What to do when you lose something

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Last week I couldn't find my 1/4 drive socket set. Something I rarely use. As it was quite ancient I thought I would treat myself and get a new shiny set. Came today so I decided to put it away, right next to the one I'd lost. absolutely never fails.

;O)

Martin

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Try moving house. In packing up your workshop, you'll aways find things you haven't seen since the last time…

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Last year I purchased a shiny new wall paper stripper after hunting high and low for one I thought I had bought years ago but no sign of it, after finishing with the new one I looked for a storage space in the garage & found an ideal spot next to the wall paper stripper I already had but couldn't find.

Tony

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I do that with things I had in my hand only minutes before!

[larry phelan 1Participant @larryphelan1]

Welcome to the club !

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Would somebody please return my 2 plates of 8mm Al alloy plates – I don't need them but its been bugging me for some time now.

[Bob McParticipant @bobmc91481]

Martin…

If ever the gremlins steal something and hide it, the first thing to do is give the workshop a good tidy up…they don't like that and will put it in the place where it should have been in the first place.

….

[RobinParticipant @robin]

I can lose things in plain sight.

I know it is on the table right in front of me but I cannot see it.

It can be quite alarming when it suddenly pops back into my ken

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Posted by Bob Mc on 22/04/2021 15:33:21:

Martin…

If ever the gremlins steal something and hide it, the first thing to do is give the workshop a good tidy up…they don't like that and will put it in the place where it should have been in the first place.

….

It's quicker to order another. Maybe that speaks volumes!

Martin

[MortyParticipant @morty]

Hi there!

"I can lose things in plain sight.

I know it is on the table right in front of me but I cannot see it.

It can be quite alarming when it suddenly pops back into my ken"

I think the technical term is reverse hallucination, been having them for years!!!

Pete

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

My downfall is that I see tools advertised and think that would be a good tool to have so I order one and it duly arrives and when I go to stow it away in the workshop I find one that I must have bought earlier but for the life of me I cannot remember buying it. Dave W. ❗️

[Henry BrownParticipant @henrybrown95529]

I'm pleased it's not just me then!

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

This topic has cheered me up no end by telling me that others share my problem. I used to be able to put a tool down and pick it up again a short time later. Like some others this is no longer always the case and it drives me mad. I know I had it a few minutes ago, remember laying it down, then go back and find it gone. I run about looking everywhere to no avail then give up in disgust. The next time I go into the workshop, there it is in plain sight. I think as you get older your in-house gremlins get more cunning in their attempt to annoy.

Doug

[john halfpennyParticipant @johnhalfpenny52803]

I needed a large metric Allen key. Expediency lead to me grinding a fraction off a larger imperial key. A few years later I had to do the same job, but couldn't find the ground down key, so I ground down another to get the job done. Then I found the first ground down key, AND THE SET OF METRIC KEYS I HAD BOUGHT AFTER THE FIRST OCCURENCE.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

It's when you put something down in the middle of a job and it takes you two hours to find it again

so you go round and round in circles knowing it's within reach becoming less and less calm as the minutes tick by

Edited By Ady1 on 22/04/2021 18:17:57

[MalcParticipant @malc]

A few months ago I decided to re-instate a digital bedside clock which I had put away “Somewhere safe”. Needless to say it was nowhere to be found despite frequent searches. Not to worry, I need a project so I’ll make one up using an Arduino. About a week later and all I needed was a 9 volt PSU to run the new project. So, I delve into my cupboard where all the PSU’s etc. are, not much luck with a PSU but I did find that digital bedside clock in there🤨. What a waste of a week, but I suppose it kept me out of mischief.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

I keep the bending spring I had to buy new next to the one I couldn’t find.

Mike

[Nigel McBurney 1Participant @nigelmcburney1]

I have owned a good Stead screwdriver,for over sixty years,last week I changed the heating thermostat,put the screwdriver down,now cannot find it and still looking.

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

I do this all the time too, glad it's not just me. And they turn up in the most ridiculous places, where nobody in their right mind would put them

I did read once that it's an evolutionary thing. Men are genetically adapted to see things far away, and movement, as they evolved as hunters. Women, on the other hand, are more suited to close-up work as they were the ones doing the planting and cooking, etc. So that's why I can't see things that are right in front of me. SWMBO would disagree, but science is science.

So.. where can I get a long-range Myford and a hundred yard long Vernier caliper?

Rob

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

My grandad complained for years that I had nabbed his good phillips screwdriver when we were restoring my Morris Minor. About five or six years later I took the glovebox out to get to some wiring and there it was, tucked into something holding a clip back. It had done about 35,000 miles jammed in there.

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

I managed to lose a grub-screw today, but in a very odd way.

Making an adjustable alignment tool for assembling my steam-wagon's exhaust components, I had drilled and tapped 3 radial holes in each of two plugs, to be held by grub-screws onto a central bar. I put all the screws in, then for the life of me could not back off one so the plug would slide onto the bar.

I could not understand it, but the holes are relatively deep as the parts are yet to be turned to diameter and taper, on the bar, so it's not easy to see what's what. Nevertheless, I could not find a key to operate that one little grub. I gave up and retreated indoors for tea – not before time as I cannot stand for long on my recently-injured leg.

I did though take the offending item in, for another look.

Indoors I could not find my metric ball-driver set. There are that many tools and machines indoors I am host to not one but two gremlin families.

Sighed , said "Oh… bother!"

Had tea.

Found ball-drivers. The gremlins had put them on the floor under the computer table.

Still no joy …

Then a strange thought… are there two screws in there?

There were indeed, the outer loosely held by friction and slight burring, but free to rotate by key.

I am not sure if it was a grub-screw I'd lost, or an empty hole for a grub-screw.

'

Reading this thread and similar, I wonder if Claudia Hammond has ever covered this aspect of behaviour in her All In The Mind programme?

[James Hall 3Participant @jameshall3]

You've heard of the fat-bergs found in the London sewers, I'm sure.

Well, somewhere in the Cambridge sewers is an enormous biro-and-teaspoon-berg.

[David ColwillParticipant @davidcolwill19261]

I often find myself looking for things that I had just a moment ago and have now vanished into thin air.

I have developed a technique that is surprisingly good at finding them.

Pick up any random object and go to the last place you remember having the lost item.

Then start moving around the workshop trying to put the random object down (for some reason scratching your head with the free hand helps [or provides comfort]).

Look in all the places where the random object lands, until you find it.

If this doesn't work, repeat with a throwing motion.

If this still doesn't work chances are you will have forgotten what you were looking for anyway.

Go back to what you were doing (if you can remember).

The lost item will be there.

David.

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

It's not just me either. The following is a conversation with my wife:

"Can I borrow a hammer?"
"I thought you had your own hammer?"
"I do but I can't find it. can I borrow a hammer?"
"Have you looked in your hobby room?"
"YES I HAVE. It's not there. Can I BORROW a hammer?"
"In my hammer drawer in hobby shed…last bank of drawers and third down. If you had a hammer drawer you'ld know where yours was."
"I've only got one hammer so i don't need a hammer drawer. I can never find anythng in your shed. will you fetch one?."
"What sort? ball pein, tack, claw, weight, plastic, brass, steel, mallet?" (OK so i was being unfair but fun to wind her up sometimes). "Oh and when did you last use yours?"
"it's been ages and ages. I just want a hammer."
"Hmm.. think back. What were you using it for?"
"Oh, I don't know I think I hung a picture in my hobby room."
"Have you looked on the floor under the picture?"
<time passes, OH leaves the room and returns with her own hammer>
There was a lot of silence that day..

[Author]

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