Bianchigirll 

I was fooling around with my "Cherry Tomato" SBX framed Bianchi and I dropped a part of the Bell handle bar bottle cage mount. I'd swear I heard it jingle across the floor but didn't see where it as my attentions was focused elsewhere. So after looking around for it, moving some stuff, getting a flashlight and moving the stuff again I gave up. It wasn't too important I figured I'd eventually find it.

So when I went to move the bike back viola! there is was just hangin out

SurferRosa

Half hours on earth
What are they worth?
I don't know.


Dropping, searching and cursing
Happens to me all the time.

conspiratemus1

Best thing I did when fixing up my work bench to make it, well, work better was to install a kick plate to close off the space between the bottom shelf and the floor. Now things don't bounce/roll under the bench and get lost in the dark cobwebs and sow-bug carcasses against the wall. I save the 20 minutes it took to cut and fit it every time I set foot down there.

Few weeks ago I brought some tools and fasteners to my son's house to do some work on his bike. They have a deck that sits on the grass made up of boards separated by gaps of 8 mm or so (at grade, not up on posts.) Well, you know what happened despite my best efforts to hang onto things extra carefully. Fortunately every time I dropped an Allen key it fell across a gap and not through one.

One of those little magnets on a telescoping rod that looks like an old-fashioned car-radio aerial is really handy.

bikemig 

I sometimes think the most important thing I learned working in a bike shop was to watch where stuff went when I dropped it. It's amazing how much time and frustration that can save you, .

Bianchigirll 

That kick plate is an excellent idea. The magnet is nice if your looking for something steel.

Sophylong

All too familiar for me too. I swear I'd put down a tool and it would just disappear somehow. Minutes later it shows up EXACTLY where I thought I originally put it. Must be elves in my workshop.

Whit51 

I have one of those magnets on a telescoping rod. Very handy! Then I lost it. Finally found it today when I finally cleaned up the basement.

jdawginsc 

Did you use a telescoping magnet rod to find the telescoping magnet rod...?

Whit51 

Jdawg, no, but that’s a great idea, I’ll pick up an emergency spare.

ryansu

my non-telescoping magnet is and old bike computer wheel magnet which is awesome for removing hub bearings

Bianchigirll 

OH also at one point I reached into the 3mm allen wrench slot, with 4 or 5 wrenches in it, and what do I pull out? Yes the only 3.5mm I own

3speedslow

Same problem BG! I only hear out of my left ear so with my bad eyesight, everything sounds like it took off to my left! 50-50 chance there of success...

Glad you found the piece.

thumpism 

I used to work in a shop with a terrazzo floor. You learned after the first drop not to take your eyes off the errant piece if you ever wanted to find it.

kalker

20 minutes doesn't sound that bad .... Magnets save me so much time in the shop and I always sweep the floor before starting a new project , But still no solution for tools I have used and put down or in my pocket.

randyjawa 

Wait until you are my age. I can be holding something in my hand and still wonder where the heck it is. And, I something does drop, I can't see where it went unless I had time to switch from close up to normal glasses. And, if I did see where it went, when I start looking, I will not remember what I am looking for.

As for the telescoping magnet. I cannot find mine and it was/is a beauty...

Hudson308 

With floors that act as excellent camouflage, I sometimes have better luck finding small parts by putting my face right down next to the floor and looking sideways.
Invariably this is when my wife walks in behind me and remarks "that's not a good look for you."

J.Higgins 

Exactly! I was a USAF aircraft mech for most of the 70's and 80's. One dropped fastener could ground that plane until it was found. You DID NOT EVER fail to recover that fastener. The powers that be in the squadron would tan your hide if that aircraft missed a sortie because you carelessly lost something inside it. So you develop a habit of watching it fall, and where it rolled off to - or under - whatever. You even get better at listening to HOW it fell, and what it landed upon, or what it struck on the way down.

Now, as I grow older, my fingers get clumsier and less-able to hold onto things. I drop a lot of stuff, but I use my old techniques to find it.

stardognine

I keep one on my Craftsman 4-in-1 screwdriver. 👍

dddd

I've temporarily lost parts to the spokes and even to the front derailer. Wasted at least ten minutes each time.

One thing that is my go-to for such searches is a good, bright bike headlight.

And I've learned to record in my head the exact sequence of sounds that goes with any parts-drop!

I once was working on a friend's 1980 PX10 and had the brown plastic adjuster knob on the brake lever launch as I pulled the cable out of the ferrule socket.
In sequence, it hit the ceiling of my apartment's outdoor upper level, then down to the cement second-floor surface, then up and over the wall, down onto a lower-level sidewalk, and bounced into "one of" the planters. I heard it all.
I searched for almost two hours for that rare part, but my friend later found it in just two minutes after I fully described what had happened, his eyes being about 25 years younger than mine.
What a memorable relief!

nomadmax 

That right there ^^^^^

Barring that, walk around the floor in the dark barefoot usually works too It wouldn't have in this case though.

jetboy 

get some mechanics mats: then the parts get caught in the small holes when they fall.

gearbasher

Time to confess!!

How many people dropped a bearing and after a 20 minute search, purposely dropped another one just to see where it goes? Of course, that was done hoping it would end up near the first one.

Reynolds 

I can relate!

79pmooney

Really good flashlights are a real plus. I now have one of those smallish super bright LED ones.

Hudson308 

uh..... yep.