Can you empathize? (finding small things)

Dan S · Dec 1, 2020

Mad Dog
I can empathize (again)...but this one doesn’t have a happy ending. Last summer, I decided that I wanted to disassemble the Omega clasp (for the leather band) that came with my modern Speedy Gonzales Moonwatch. I wanted to disassemble it “to see what it looked like inside”...there was nothing wrong with it. I decided to do it outside in our driveway with a small table since the weather was so nice. Disassembly was easy...activate the release and slide the door off. Wow! Look at those two ridiculously tiny springs in the troughs! That’s cool! Yeah...it’s all cool until you attempt to compress the springs in the troughs and then reassemble...both springs launched into orbit never to be seen or heard of again...I didn’t even get a visual of the launches or audio of the landings. I looked for days and days utilizing magnets...no joy. I ordered an entire new replacement clasp from Omega.

LATE ENTRY: The wife unit (MacGyverette) was involved with the SAR effort...for which I’m grateful. But she kept saying repeatedly, “So you took it apart just to see what it looked like inside!”

But I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. 😉

Archer · Dec 1, 2020

Dan S
I just spent the better part of an hour crawling around on the floor with a UV lamp looking for a vintage tritium pearl that I accidentally dropped. I am now intimately familiar with every piece of dust, lint, and other debris within a 5 foot radius.

Well, if you have ever worked on watches, as an amateur or professional, you can relate. It's part of the profession, and it happens to the best. I've certainly spent my share of time crawling on the floor looking for parts, and many much smaller than the lume pip, as that is actually pretty big.

I also have a container of "found" parts that I gave up on at the time they were lost, but found at some later date. These can come in handy at times!

I've posted this before, but it's a photo in a book I have that features Philippe Dufour, showing him crawling on the floor looking for a part:

So you are all in good company!

Cheers, Al

PS - yes my wife will occasionally come in and help me, but being the stubborn person I am, it is usually very late in the search.

High Hope · Dec 1, 2020

I was taking the leather strap off of my IWC and had a new strap in hand. Being a novice, I was quite shaky as I hunted around the lugs with the spring bar tool. Low and behold, they both came out and I was in business. I threaded one spring bar through the strap and BOIIIINNNGGG! it sprung apart. I found the spring but searched forever for the internal pin missile. Perseverance paid off and my wife (bless her sweet heart) eventually found it, and I was then able to put them together and get it into the holes.
😉

Walrus · Dec 1, 2020

Archer
Well, if you have ever worked on watches, as an amateur or professional, you can relate. It's part of the profession, and it happens to the best. I've certainly spent my share of time crawling on the floor looking for parts, and many much smaller than the lume pip, as that is actually pretty big.

I also have a container of "found" parts that I gave up on at the time they were lost, but found at some later date. These can come in handy at times!

I've posted this before, but it's a photo in a book I have that features Philippe Dufour, showing him crawling on the floor looking for a part:

So you are all in good company!

Cheers, Al

PS - yes my wife will occasionally come in and help me, but being the stubborn person I am, it is usually very late in the search.

So it appears watch makers don’t have the issues plumbers have.

Mossback · Dec 1, 2020

Spring bar? I think I may have launched one into low orbit.

jmnav · Dec 1, 2020

JwRosenthal
My lady understands, we spent 2 hours on hands and knees looking for a diamond stud to no avail. Three weeks later I found it while cleaning the guest room- heard “tink” while vacuuming. I now take a magnet to the vacuum tank after I clean- shocking what I find in there.

I hope not "diamonds" that get attracted to magnets 😉

PS: this is my first post on this forum, so hello to everyone!

MRC · Dec 1, 2020

Iceter
When I’m working under the hood of a car and drop a small part, there is no sweeter sound than that of the part hitting the floor. If that automotive pachinko game stops before the part falls out, I know I’m in for a long, difficult search.

How about something you can see but cannot get at?

The first engine I ever stripped & rebuilt at age 18 was a BMC A-series in my Mini. After the fitting of a reconditioned gearbox, a regrind, new pistons, etc it would not start. Rather than apply percussive maintenance I locked the garage doors and thought about it for a day. Ah-ha, I could have timed the distributor 180 degrees out. So off comes the dizzy, then the shaft from the camshaft on the other side of the block is removed, turned though 180 deg, and re-inserted.

Re-inserted straight into the bottom of the gearbox that is. Through the dizzy-drive hole in the block with a 12V bulb on wires and a small mirror I could see it lying under the gears. Ahh yes, the manual did say to put a bolt into that threaded hole at the dizzy end to support it. As an engineering student at the time I should have appreciated that threaded holes are expensive and only there for a damn good reason. ::facepalm1::

So the engine has to come out again to be split off the gearbox. Easy if you have a hoist but I didn't. Engine removal in my dad's garage was to unbolt the front sub-frame from the body, lift off the body and wheel it away leaving subframe, engine, gearbox, suspension, wheels on the floor and remove exterior parts from the engine until it was light enough to lift out on my own. After that it takes less than a hour to get the engine/clutch/gearbox combo apart, retrieve the shaft and fit it properly this time. Then there's another day or so to get the holes in the body re-aligned with their matches in the subframe because everything springs out of position when released after years of strain.

A mere handful of years later I was mechanic-ing on the UK's International Rallies. Our driver, Phil Derbyshire, had a good outfit preparing his cars (Aldon) and he didn't break them or crash, so most of what I had to do was drive to the next service point and brew tea.

Just as well really, I knew nothing about the Triumph Dolly Sprint he was driving 😲

nkhandekar · Dec 1, 2020

Anyone who made plastic model kits as a kid has gone through the same floor scouring search for a part that went ballistic. Raking light is always a good start, cuffs of your trousers next. For that part, I would have broken out the UV lamp. Glad you found it.

JwRosenthal · Dec 1, 2020

J jmnav
I hope not "diamonds" that get attracted to magnets 😉

PS: this is my first post on this forum, so hello to everyone!

Welcome! No, the diamond earring was on a white gold backing so a magnet wouldn’t have helped in that case- the sound tipped me off as I heard it crunch around inside the brushes for a second 😲 . The magnet finds my missing spring bars, earring backings, screws for things I didn’t know had lost screws- sometimes metal shavings (??? I am not grinding metal in my house), ball bearings...I get into lots of things apparently.

JwRosenthal · Dec 1, 2020

Walrus
So it appears watch makers don’t have the issues plumbers have.

I think this wins the post of the week.

MtV · Dec 1, 2020

redpcar
My wife has helped me many times. Usually a spring or a gear that "doink-d"

I can completely relate (or emphathize) - had a gold spring bar „doink“ out of sight once. My SO was sitting next to me at the desk and got involved in the search. We easily spent an hour searching and found nothing. I was getting frustrated, called off the search for the night and decided I’d resume in the morning. 5 minutes later, we’re in the bathroom getting ready for bed, she’s opening her hair...
*cling* made the spring bar when it fell on the ground.

Glad you found it @Dan S

Walrus · Dec 1, 2020

JwRosenthal
I think this wins the post of the week.

Do I win an invicta. I want the large yellow case with it please. Those cases are easy to find if you drop them.

JwRosenthal · Dec 1, 2020

Walrus
Do I win an invicta. I want the large yellow case with it please. Those cases are easy to find if you drop them.

Use it as a floatation device...after your friends throw you in the drink for wearing an Invicta.

STANDY · Dec 7, 2020

You do realise it would have been a easy find with the light off.😗

( I know this and just think how many minutes looking until I realised that it was the quickest way to find it. Less than 5 seconds once I turned the light off )

southtexas · Dec 10, 2020

I can relate. Try dropping a sweep hand into carpet!

southtexas · Dec 10, 2020

STANDY
You do realise it would have been a easy find with the light off.😗

( I know this and just think how many minutes looking until I realised that it was the quickest way to find it. Less than 5 seconds once I turned the light off )

Except they don’t glow anymore?

Dan S · Dec 10, 2020

STANDY
You do realise it would have been a easy find with the light off.😗

( I know this and just think how many minutes looking until I realised that it was the quickest way to find it. Less than 5 seconds once I turned the light off )

southtexas
Except they don’t glow anymore?

Unfortunately, that was the case. I tried a blacklight lamp with the lights off, and lots of interesting things started glowing on the floor (I don't even want to know what the dogs bring in). But it didn't help me find the pip.

Canuck · Dec 10, 2020

This happened to someone I once met. He and his wife were on a cruise. There was a grand soirée one evening, and she was all gussied up in her finest frock. When they got back to their stateroom, she noticed the karat diamond was gone from her ring! They notified the crew, and measures were taken to try to find the stone, to no avail. When they arrived back home, they went to the jeweller who’d sold them the ring, to get a quote. The insurance company demanded they get a quote from a bucket house jeweller. Their quote was lower. The insurance company insisted that this was their new stone. The guy got his check for the cheaper stone, paid the difference, and bought the stone he wanted.

Next time his wife wore the fancy dress, something fell from the dress and hit the floor. You guessed it! The lost karat stone. The guy had it mounted into a ring for himself, and never told the insurance company!

I was their jeweller.

michaelmc · Dec 11, 2020

So many times I could build a snow man.... same for spring bars and second hands. We feel your pain when never found.

watch3s · Dec 11, 2020

ive once spent an hour looking for a movement screw that i dropped from fiddling with a movement, never did it find it. it fell on carpet