Into the shed the other morning, with a job to do on a Blow Torch. On the bench was the Tilley burner which I had cleaned up the previous day. Gazing at the small, knurled nuts on the air tubes, I was idly thinking of how I would go about making one of those nuts, i.e. what order or sequence of operations, if ever I had to make one. Well, pretty soon I had to find out, because on taking the nut off, I dropped it, heard it hit the bottom shelf of the workbench, heard it roll, stop, then silence. Four hours later, with the day half wasted, it is still hiding. The bench has been stripped and moved, the floor and immediate area thoroughly swept and examined, but no joy. So the first one I made was o.k., the second one even better, and the third one o.k. save that it's a little shorter since someone forgot to allow for the thickness of the parting-off tool. Any rate, the first new one was nice and firm on the thread of the air tube, whilst the old ones were loose on the threads. Either the tap is undersize, or the threads on the nuts degrade/corrode whilst the threads on the air tubes don't. Or both threads wear fairly equally. I dunno. The first nut being a good fit, unfair on the others, so I had to make a full set of 2 and 3/4 nuts. What have I gleaned from my ham-fistedness ? Under the bench I found items that I was looking for last year, and probably the year before that. And two lengths of bar stock that I had forgotten about, having just bought more.... The inset kickboard, that I was gonna install under the bench many, many years ago, I just might make a start on it. But about the nuts - primarily, it wasn't broke in the first place, so I should'tna, hadn'ta, oughtna had to fix it.
Yes, parts spring off in my shed too, so when I sweep the floor I check the sweepings, steel parts are simpler to find as I use a large magnet.
I had many such small parts that were lost in that way and never found. Some turned up at unexpected places, but usually long after I've totally forgotten about them.
My bench is equally magic at making things disappear. Cannot count how many small parts have gone south. Lastly I have often been surprised when what I thought went under the bench turns up metres away in another direction. I now take even more care when working with very small parts.
