at the other end. It was designed for picking screws/nuts/bolts/washers out of tight and hard to reach places. At the time, I remember thinking to myself, "What kind of a numpty would need such a thing?" I've since lost count of the number of times I wished I'd had one...

They sell them at SuperCheap Auto, plus another type with a magnet on the end..Priceless!

[celeste boy]

Did a trip from Sydney to Melbourne, then across to Tassie and around Tassie. On the way back the guy checking the car for hidden LPG containers had a worried look on his face, waved me on and then said,
' Wait a minute, is there a reason you have a set of spanners under the hood?

Yes i'd left them there before leaving Sydney. Lost one spanner but it turned up a year later just under the front bumper. Needless to say SWMBO was not impressed in tassie but luckily has forgotten the incident.

c b

[mark field]

Did a trip from Sydney to Melbourne, then across to Tassie and around Tassie. On the way back the guy checking the car for hidden LPG containers had a worried look on his face, waved me on and then said,
' Wait a minute, is there a reason you have a set of spanners under the hood?

Yes i'd left them there before leaving Sydney. Lost one spanner but it turned up a year later just under the front bumper. Needless to say SWMBO was not impressed in tassie but luckily has forgotten the incident.

c b

why was he checking for hidden lpg containers, and who was he i dont get it ? and im from Tassie.