Have you ever lost something in your shop??

C Craft

C Craft

Well-Known Member
Have you ever lost something in your shop?? I seem to do it all the time. If I got too many irons in the fire. The older I get, it seems that putting everything back in its place is not as important as it use to be!!

Well I am also one that uses something till its gone before I retire it. My TV in the bedroom has been a small color 18" screen TV for about the last 12 yrs. It was a used TV when, I mounted the arm on the wall to hang it!! It died recently and since there is no such thing as a TV repairman anymore, I retired it. So now I am going to hang a flat screen, (not a new one another used TV). It's one of the first generation flat screens so kind of heavy! So I decided to rebuilt the original arm to accommodate it!!

So I have been fabricating a modification to the arm that is supposed to hold it. Yesterday I finished all the welding and painted it. So this morning I start to assemble all the parts. I carried the first part into the bedroom and realize I am missing a bolt for the pivot.

So I go back to the shop/garage and hanging up overhead is all the parts that I had painted. The bolt was awkward to try and hang so I just taped it to a hanger and painted the head. The only part that would show. As I reach for the bolt I realize the bolt is no longer there. The tape let go during the night!

So it must have fell right here. I look all around and no luck. So I go CSI and get the flashlight and still no bolt! So now I figure it must have rolled up under something. Now this is where I should tell you I have enough stuff in a one car garage to fill a two car garage. Using the space wisely is what it is all about I always say!

Now I figure if I am going to have to move everything then I might as well sweep and clean under everything!! To make a long story short I moved everything in my garage, and cleaned under it!! I found some small screws I had dropped, quite sometime back. But still no bolt. I found a washer that was about the size of a pencil eraser I lost last week. I found out I have had mice at some point. I have over abundance of spiders according to all the webs.

I cleaned off three work bench blew the dust out of every corner, cleaned every electric motor in the shop. So this has became one of those good news bad new scenario's!

The good news my shop is cleaner than it has been in a long time. The bad news I still have not found the bolt. I mean sheeeeeez, this is not exactly a tiny bolt. It is a 3/8" X 1`1/4" bolt but where it is at still remains a mystery to me.

The moral of this story is I could have jumped in the truck drove to town, bought a new bolt and been back in 45 min. or so!! Then again my garage/workshop would not be clean as it is right now!! :D
 
I put rubber mats in front of all my benches. The wife thinks they're for comfort. Nope. They are strategically placed where I always drop stuff. The mats keep things from bouncing as far!
 
"Have you ever lost something in your shop??"

All the time, C Craft, all the time....can't tell you how many times I have "re-bought" things because I can't find something. Usually when I return from the 60 mile round trip to the hardware store I find the missing thing without trying in half an hour....
 
You have a problem losing things in the shop? Heck, I can lose things on the bench! Sometimes I have to call wife to help me hunt..... and she's like "What's the problem, isn't "this" what you're looking for?"
 
Rubber mats, hmmm, now there is a thought John!!!! The funny part about it, the bolt was still hanging there that night, the next morning its gone. So I figured a bolt that big can't hide. But so far it has done a pretty fair job of it. You suppose if I hollered, Olly olly oxen free, it might turn up!!

Here is a funny thought, kids today have no idea what Olly olly oxen free means!!! Oh the carefree days when you use to play hide and seek!! Not a thing to worry about, except gettin your chores done and whens supper Mama, I am starving!!! And we thought we had it bad back then!!!
 
Olly olly oxen free
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I didn't know that one myself - never played hide 'n go seek much as a kid. At school there was never any place to hide much, and at home wasn't enough kids around.
 
C Craft said:
Rubber mats, hmmm, now there is a thought John!!!! The funny part about it, the bolt was still hanging there that night, the next morning its gone. So I figured a bolt that big can't hide. But so far it has done a pretty fair job of it. You suppose if I hollered, Olly olly oxen free, it might turn up!!

Here is a funny thought, kids today have no idea what Olly olly oxen free means!!! Oh the carefree days when you use to play hide and seek!! Not a thing to worry about, except gettin your chores done and whens supper Mama, I am starving!!! And we thought we had it bad back then!!!
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I haven't heard that in almost 40 years! When we moved to town, those kids used "olly olly in come free"

Those little interlocking square cheapo mats from harbor freight work great in front of benches. I got tired of losing pins and springs from guns (which I NEVER had spares for...) When little doodads fall on those mats they pretty much stay put. It also makes a loud smack sound when they hit, so if you freeze the second you drop something and just listen you have a pretty good idea where it hit. Been a life saver for me so many times.
 
Yep, its been a number of years since I heard that one too, but I won't say how many!! LOL
In the summer we use to play hide N go seek till it was dark 30!!! After dark diving into a patch of weeds was a bad idea. I landed in a pile of Nettles one night. Wooooweee!!

I got some of those I may have to try them again. I picked them up because where they were I had to roll something back and forth over them!!! Thanks John.
 
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