Have you ever been working on a project, had it disassembled on your work bench, and the parts even bagged and tagged... but still, had something, usually a small important part, or maybe a tool... just disappear into thin air? Happened to me again. I'm working on this Frezzolini 100D transistor power inverter from somewhere around 1970. Git it for cheap at a flea market, I figured if I got it working, I could use it to power radios on camping trips and such. Anyway, got to taking all the hardware off the battery, a wet cell Nickle-Cadmium type. A huge about of hardware, about 150 pieces, counting all the nuts, steel washers, nylon washers, and links, to clean up. Also present are 11 pressure relief valves that screw into holes on the top of each cell, no 12 is an electric pressure sensor switch, essentially an automotive type oil pressure sensor. Wouldn't you know it, go to reassemble the pressure valves back onto the battery after adding water... and one is missing! Looked High and low. Completely cleared the bench, nada. Not on the floor, looked everywhere. Not in my clothes, nor stuck to any magnetic items. Not in the nearby trash, nor in the box of printer parts on the floor to the side. Difficult for it to roll off somewhere, as it has a hex shape. Just plain GONE!!!

This guy?



Chas

*Sigh*... yes.

Wish it was just little parts. Yesterday I started to put the chassis back in my Philco 60. I use the cheap snap lid food storage containers for projects and try to keep all parts for each radio in one container. Everything else was there but I couldn't find the 4 chassis mounting bolts OR the washers. I just took it apart about a week ago on this very bench. Not in other containers, anywhere on the bench, or all the other places you mentioned. No clue.

Absolutely frustrating. I have recently lost a small pair of blunt nose pliers...a favorite tool. Gone for over a week now. No rational explanation as to where it is. After too many shop searches....looking for a replacement.

I think small parts go to the same place misfit socks do, I just don't know where that is...

Many times and not just small parts - large items too.

Thing is, when they eventually turn up they always turn out to have been hiding in plain sight.

They are in my jacket pocket......

Last year I was working on a 1950 Silvertone AM/FM phono console and had the dial pointer in a separate bag. Somehow the bag just vanished and I finally gave up looking for it.

It's the Chinese, who employ invisible aliens to transport those items into another dimension, so they can sell us more parts.

One time I lost track of something and then after some time found it in the box with my chainsaw. (totally unrelated) Now when I lose something my wife's only comment is "have you checked the chainsaw box". So now I start there.

About a month ago I set a Slim Jim sausage on my workbench. I really like those things. Anyway, about an hour later it just up and disappeared and I had no idea where it went. Today I found it...under the kitchen sink with all the bottles of cleaning junk. I can't explain it.

I KNEW IT!

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I was once sitting on a stool at the bench when I dropped a certain small screw.
It literally VANISHED! I looked everywhere - the floor, bench top, my pockets?
("Am I losing my mind?)...etc. Then when I walked around a bit, I felt something
in my shoe! The screw fell into a 1/4" gap in the side of my shoe as I sat on the stool.
One of those "You couldn't do that if you tried" moments!

I used to be amazed at what a nice house grandparents kept. Now I understand. Unless things are tidy stuff gets lost.

I lose a lot of stuff in plain sight... a lot. Chuck keys and calipers are always hiding. Routine is partly to blame. I think it also has to do with my vision detioriating. Since I need two different sets of bifocals, most of the world is blurry. Your brian fills in blanks in you visual field based on past experience. It is a processer resource savng thing our minds do. Sometimes a partially obscured object is just not notticed. Even looking right at it I can miss it. I have started using a piece of white paper, like the doctors exam table, on my work bench. I have a roll dispenser on the side of the bench. Parts go in clean egg cartons as I work. I also have a long bar magnet for items I drop on the floor.

That sounds plausible and would explain a lot.

Also, I do need new glasses.

Well Fellers, There is St. Anthony. He is the patron Saint of lost things, including lost
causes. It's said, to get his help, speak the following;

Tony Tony!
Listen Listen!
Hurry Hurry!
Somethins Missin!
State the missing Item.

I heard about this on a Canadian radio talk show decades ago. Many phoned in
reports of good results. Let us know if the lost "come back".

Shoot, I'll try anything. This is driving me nuts!

It's not just the shop.

My quarterly tax returns forms and envelopes, as well as my check book are no where to be found. The tax forms were in a folder in the file cabinet. Just used the check book. I told the wife to look. Maddening...........

Part of it is the wife and kids moving stuff. I may need to get my own lock box.

I once glued a string to the TV remote and tied it to the sofa. Later I sat down to watch TV. The string was cut.

UPDATE*** Well, Terry H, your little prayer must have worked. I found the valve in the garage floor in a partition in the concrete, right by the walk-in door. Walked over this area, swept it out and moved stuff in and out of this area who knows how many times. How it got there, I just don't have a clue. So, it's back on the battery, now complete! Problem now is, the inverter output does not work, no 120v AC, either off the internal or an external battery. Everything else seems to work fine, battery charges and everything, except what I bought it for, off course, the 120v AC output for my radios fro when I go to a campsite or such. Checked all discrete components, all seem to check fine. Only thing that may be suspect if the frequency adjust pot. The wire winding was burned out on connected side, and the connector tab completely broken off the other, unused side. I remounted the broken off tap on the good side, reinstalled it, wired to it, but still no 120v. Other than to try obtaining another pot and hook it up as original, I'm stumped. Would anyone happen to have a schematic for one of these, or where I could look for one?

Thanks for the update Kevin.

I used to work really late in my car shop. Once in a while a tool I was actively useing
would be gone. I would say outloud to no one; I don't mind if you borrow my tools,
But I need my pliers etc. now. There they would be...Where I left them originally.