This happens to me with every model.  I'll have a small piece in the twizzers, it goes flying, and I didn't see which direction it went.  I'm still missing a pitot tube, and the triangular shaped piece of landing gear door from a C-17.  It grew legs and walked away. 

I lost a part about three days ago. Then found it last night, and glued it on right away so I wouldn't lose it again!

I purposely put tile (vinyl peel-n-stick) under/around the bench...this rest of the room has a berber style carpet. Every effort of that monster has been thwarted, so far!

In recent years, I've lost one part...1/48 109 canopy. How it flung away in the way it did, I can't wrap my head around. I never heard it hit anything. Scanned every inch of the floor, shelves, cabinets...everywhere. Ordered a new one. Naturally, right after I got the replacement part on the model, I found the original. 3 weeks had passed, I had had a few band reheasals, and other company...the part was laying right in the main traffic area. How it dodged all the traffic...I'll never know!

Ah, yes.  The joys and adventure of a part flying off to eternity, the ensuing search party of you and the language of a 30 year Navy Master Chief.  Even the cats quit helping the search with that and go hide.  And the absolute joy and relief of finding it before you crush it underfoot and have to try and order a replacement or fabricate your own. 

Have even considered hanging clear plastic sheeting from floor to ceiling around the work area to narrow down the search grid, but that turns out to be a no-no......

Anyone who hasn't succombed has not modeled.

I had that problem and then decided to attached an old bed sheet to the edge of my workbench and drap the other end across my chair when I am in it.  It catches everything I drop and when I am not working it just hangs there covering everything i have under the bench.  

It doesn't help with the parts the shoot off the end of the tweezers but I put all of the tall jars and bottles at the end of the bench.  Being right handed I put most of then on the left side of the bench. This increased the chance that the part will hit the jars and such and bounce back onto the bench. 

Doing this I have greatly reduce the amount of time I used to spend on hands and knees looking for parts that escaped my grasp.

Hey Fermis ;

   I thought muself and Humper were the only ones who suffered from Carpet-itis . It's nice to know you do to . It is funny though isn't it . Delicate part , worrisome to replace and it survives in the main traffic pattern in the home for a long time .

   Had a machine gun from a King Tiger turret missing for a month . Found it stuck to a baseboard in the hall . Thing is, it was undamaged !

goldhammer

Have even considered hanging clear plastic sheeting from floor to ceiling around the work area to narrow down the search grid

I will sometime take an old white sheet and lay it under the bench and chair. This method has saveed me many time while working with PE. It can't help the part that launches from the tweezers though. I still have a part of substancial size off my 1/32 Mustang which to date has never shown up 

what get's me is you look for day's for the part , can't find it make a new one , start a new model look on the floor there's the part you lost .aaaahhh!!!

Not a failsafe, but a help, after losing a few, I put a dark colored towel on the floor and can more easily find dropped parts than when they fell into beige berber carpet.

I still can't believe that peice for the C-17 never showed up.  Hubby even helped look for it.  The weird thing is it was sitting on the table with the other 3.  I took a break, and went outside for a little while.  Come back in and one was missing.  It should of been easy to find, the inside was painted white.  Unless one of my cats pawed it under a piece of furniture. 

I had a landing gear get knocked off a plane as I was putting back on the bench,  looked everywhere, moved everything even looked in every box that was near (parts have been known to hide in any open box near the bench)  A couple of days later after I had emailed the Polish model company for a new I accidentally found it lodged in the cross member of one of the saw horses that hold up my work bench,  about 8 inches off the floor.  Crazy place to land

John

keyda

Go to Harbor Freight and get a small can of "Liquid Tape". This product is liquid plastic used to brush on electrical wire connections and to dip tool handles for better grip. Dunk the tweezer tips in the stuff and let it dry. It leaves a thin plastic film on the tips that will prevent parts from flying off. The only bad thing is the carpet monster will not like you any more!

During my last build, I dropped the nose retraction arm of a 1/48 scale Monogram Phantom right in fron of my bench on the tile floor. This is by all means NOT a small part, measuring about 1" in lenght. I gave up on the part after several hours of looking and moving things around. I took the pat off another Phantom in the stash and continued with the build.

Long and behold, 26 days later I see the part on the middle of the room waving at me!!   

I have a vinyl tile floor in my workbench area, and it doesn't help a bit.  I think it just enables parts to bounce further after they first hit.

I also find a propensity for parts to bounce in the direction of the bench.  The bench pedestals are on casters, and that leaves room for parts to bounce under the pedestals.  I need to come up with some combing that will cover the open area at the bottom.

It really is amazing how far small, light parts will bounce.  Silly putty and things like that have nothing on parts from a kit on how high and far they will bounce.  Even if I see about where they are headed when they fall, they never end up there.

And when I do have to do the hands, knee, optivisor and flashlight  I realize how much I hate my dog!   Ewwwwww!

Yeah, but will any of that stop the gremlins that keep stealing and hiding my parts??? 

I stopped loosing some of the dropped parts by sticking a long piece of velcro to the underside of the edge of the workbench. My wife sewed the other part of the velcro to the bottom edge of a carpenters apron. When at the bench, I put the apron on and stick the velcro together. It provides a nice soft place for the parts to go instead of on the floor. It has also stopped the dreaded #11 roll into the leg. It won't stop the fly-away PE but every little bit helps.

Jim  

Gamera

Yeah, but will any of that stop the gremlins that keep stealing and hiding my parts??? 

 No,   we forget parts also have a mind of their own, unfortunatly.

fox

I stopped loosing some of the dropped parts by sticking a long piece of velcro to the underside of the edge of the workbench. My wife sewed the other part of the velcro to the bottom edge of a carpenters apron. When at the bench, I put the apron on and stick the velcro together. It provides a nice soft place for the parts to go instead of on the floor. It has also stopped the dreaded #11 roll into the leg. It won't stop the fly-away PE but every little bit helps.

Jim  

 

 

 

I tried that, but kept forgetting to undo it when I would get up.  I finally hemmed another piece of cloth and attached it to spring clips on the bottom of the work surface.  But, then I forget to pull it over my lap when I sit down at the bench!

My next attempt will be a foam rubber surface with some extension support so that it will extend out from the front of the bench and will conform to my waist when I sit down.  Taking awhile to design it, though.

I lost 2 very small clear bits just yesterday.  Since they were clear....and did I mention very small....I didn't even bother looking for them after they sprung, and I mean sprung lose from the reverse action tweezers.  I took it as they weren't supposed to make it on to the completed model.  Shhh, don't tell anyone, lol.

keyda

I think the liquid plastic on the tweezer tips would have prevented the slipping. Use a flashlight perpendicular to the floor as the light will cast a shadow and most of the times the parts can be recovered.

For years now I have heard the hype about the future micromachining and nanobots.  Wouldn't it be great if someone produced nanobots trained to recognize model parts, and would patrol our shop floors?  We could set a collection bin on the floor, and the 'bots would collect any model parts they found on the floor and deposit them in the collection bin.

I bought a 1/72 Dragon SHerman and the first part of the kit went flying somewhere. It was part of the wheel structure. I still haven t found it.. I cant even get to Step #2.. LOL! 

" />for me , it was a gun port door , I just should be able to see something like this

I once lost a tool (it was a homemade sanding stick) to the carpet monster.

a towel or shop apron workds. doing PE inside big plastic bags can work. moving all the parts as close to each other as possible so limited time in tweezers.

very funny ,

I saw a monster in my carpet.  I must have monster carpet?

There.