That little elf under the workbench again

Been posted many times but this latest episode has me beat. Dropped a 6BA socket on the floor the other day, saw it flash (bright chrome finish) heard it ping against what sounded like my steel milling machine stand and then.......

Flashlight to hand, on my belly looking under machines, benches as well as all the most unlikely places, no - nothing. How does it happen? a 1/16 rivet or 8BA washer you can understand but a bright shiny 6BA socket!

Bill D.

Oh . I think we've all been there!

Being fairly hard and massive for its size, the socket probably bounced off the steel stand and landed some distance away form impact, and of course is just the right shape for the elf to roll it into some dark nook or cranny.

I find an extendable mechanics magnet quite useful, you can buy quite powerful ones for a fiver, stick it underneath and sweep it side to side as you pull it back, it usually pick it up if it's there.

Yes got one of those telescopic magnet things, will try it tomorrow. It will at least clean up a barrow load of swarf!!

Sadly though non of those long lost copper and brass bits.

Bill D.

This is an only tenuously related magnetic retrieval story.

A wireline logging school is a vocational training establishment where baby engineers practice making electrical measurements on baby oil wells. Inductive resistivity instruments, gamma ray density instruments, acoustic propagation velocity and many more such arcane logging tools are lowered on an armoured electrical cable into a practice well some hundreds of feet deep. One of the training mantras that gets repeated is "making mistakes in a controlled environment".

Evidence of just how many mistakes occur and rarely get reported is seen when an electromagnetic fishing/retrieval tool is lowered to the bottom of the well and turned on. C spanners, Allen screw wrenches, spiral pins, etc. are retrieved to surface in numbers to complete everyone's toolbox and even begin restocking the storeroom's shelves. Regrettably not all accidents involve ferromagnetic materials and so the training wells slowly become shallower over the years.

You think that is bad. I got out my tablets that i take each day. 6 in total. 4 are just things like vitamin D & statins. They are in my 7 day little box marked for each day. This has happened twice now. One little tablet decides to roll away off the work top. Never to be found again. Gone forever or until someone else moves into the house after my demise. Just to say oh what is this pill i found wedged under ????? .

Steve.

One little tablet decides to roll away off the work top.

If it is that bad, put them on a saucer or plate? Use a rough surface (tissue, tea cloth, towel - even a sheet of (unused) loo paper? Any precaution, after the first time, might have prevented the second? It’s all about learning....

Is your worktop that much off-level?🙂 A wedge or two under the worktop edge might make them roll the other way.🙂

Newtons laws don't work with dropped workshop items, only with apples

Replacing a ceiling mount bathroom extractor fan yesterday I kept dropping the screws and was incredibly smug because I'd remembered to put the bath plug in.

Sod's Law soon punished me. Took 20 minutes to find the torx bit needed to do the screws up, because it missed the bath. The Elf bounced it out the door, across a landing and down the stairs! Travelled about 7 metres...

And why is it so many DIY jobs require a special step-ladder and three hands?

Dave

Shining your inspection lamp along the floor, instead of down onto it makes a big difference.

Painting the floor the same colour as the metal objects that will be dropped on it isn't the best idea either.....

When I drove a mk 1 escort the lights switch (or it might have been the wipers) would have been easier to use if one was equipped with a third hand growing out of ones left knee!

Hi, I think some of these things have been drinking that liquid that apparently gives you wings, just the other day in my garage while reaching down to pick up a pencil that I dropped, I managed to brush off the top of a large heavy cabinet one of those magnetic screwdriver holders and a bit and it rolled between my arm and the cabinet, but before I could grab it with my other hand, it was gone. Looked around the immediate floor space and it was not be seen, I assumed it had rolled underneath the cabinet, so having rigged up the chain blocks to lift the cabinet and only to find it was still nowhere in sight, as it was late in the day, I decided to leave it till the morning to find it as there was part of a job in progress that I wanted to finish. Next day I had a wider search and moved a few other things that I thought it might be hiding behind, but then had to move a large wooden pigeon box type of rack which had a fair bit of junk in it and there it was hiding under that just out of sight of where I could see it, even by using a mirror, or get a magnet onto it. The strange thing is, for it to have gotten there it would have had to pass right in front of me where I was picking up the pencil in the first place.

Regards Nick.

Somewhere my gremlin has hidden away many of the contents of a plastic box containing the #61 to 80m drills that I dropped a LONG time ago.

Despite regular (at least twice a year ) "Mucking of Geordie's byre" they never come to light. 6 BA nuts and washers? Yes, but small drills NO

Proof of what my Physics master called Newton's Fourth Law- The eternal cussedness of things, sometimes attributed to Sod.

Howard

After more than 35 years of teaching and instructing -

Murphy's First law:

A piece of toast, when dropped, will always land butter side down. (aerodynamically correct!)

Murphy's Second law:

A piece of toast, when dropped, will always land butter side down unless you are trying to demonstrate the fact!

Now that is the proof of Newtons 4th Law

Howard

Recently was replacing the battery in my wife’s IPhone, an extremely taxing job as the screws were microscopic, anyway during the process I found that two screws had gone walkabout even though I lined the bench with tissue they were nowhere to be seen. These screws were Philips #000 size, and that is small, the only way I found them was to trawl the bench with a magnet, thankfully they were steel screws and not brass. A magnet or different sizes of magnets always useful in a workshop. Dave W

I have telescopic 'pick-up' magnets in both my shops for retrieving things that I can see but not reach (bending & kneeling is getting harder).

However, for small parts (that I can't immediately see) I now use a magnetic 'tool holder' that I purchased from Lidl some time ago. In fact I purchased three and only used two (one is mounted under a shelf & holds those little jam pots that come with cream teas - great for various small bits that can be seen at a glance).

The third stayed in it's plastic case awaiting use - until I dropped some 12BA steel nuts and realised that the 12"+ long magnet would make a good 'sweeper' - especially under benches and trolleys where escaping things might have rolled. It works very well and I just wipe the swarf & any bits collected down to one end and into a tray for closer inspection.

Regards,

IanT

... 'However, for small parts (that I can't immediately see) I now use a magnetic 'tool holder'

Same here; I have one of those magnetic trays that have two large ferrite magnets bonded to the underside, iirc I got it from a trader at one of those country house steam rallies a couple of years ago. I use it as IanT does, for any small disassembly screws that are too big for my stubby fingers to grip.

George.

I have two slightly different sized telescopic magnets. They live in a piece of 15mm and 22 mm copper pipe with a copper disc soldered onto the end, and faced to as thin as I dare (Initially TOO thin! )

Having picked up whatever ferrous object being sought plus a load of ferrous swarf, withdrawing the

Withdrawing the magnet from the tube causes the stuff in the end to fall off. To stop it following the magnet, there is an O ring round the tube, close to the bottom end.

It does not always defeat the workshop imp!

Howard

When I am (often) searching for dropped bits using a magnet I cover it with a small poly bag then when I either have the bit or give up on it withdrawing the magnet from the bag leaves it free of steel swarf ready for the next time.

+1 for shining a light along the floor rather than down on it for making errant bits show themselves.

Jim