Can you empathize? (finding small things)

redpcar · Dec 11, 2020

watch3s
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

I have some killer magnets taken from commercial hard drives. They can pick up screws from a foot away and can seriously jack up a movement if they get too close 😗

JimInOz · Dec 12, 2020

When I was in the Air Force, I aquired a magnet from an old missile radar or something similar. It was great for fishing for lost items but I found it to be a little dangerous as it would cause things to jump at great speed, it also liked to pull me toward metal cabinets etc, and getting anything off the magnet took an enormous amount of strength and non-ferrous tools. My young son found it one day and managed to get it stuck to the frame of my motor bike.

After that, I dug a deep hole in the back yard and buried it (we were in military housing at the time).

redpcar · Dec 12, 2020

JimInOz
When I was in the Air Force, I aquired a magnet from an old missile radar or something similar. It was great for fishing for lost items but I found it to be a little dangerous as it would cause things to jump at great speed, it also liked to pull me toward metal cabinets etc, and getting anything off the magnet took an enormous amount of strength and non-ferrous tools. My young son found it one day and managed to get it stuck to the frame of my motor bike.

After that, I dug a deep hole in the back yard and buried it (we were in military housing at the time).

Need to be careful with powerful magnets. Never put one in each of your front pockets (if you know what I mean) 😲

Archer · Dec 12, 2020

watch3s
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

Carpets are not a good idea when working on watches. 👎

redpcar
I have some killer magnets taken from commercial hard drives. They can pick up screws from a foot away and can seriously jack up a movement if they get too close 😗

I have laminate flooring in my shop, and for finding ferrous parts, I use a magnetic strip...comes in a coil, and is relatively weak, which is what you want. I can lay it put and "sweep" the floor with it, then bring it up to the bench and look along the magnet for parts. I often find the one I'm looking for at the moment, plus a few others...those go into the "recovered parts" box...

bubu16 · Dec 19, 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.

Explaining the situation to Mrs. S was interesting.

Her: What are you doing?
Me: I dropped something.

20 minutes later.

Her: Are you still looking? Forget about it, you're obviously not going to find it.
Me: Well, it's worth more than $300, and they are really hard to come by.
Her: What is it?
Me: It's a luminous pearl for a vintage Rolex Submariner bezel.
Her: Ok, I'll help you look. How big is it?
Me: A millimeter or two.
Her: [incredulous stare]

15 minutes later, during which time she helped me look.

Me: I think I found it.
Her: That tiny thing? That's it? What you were looking for? Are you sure?
Me: [looking through a loupe] Yeah, that's it.

Her: I can't believe you found it. Let me take a photo so I can post this on Facebook. Nobody will ever believe this. Put your finger next to it so people can see how small it is.
Me: [complying] OK.

Yeah Dan. Happens to me all the time an you name it. Spring bars, tritium pearl, the smallest of things and she finds them. Probably not on the same day but she finds and sometimes steps on it(lol)!!!!!

Archer · Dec 20, 2020

Another piece of part hunting advice...

If you get down low to the floor, and shine a flashlight along the floor, stuff that you can't see otherwise will pop into existence (at least that's how it looks sometimes). Works very well on hard floors, not so well on carpets.

aleksejeremeev · Dec 26, 2020

redpcar
Need to be careful with powerful magnets. Never put one in each of your front pockets (if you know what I mean) 😲

Well, live and learn

Wuza72 · Dec 26, 2020

My latest story, I also now know all the dust fluff on my floor and with old wooden floorboards it is particularly exciting, because there are larger cracks where small parts can happily disappear forever:

I bought an Omega 2374, after opening the non-functional watch, I found that the bridge with both springs was loose in the case. I slowly turned the watch over and dropped it into a container, several times to really keep all the parts together. This worked great, I then moved all the parts into micro containers so I could hand them over to my watchmaker along with the watch.

So far so good, but now I was interested in how these springs are attached and if the spring is still intact. I take the tweezers, hold the spring in front of the magnifying glass and away it jumps .... ! Oh great, finding a replacement spring is going to be an adventure .... !

So off to the floor, all the overhead lights on, flashlight in hand and sliding on my knees to find the spring ... Idiot I thought to myself ::facepalm1::

20 minutes later, I had three spring bars in the collection box, the floor slid clean and also found the spring. What luck 👍

Archer · Dec 26, 2020

At some point we all need to tell the story about the following:

1 - the furthest point from the bench you have found a lost part.

2 - the strangest place you have found a lost part.

For #1, first tip is that you stay in the room you are in, until you find the part...

For #2, you may have to take all your clothes off...