The Fourth Dimension

[Dr Jo]

Years ago when I was married I used to find that what ever hand tool I had been using would often or not disappear as soon as I turned my back. I soon discovered that these migrated to my ex's work bench.

The record was 8 identical 4" smooth flat hand files disappearing in a day, every time one went missing I decided I would not chase him but went to the drawer and put another handle on a new file blade and then a few minutes later GONE! He did look sheepish when I enquired why he needed 8 identical hand files piled one on top of another by his vise but it did not stop him.

Since he has been gone the tools still go on holiday but not at the same rate and never to the same location....

Jo

 

[mcostello]

Worst one I have ever done, was grinding a 1" square cube from rough cut stock. Phone rang, I answered, hung up and could not find the cube. Decided I WAS NOT going to make another, job would have to wait till the part showed up. Took 2 weeks and realized I had put it in the water trough to cool off from the grinding. It was below the water level. Smack head for that one!

 

[arnoldb]

I think some tools and workpieces have the fourth dimension built into them...

The chuck keys for my drill press, mill, and the lathe's headstock chucks all tend to remain in their own regular vicinity - never have problems with them.
But the lathe's tailstock chuck key has a habit of wandering all over the show; I regularly have to search the shop for it. The other day after taking a break for a bit to eat I just couldn't find it... NOWHERE...
That evening when I went to fetch a beer I found it : In the fridge, lying on top of the butter tub oh:

The worst are my glasses and the car key though; I've spent hours searching for both when I need to leave for work in the mornings. They wait quietly... and then pounce the moment I want to scratch my head. Then suddenly the glasses are right there on my nose, and the key in my hand... The glasses have another peculiar trick; they like going for a shower early in the mornings; I get out of bed, walk into the shower, and there the glasses are - suddenly on my face.

Regards, Arnold

 

[jpeter]

My kids, much more able than me, were at times able to see into the wormhole and find those lost parts. They though have since left the nest and its now solely my responsibility to view into the wormhole. I'm finding as I age the wormhole appearing darker and less revealing than once was, becoming harder to see into.

 

[moconnor]

Hello All,

When I was old enough to go to my Uncle's machine shop with my Dad to watch and eventually help when they worked on the racing engines for his hydroplanes, I was gradually introduced to all of the technical terms and shop jargon at an early age. There was one term that initially puzzled me though as it was often used to describe any number of small retaining fasteners like e-clips, retaining rings or those Spirolox retainers for piston pins. You know the type that you must either expand or compress with a set of special pliers or tool to fit into an external or internal groove. The term was a 'Jesus clip'. I remember asking my Dad's partner and engine builder why they called them that as the Spirolox clip he was trying to install into a piston went sailing across the shop never to be seen again, he exclaimed "Jesus!" Over the years, I have heard many of my co-workers refer to these items in the same way. It taught me a good lesson early on as I always try to keep an assortment of the common e-clips, retaining rings and small nuts that I often use in my shop. It never fails though, no matter how careful you try to be, something that you don't have an extra one of will fall on the floor and get lost or waste more time to look for.

Great thread.

Regards,
Mike

 

[tornitore45]

I am glad to see I am not the only one that lose trach of parts and tools.
I am not a very clean worker, tools, clamping accessories calipers etch pile up until can't find anyting... that is the signal to place everything back where it belong and sweep the floor.

I have 3 benches in the shop and most fallen object used to scutter underneath. Tired of bending down with a flashlight I blanked out the gap between the bottom shelf and the floor with strip of thin plywood.
Did not completely solve the problem because there are other places to hide but considerably reduced the search area.

I never found the 15mm socket lost 5 years ago.

 

[Maryak]

Being a retired Marine Engineer, most of my tools and instruments various have nominated part of the 4th Dimension water. There is a 1" micrometer, a selection of Witworth spanners, a lovely Zippo lighter and a 2lb hammer lurking on the bottom of Sydney Harbour. 2 mobile phones, a very nice camera and several more spanners somewhere in the mud of the port Adelaide River. I refuse to own up to what I left in Hong Kong Harbour or Subic Bay in the Phillipines.

The other part of the 4th Dimension is commonly called swarf. Every part dropped in the workshop immediately camouflages itself as swarf and every piece of swarf on the shop floor has a symbiotic reaction and camouflages itself as the dropped item.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[Mosey]

I made an important discovery recently and I do thank Einstein for this revelation. I took a cue from him to think outside the box after several important small parts fell from the workbench recently. After an hour of crawling around on the dirty shop floor, shining a flashlight this way and that, running a magnet on a stick coming up empty, I began to think...what if I were riding on that little metal part? How would the world look from a falling set screw? I heard the screw hit the floor, but did it? Possibly, from the floor's point of view the set screw never reached the floor at all. I began to look at the problem in a new light. There must be a place, or dimension if you will, that the set screw popped into. A quantum foam of some sort. At that relative place in time, my eyes gazed upward from the floor. Lo and behold, there between the floor and the benchtop was a shelf, out of sight, out of mind. As sure as e=mc squared, there were all my missing parts from the past 8 months.

I don't know if you made up that term (quantum foam), but it is the best one I can remember hearing in a long while. I shall use it myself. Thanks.

 

[mklotz]

I don't know if you made up that term (quantum foam), but it is the best one I can remember hearing in a long while. I shall use it myself.

Of course there is such a thing as the quantum foam. It's as real as anything else in quantum mechanics. Read all about it here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_foam

 

[Harold Lee]

I have to tell you guys.... I have not laughed so much in a long time. What I see is we are all connected with the same experiences. When this thread started veering off into Quantum Foam It took me back to the 60s when we would be sitting outside and looking up at the stars and...... Well you have probably seen Jack Nicholson in Easy Rider at the campfire scene.... You know what I mean!!! All of you really brightened my day. THANK YOU!!!!

Harold

Now where did I put my glasses?

 

[Mosey]

It's difficult to read this cause the smoke is burning my eyes, but I think he's got it! Now I know exactly where to look for those 0-80 screws that dropped in my lap and never hit the floor.

 

[Ken I]

I found my Ryobi skill saw today (when I no longer need it) - its in its usual place under the bench - I wonder where its been the last few days.

P.S. when I turn my back on it I imagine I hear it giggling at me.

The perversity of power tools.

Ken

 

[Blue_Rock]

Hmmm, yes that most curious of places the 4th dimension… to where many small parts, tools and miscellanea often disappear, with very few making the jump back. A few years ago, my compact digital camera mysteriously disappeared. A few weeks later, it reappeared… with a few eerie photos that had been taken... not by me.

Ken, Rather than falling foul of the 4th dimension, I think what you are experiencing is a mild case of Selectively Hard to Identify Tools syndrome. Left untreated, this illness can escalate into the much nastier Buy Unneeded Goods and Get Extra Replacement tools syndrome.

Here are the photos from my camera... There seem to be an abundance of springs, small nuts and bolts. I can also faintly make out what appear to be clock parts?

 

[Mosey]

When I was little we stopped at the Turnpike gas station for awhile, and there were some guys trying to fix a Ferrari that had a loud vibration at speed. They kept fussing under the hood and taking it out and coming right back, with the noise still there, and driving them crazy. Naturally us kids were watching in ecstacy. The guys were tearing their hair. Then my mom, who knew absolutely nothing about cars, let alone Ferraris, said "maybe it's that wrench lying against the firewall?"

 

[dsquire]

When I was little we stopped at the Turnpike gas station for awhile, and there were some guys trying to fix a Ferrari that had a loud vibration at speed. They kept fussing under the hood and taking it out and coming right back, with the noise still there, and driving them crazy. Naturally us kids were watching in ecstacy. The guys were tearing their hair. Then my mom, who knew absolutely nothing about cars, let alone Ferraris, said "maybe it's that wrench lying against the firewall?"

Mossy


I love that one. I have heard different versions of that over the years and it always makes me feel good when I hear one like that. Here is my true story.

Many years ago, probably about 1978 or '79. I had to get my drivers licence renewed. The Motor vehicle and Driver license office had just converted to using the computer for printing out the license. I had filled out the form and given all the information including my postal code which was "N0B 2G0" When the clerk entered all this information the computer spit it all back out saying that there was invalid information. They looked at it and keyed it all in again even though they couldn't see anything wrong with it and it was spit out again. They have supervisors and everyone looking at this and re keying it and it still won't compute.

You have to understand my postal code "N0B 2G0". It is N0(zero)B 2G0(zero)
or alpha,numeric,alpha numeric,alpha,numeric.

I had been watching as well wondering what was happening and when they were going to figure it out as I just wanted to get going as I had a run scheduled. I asked the clerk what she typed in for the postal code. She said NOB 2GO. I told her to try NzeroB 2Gzero and it worked like a charm. A typewriter doesn't care if you use "0" or "O" but a computer does. They were pretty impressed that I knew this and they all learned something that day. The only reason that I knew it was that I had a Casio FX-602P calculator which was programmable. Kind of made my day that did.

Cheers

Don
edit: Spelling

1256​

 

[Ken I]

Selectively Hard to Identify Tools syndrome

Rof}

Sorry I'm a bit slow but got it eventually.

Ken