Today it was the trigger pivot pin from a 1022 trigger assembly, last week it was a detent pin from an AR lower build. I could not find either one until after I had spent extra time locating a spare. Neither one was where i heard them fall.

Amen! Still can't find the mag follower clip from 15 yrs ago. Now have a few of those collapsible magnet stick so I can sweep the dark floor of my bssement if it occurs again.

There is some random junk on my work bench I should have put away months ago.

I usually have a 50/50 chance of the junk helping to catch what I dropped or its a black hole and makes it impossible to find.

Get a cat. Mine tracks any fallen small part with laser like focus.

Get a 2 1/2 gallon baggie and put the work inside of it.

quote:

Originally posted by sunburn:
Get a 2 1/2 gallon baggie and put the work inside of it.

This is the only way to go. It significantly reduced the time converting my Beretta 92 FS to a 92 G by eliminating searches.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Get a cat. Mine tracks any fallen small part with laser like focus.

Mine does too, but then the bastard points me in the wrong direction.

 
I have been totally amazed at how far those little things can travel after being dropped. I usually start my search nearby, then expand outwards in ever widening circles. Some have been clear across 2 car bays in the garage. Some I never find, at least until after I've bought the replacement.

I wish I had a dollar for every small spring I've lost. I think they end up in the same place that socks end up from the dryer.

Jim

Walk around the area in bare feet. If it is a sharp part you will find it.

I only drop parts that contain Shit or Fuck in their names.....

an elderly lady that does very small craft work
had a large tray made,
she does all her work over that tray ,
stuff does not bounce out of it and she can hear where it lands .

I guess if you stuff is flying out in all directions, that may not help much

I bought one of those magnetic bowls from Harbor Freight for about 75 cents. It does a great job of keeping those things from getting dropped and lost. It works great when you have to change bits or tiny sockets and you can keep them in there when you're working on something.

I get a blank magnetic car door sign and place on bench. combined with an oven tray with a lip around it lost parts are almost not occurring any more.

I laugh when 6 mos. or a year after I have some tiny spring or part go flying off into the Twilight Zone I find it in some obscure place. Especially after I spent hours on my hands and knees moving furniture, vaccuming the floor and emptying the vaccum bag etc. etc. Not to mention ordering the part and spending $$$ on something I would not have needed.

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
Get a cat. Mine tracks any fallen small part with laser like focus.

We used to have a free roaming cockatiel, and she would find every bead, jewelry, trinket that got lost in the carpet. The downside was if you didn't catch it in time, she would play with it and mangle it up.

After multiple episodes of losing small parts on my workbench--I bought a clear plastic bin 14' x 21' x 10" deep. I place it side down on my bench--giving me 14'x 21" of contained space. You only have to lose a dozen parts before you realize you need a containment area.
After reading this thread--I'm going to place magnetic strips on the outside...

I regularly have things fly in my living room and dining room as I am working on stuff. And somehow I always find the errant part. Sometimes they go strange places that are quite surprising considering where they started and what noises I think I heard as they landed. The only one I couldn't find was the 4-40 set screw I was trying to install in the back of an Aero Precision lower to hold in the rear takedown pin detent spring.

My method usually involves 500-1000 lumens of Surefire light and looking for the glare. The setscrew was black oxide which is probably why I couldn't find it. But the local hardware store had the same setscrews in stainless which is much easier to find. Otherwise I'd have a bag of 100 from McMaster-Carr.

Word of advice, Radian makes AR takedown pins that come with springs that have captured detents - like how the detents fit the spring in a 1911 pluger tube. The easiest install/removal I have found. I use them exclusively now. I also use the extended forked buffer tubes that capture the buffer detent so it doesn't fly out after you loosen the castle nut and tube gets inadvertently rotated.

I will say that Sig is pretty cool about giving you extra parts to replace the airborne ones in their parts kits.

And when you convert a Beretta 92 from FS to G, just put the dame thing in a plastic bag and work on it like a virus researcher. No matter what I do something always ends up flying.

Edited to add:

Sigfourme - do you mean it's on its side with the open top facing you?

I just replaced a cell on my kinetic watch a few weeks ago.
I laid 36" painters paper over my dinner table to do it.
Those were the smallest screws I have ever had to work with.
Easily found on that paper when they popped out of my tweezers....

Lefty
Yes==plastic bin on its side. Top of bin facing me.
Large , contained work space.