Mold Half Lost and Found

[pete501]

My last casting session with a lyman 452374 DC ended with some needed mold clean up. The mold was still warm so I wrapped both halves in a rag and proceeded to a vise mounted on a wrought iron pillar inside the house. As I was concentrating on cleaning the half with the spur plate, I felt the other half fall out of the rag. Looked around below where I was standing, there is a wood stove, a vacuum, carpet shampooer next to a book shelf. Nothing. I started doubting if it had been in the rag. Went into the loading room to look where I had removed it from the handles, nothing.

That was 6 months ago.

Today I got down on all fours (not easy for me), and with a flashlight, looked under a buffet cabinet and lo-and-behold I found it.Mold half was 4 feet from where I was standing. The mold half must have come out of the rag spinning and hit the carpet and rolled 6" under the cabinet.

[Winger Ed.]

At your place, you obviously have a window to the parallel Universe that periodically opens and closes.

You might have also noticed that sometimes when you put two pairs of socks in the dryer--
when it finishes its run, you only have two socks to take out...... But they don't match.

[super6]

I might likely have 10-20 primers that made there way to never never land!

[1eyedjack]

I believe that I could drop an anvil in a well lit sterile room and it would disappear into thin air along with all those small pins bolts and other things that there is only 1 of in this county!

[Winger Ed.]

One time I was taking a Rem. bolt apart and the little cap/cover thing that is on the back of the firing pin took off.
After an extensive search, I concluded that it ended up in orbit around Mars.

I swept the shop, ran a vacuum, crawled around for several minutes--- it was just gone.
However;
it did fall back to earth and landed in a dust ball at the far corner of the shop, and under the bench 2 years later.

Back in the old days, I could start with a clean bench. Rebuild a 4BBL Rodchester carb.
Without ever taking a step---- I frequently lost parts to them.

[georgerkahn]

I believe that I could drop an anvil in a well lit sterile room and it would disappear into thin air along with all those small pins bolts and other things that there is only 1 of in this county!

I sooooooo have this same affliction!!! Last week I took apart -- at kitchen table -- an antique rotary telephone dial. Quite a few tiny screws, but lo and behold the ~ 3/4" diameter by ~ 3/4" deep spring unit -- that which returns rotary dial to zero -- unwound and landed on floor. I was maybe seven feet from one door and ten feet from the other, so this HAD to be still IN the kitchen. Tiled floor, so it should be easily found? After about five or six fruitless minutes I beckoned my wife, and we even used the bright flashlight parallel with floor trick hoping to see a shadow. Nada! I said, "OK -- let's stop; wait abit; and then look again with 'new eyes'". After this coffee break we again looked -- and this time it appeared out of nowhere tightly in a corner where kitchen cabinet meets wall. Figure?
geo

[metricmonkeywrench]

We had a discussion on the alternate universe of lost things. The problem is you were looking for “it” therefore ensuring it will remain hidden. The only way for it to revel itself is to forget about it and look for something else at another time. You can’t cheat and pretend to look for something else, which ensures it remains just around the corner in the alternate universe just out of the visible spectrum

[Rapier]

All shops have a full stock of small parts, in the shop, somewhere. Those parts can just vaporize into the mist. A drawer with a selection of small parts helps to keep your sanity when a part launches to achieve orbit and pangs off a far wall. I also have a rolling magnet with wheels and a handle that comes in handy.

[Winger Ed.]

The best way I've found to find a lost part, is buy a new one.
Then it comes home like a lost puppy.

Right before the big shortage, I was going to set up the progressive for .38Spec.
However; the #6 shell plate had run away from home. I didn't know if it joined the circus, eloped, or what.
I keep them in a stack inside a fairly small metal cabnet inside the shop. But it wasn't there, or anywhere else.
So I ordered a new one.

When it came in, I put it in the cabnet with the others----- right on top of the original one I'd been looking for.
But it worked out. When everything dried up, one of our members in Alaska got a good deal on it.

[pete501]

When I was a child and looking for a lost item, my mom would tell me to pray to Saint Anthony. I didn't think of it this time but it beats cursing.

[Winger Ed.]

When I was a child and looking for a lost item, my mom would tell me to pray to Saint Anthony. I didn't think of it this time but it beats cursing.

We didn't do that as kids.
If we had, it would have saved us a few quick beatings.

[popper]

My problem usually I have part left over after dis-assembling something. Kinda like the keyboard - always and extra or one missing when I type.

[45workhorse]

I resemble all comments from above!!!!

[35 Rem]

I had a tiny part miracle happen not long ago. I have an Uberti Stallion revolver which is a scaled down SAA clone that is chambered for 22LR mostly but they also sell 38 Specials which is what mine is chambered for. Anyhow I had taken it apart and was surprised to see that the Hand spring has been redesigned to no longer use an integrated leaf spring. Now there is a small hole in the rear of the frame through which a push rod and coil spring fit to push the Hand forward. Then we get to the culprit of my story. There is a teeny little plug screw that fills that hole so you can put the grip frame on without losing the spring and pushrod. But you have to use that screw to compress the spring when you are attempting to screw it in. I knew that I should make a guide plate for the screw but didn't take the time to do so. Of course, when I started attempting to put it in while compressing the spring, the teeny screw popped out to the side. The 1st time I caught it. The 2nd time it went off the table and into the carpet. A dark thick carpet too. Disgusted I just got up and quit and watched Gunsmoke instead of bothering with it.

Fast forward nearly 2 months later I remembered a huge magnet that I have and figured that might be my salvation. It worked on the 2nd pass! This time I made a guide plate too with a hole just barely larger than the screw that I could hold against the pistols frame so I could compress the spring without fear of anything escaping the hole. Got it together on the 1st try and it's working fine now.

OH yeah, the original problem was that the firing pin needed to be radiused on the tip because it was failing to release from some primers due to peening and it locked the cylinder up frequently. That was easy to fix by using a collet in a Dremel tool set to hold and spin the firing pin so it could be shaped with an emory board.

[georgerkahn]

My problem usually I have part left over after dis-assembling something. Kinda like the keyboard - always and extra or one missing when I type.

A colleague of mine -- also an electronics tech -- ALWAYS had --often LOTS -- of parts on his bench after he repaired and reassembled the unit he had been assigned to repair. His ALWAYS comment? "It was no doubt over-engineered and over-built.".

[bruce381]

my wife is tired of that game and just walks on bye

[Smk SHoe]

It will only reappear after you just spent a weeks pay replacing it and paying for overnite delivery.

[Minerat]

There's a spring on a RCBS piggyback primer mech that can disappear in a heartbeat. My reloading room had eaten 4 of them. Good thing RCBS will warrant them. The last one I ties a 12" piece of floss on it, yup it went flying only this time with a white tail. When I found it, it was laying next to one of the other 4 that had attempted to escape. It now has a piece of floss tied to it and is in the spare parts drawer. Now if I can find scope cover I dropped last week.:veryconfu

[skeettx]

Ortgies 32 ACP firing pin spring guide, in orbit !!

https://www.gunpartscorp.com/gun-manufacturer/ortgies/pocket-semiauto-ort

[jim 44-40]

Ya, Wife ask for zip ties the other day. Still looking for a monster size bag of them.

[Green Frog]

I was working on an old High Standard auto pistol and the tiny spring behind the extractor went flying, a couple of weeks later I drove 120 miles to visit my parents. As I was unloading the car, a box slipped open and out popped the spring!. I guess it just wasn’t ready then to be reinstalled.
Froggie