handling small parts

[cteno4]

dealing with dropping small parts came up on another list and i thought i would post my comments here so others can add ideas to these.

 

Parts Apron

the apron trick is a great one that is from watchmakers and jewelers. basically its an apron you wear and then attach the bottom edge to the edge of the table so that any small parts that fall off the table will get caught in the apron rather than hit the floor. you can buy these or make one out of a $1 apron and some velcro. works very well, but you have to remember to detach the velcro before you try to walk away! ive choked myself a couple of times with mine! i ended up cutting the strip of velcro stuck to the workbench edge  down to a thin strip so that if i do yank it, it comes loose easily. one caution is that with mine attached to the front edge of the work bench tiny things swept off the work bench can sometimes end up stuck in along the edge of the workbench/velcro/apron, so best to look there first before you detach. when ever i detach i take a once over of the velcro and the apron to make sure i have not knocked anything into my lap. the only trouble with this set up is you have to put it on! i get lazy all the time and dont and regret it...

 

Flashlight

one big thing to have at hand at all times is a very bright flashlight. now with the led flashlights you can get some really bright ones that are reasonably sized. this is the best thing to spot small pieces anywhere. you can move the light from above while you are looking from the side to the light from the side while looking more from above. this helps your eye catch small changes in contrast from the lighting and shadows cast and pick out the shape you are looking for on the random floor pattern. ive been amazed at the stuff ive found on the random cork floor pattern in my office doing this.

 

Wall around workspace

having a small wall or some sort of a stop around your work space helps parts from getting knocked off the side or back of your work surface. the other jeweler trick is to use thin velvet cover for the work surface (and even up the sides). this helps small harder objects from ricocheting or bouncing further. its amazing how well some small things can bounce. you can also use this trick in a small margarine tub or bowl with a piece of velvet draped in it (or just the fabric on the bench)for cutting off little bits like staples, rod, etc. if you put the cutters with the small piece aimed right over the velvet it tends to just land right there and stay. if it does bounce it doesnt go far. doing it over a harder surface usually means it skids off, sometimes surprisingly far! the snap when the cut happens can transfer a lot of energy to a very tiny mass meaning it will fly far!

 

Dropping another part to see where the first one may have gone

NEVER NEVER do the trick of taking a similar part and dropping it to see how it might bounce. guaranteed many times you will just loose the second part and odd shaped little things bounce totally randomly so it really does not give you a good clue to where or how far it might have gone. ive seen small parts do all sorts of wild bounces then some that land pretty much where it fell, never a rhyme nor reason. its sooo tempting but ive learned from experience you can just loose a second piece and it never has provided more info to finding the first.

 

Following the sound

also dont always trust your ears. i have good hearing and many times think i heard where the part did its final tap on the floor when coming to rest, but half the time i find it in a totally different place. ive spend 15 minutes looking for a part i was sure where it went, then after sitting back and looking to the other side its there and found in 30 sec... so make sure to sweep the whole area it could have gone to make sure it didnt end up somewhere else.

 

Softer tipped forceps

one last trick for small parts is to have a few different sized shaped forceps that you put a bit of soft coating on the tips. you can use a number of different things to do this: rubber cement can work if you let it dry well, the dipping plastic you can use to coat tool handles, softer paint, and ive even used soft wire insulation pushed over the tweezer tips. ive tried other things i cant think of right now. i have picked up scads of small tweezers over the years, usually for $1-2 and cant have enough different ones to work with in my book! i just experiment to which holds the desired bit the best. having the softer tip usually means less chance of the tweezers scissoring and pinging the part across the room. you can sometimes hold the part much gentler with some cushion, than with metal.

 

Loose part holders

little finger dishes for nail care are actually great little dishes to keep small parts in while working on something. they also have lids so you can close things up between work sessions. small jars and boxes work as well, but these dishes are great as the bottom is totally curved and easy to scoop things out with your fingers with no corners for things to get stuck in.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Acrylic-Liquid-Case-Dish-Tray-Bowl-Nail-Art-White-Gift-/120901681924?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c264d4304#ht_2892wt_1134

 

Tape holders

one trick to keep little parts from getting knocked around the workspace while working on something is to tape some strip of magic, paint, drafting tape sticky side up on the bench then you can put small parts on it and they dont roll around. can make it easier to sort out small stuff as well.

 

 

heard often in my workshop: PING! tap, tap, tap. Damn!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Definitely a good subject.

 

Work on a desk with a large light colored surface to work on. Poster paper or  large cutting mat.

 

Only work on one locomotive at a time.

 

When you must stop working put everything in a box so that no small part can escape.

 

Do not use halogen magnifying lamps near small parts.

 

Thou shall not let thy girlfriend vacuum the work area.

[cteno4]

that reminds me of one other thing i use a lot on the work bench to keep stuff sorted and track of, is cheap little dollar store plastic trays like 6"x10" and 9"x12". these usually have small angled lips that are enough to keep things from rolling out of the tray but easy to scoop up parts from the edge of the try w/o a corner where the little parts can get caught. helps keep things sub sorted well and when i do drop something outside the tray on the work table i can just pick up the whole tray to look for the other stuff or as webskipper mentioned I can just drop the tray into a box if i put the project up for a while.

 

im tempted to glue down some thin velvet material into a few of these for working on stuff with really tiny pars so they dont slide around a lot if you pick the tray up.

 

jeff

[angusmclean]

.....and when really desperate (ie after already losing the included spare part), you can put everything on a white double bedsheet on the worktable, then folding it back over your head. Gets rather warm inside, but the little bxxxxxxds don't travel very far as a consequence :))))

 

Angus

 

ps. I can understand why the manufacturers don't bother to install these small parts - labour costs;  and when they do, steam loco piping, and small extras, the unit costs reflect the extra time taken.

[cteno4]

LOL ive thought of this myself after pinging a small part a few times! using some soft tipped forceps for parts that tend to go ping has helped. i still get lazy now and then and use the hard tipped ones and ping them now and then! the velvet trick does work well if you are working on a nice larger work surface as usually the ping only goes a foot or two. i also will get lazy and fiddle with something over my computer workstation which has a 4' wide keyboard drawer. usually a mistake! i am really amazed ive only completely lost a few parts, i get lucky wayy to much for how lazy i can be at times in being careful.

 

forgot to mention murphy's law that if you do take a lot of precautions the parts will never ping!

 

last month i tried turning some small n scale flower pots and even a ho scale wine glass. was fun but at one point i sneezed while cutting one off the base and it was gone! learned not to cut them off the spru until i was ready to do something with it or i would never find them again! i had the wine glass on a bit of tacky below my computer monitor and one day looked up and it was gone...

 

jeff

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Magnetic project mat from iFixit.

 

It's a magnetic dry erase board with dry erase marker. $20USD.

 

I bought it with their Pro Tech toolkit for doing decoder installs and locomotive work.

 

It even has a mini driver set, grounding wrist strap, and SS tools that would help open some difficult shells for decoder installs.

Edited July 6, 2014 by Webskipper