Lost screws, where do they go ?

[Davey-T]

Just sorting out some bits and pieces ready for SGLX1 and dropped the screw out of a 1.25 extension, it only dropped a few inches onto the table and disappeared completely, spent ages looking for it.

Is there a parallel  universe where screws keep falling from the sky and people wondering where they come from

Dave

[laudropb]

They go to the same place that single socks disappear to.

[mikeDnight]

Jump around bare foot for a while. You'll soon find them! 

Mike

[ngwillym]

and all the missing biros

[wuthton]

54 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Just sorting out some bits and pieces ready for SGLX1 and dropped the screw out of a 1.25 extension, it only dropped a few inches onto the table and disappeared completely, spent ages looking for it.

Is there a parallel  universe where screws keep falling from the sky and people wondering where they come from

Dave

Yep, you only ever hear them bounce, never to be seen again. 

[Tinker1947]

Get a magnet, the dish with a round magnet base are good for lost screws ect, some thing like this.....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hilka-11901006-Diameter-Stainless-Magnetic/dp/B008IFLFIU

[sloz1664]

3 minutes ago, Tinker1947 said:

Get a magnet, the dish with a round magnet base are good for lost screws ect, some thing like this.....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hilka-11901006-Diameter-Stainless-Magnetic/dp/B008IFLFIU

Unfortunately Astro screws tend to be stainless steel or aluminum. Both are not magnetic

 

Steve

[DaveS]

I've long suspected that there's a crack in the universe that all dropped objects fall through.

[Gina]

I blame the Gremlins

[Peter Drew]

There used to be a joke involving "Raining Datsun cogs".   

[astronymonkey]

I remember a friend dropping an air filter fitting bolt down the hole where he had just removed a spark plug. Luckily he saw it fall in before he put the new plug in, but it took a day before be could fish it out as he didnt have a telescopic magnet ... he took a lot of stick for that !

[Stub Mandrel]

It's the lttle men who live under your bench...

i worked out a great way of finding small items in the carpet when I was a teenager making airfix kits, just gently drag an angled rule across the carpet and any small plastic or metal objects will jump up with a small click as the trailing edge of the rule passes over them.

[brantuk]

Here's what you need for picking up bits and bobs:

[barkis]

This only too familiar to me. Especially in my little workshop I have tacked on  the end of my Garage.
I do loads of  Auto Unit repairs in there, and frequently lose a snap ring or the like, usually when trying to locate in its groove on a shaft,
then Ping, away it goes into a Black hole, because no matter how hard, or how long I look for stuff that doesn't wish to play ball,
they are gone for good. Very frustrating at times.

 

[barkis]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

It's the lttle men who live under your bench...

i worked out a great way of finding small items in the carpet when I was a teenager making airfix kits, just gently drag an angled rule across the carpet and any small plastic or metal objects will jump up with a small click as the trailing edge of the rule passes over them.

Or they jump to another bit of the carpet, and disappear again .

 

1 hour ago, brantuk said:

Here's what you need for picking up bits and bobs:

Didn't  you once have a car Kim, and now you don't?  .

[Dave In Vermont]

I have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/OEMTools-25016-Telescoping-Magnetic-Pick-Up/dp/B000CMHK9U

It's truly a 'must-have' item when you work on anything with screws, bolts, etc.

Dave

[AWR]

It's quite simple.  The screws are quantum:  They're everywhere until you manage to locate them.

Also - given that you heard it drop, you should be able to work out it's momentum from the sound - oh yeah - never mind!

[Paul M]

I used to have and probably still do somewhere, a big old tin full of odd nuts, bolts and washers etc. I'd strip them off old gear before throwing it. So whenever I failed to find that lost screw I usually found one in the tin that would at least save the day if not be a perfect match.

I used to put carpet on my work bench if I was doing delicate operations just to catch wayward components. It takes out some of the bounce and prevents roll. 

As for the screws that do get lost, well, they never show up do they? 

The little people take them, I'm sure...

[symesie04]

It is probably in the middle of that spaghetti of wire you left nicely rolled up the other day.

[Stub Mandrel]

Don't ever drop a second screw in the hope it will lead you to the first ...that way madness lies!

[bejay1957]

Recall many years back a mishap when changing the battery on a watch, the small metal battery clip flicked off - and with perfect aim went into one of the ventilation gaps on the TV...

[Stub Mandrel]

I had a tab snap off a pipe clip and fall down the newly replaced turbo boost pipe on my Mondeo. Of course it carried on into a metal joining pipe taht wloudl ahve meant maajor effort to remove it. Luckily I was able to get two flexible pipes off and poke it out.

Wouldn't like to think what a 1/4" bit of springy metal wopudl have done if sucked into the vale/cylinder =:+0

[Davey-T]

1 hour ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Don't ever drop a second screw in the hope it will lead you to the first ...that way madness lies!

Tried that several times and it didn't disappear

Dave

[barkis]

15 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

I have one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/OEMTools-25016-Telescoping-Magnetic-Pick-Up/dp/B000CMHK9U

It's truly a 'must-have' item when you work on anything with screws, bolts, etc.

Dave

No good at all if they are non ferrous screws .

[Davey-T]

Reminds me, when taking the filter retaining screws and washers out of my QSI filter wheel and could have swore I dropped a washer inside it but again it disappeared and was nowhere to be seen, still hoping it's not stuck inside it somewhere

Dave