Was cleaning the pawls on my Hope Pro4 and dropped one. Unfortunately I didn't realize I dropped it when I did so I don't really know exactly where to look. Can't find it for the life of me. Driving me crazy but at least now my shop, toolbox and floor are all clean.
Don't you hate losing that tiny part on your shop floor?
I know these feels.
I now use a leaf blower before I do any work on the bike.
Strong feels.
My workshop is a hectic pigsty. I'm a fan of a thick soft rag on the bench to place small parts to prevent rolling, and a magnet for hunting the ones I inevitably miss.
I was playing catch the spring loaded keyways on my 9Point8 post the other day.
A magnetic parts trays is 👌🏽
I don't like putting my parts on a soft rag or shop towel, cause when I invariably snag something on it, all the parts go flying.
When looking for your missing part, have you tried; turn all the lights out, get a flashlight, lay it on the floor & shine it around. If anything is laying on the floor, it should show up (CSI style).
Posted by: Stuminator
When looking for your missing part, have you tried; turn all the lights out, get a flashlight, lay it on the floor & shine it around. If anything is laying on the floor, it should show up (CSI style).
This has worked for me twice! One time it was that tiny clip for the bolt that secures the brake pads on. The other I was surprised how far it travelled, and was under something on the parameter of the garage.
The thing to do is put a clothes dryer in your shop. Dinky bits will gravitate under the dryer. You may not be able to move the dryer but the small parts will be there.
I made a career of dropping small typewrtier/ ATM/ computer parts on the floor so I had to get really good at finding it.
IME you don't look for the part ... you look at the floor
Last thing I found was a dust cap from a set of XT cranks I sold years ago. I looked for that thing for months at the time.
Sentient tiny parts hopping across the entire garage defying physics to find a ridiculously unlikely hiding place.
I'm going to tile the garage because of this. It ends here.
My Pops was a mechanic who worked out of our 100 year old garage, seems my childhood was spent searching the floor for small parts.
Last edited by: Hepcat on June 30, 2020, 10:14 a.m., edited 1 time in total.
Posted by: thaaad
I've always been a big fan of the lay down / flashlight / shadow method.
Saved me many a tiny damper part fixing suspension @ OGC.
Yes! I’ve used my riding lights more times then I’d like to admit.
I work on the floor because that's where the parts want to go.
Good tips. Never tried the flashlight trick.
Ended up ordering some pawls from crc. Gave me a reason to buy a couple of other things too.
Posted by: JBV
when the part is falling and you notice it falling, isn't it funny that you already know the direction of the bounce? you know for certain that it's going to bounce quickly, erratically, if totally predictably underneath the workbench and the random stuff you have under there. it's not going to bounce towards your feet or into the open where you're standing. it's an amazing and little studied law of physics that should have some research dollars thrown at it. seems like Murphy knew something about this.
Haha, and Dr Ian Malcolm
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