Virtually every modeler knows the joy of searching the carpet or floor for a tiny part that flew off their workbench. In many cases, you never find it again and have to face the prospect of making a new one. It happened to me many times and I finally decided to do something about it. I call it "the Catcher".
I drew up a design and my wife made if for me. It's a piece of cloth attached to the bottom of my worktables and stretched across my lap. Its held firmly against my...ahh...considerable midsection with elastic. A picture of the Catcher in place is shown below.
The cloth is secured to the bottom of the workbench(es) with hook and loop sections. One side of each section is sewn onto the material and the other is glued under the bench top. The elastic is sewn onto the front with pieces sticking out at both ends. These are tied into a loop and are hooked over cup hooks.
My catcher is cut at an angle to fit my work area but you can make it square or rectangular. If you don't have a workbench on either side, you can make some swing out arms that you can lock it place. The Catcher is easy to remove when not in use or to wash it.
This thing has saved innumerable small parts that otherwise would be lost, and saved me a lot of rework. It's easy to make and I hope it works for you.
Cheers,
Russ Feldt