Have I got some kind interdimensional gate in my lab? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: david77
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 11:21:30 am
content: Good day fellow lab owners.I'm asking this question because I've dropped my favourite pair of Tweezers from the bench this morning. Of course I wanted to pick them up immediately but they were nowhere to be seen. I've since stopped what I wanted to do and spent the last 3 hours on my knees looking for the damned thing. I even got the hoover out and started cleaning the floor, I moved furniture and went through the waste bins with a fine toothed comb. Nothing.I saw the tweezers flying off the table in the corner of my eye and I'm sure I heard it land somewhere. Maybe some sort of wormhole or portal has opened up where they landed and now they're gone? I'm sure it will open again sometime in the next few weeks and spit my tweezers out.I will come to the lab one day, switch on the lights and they will just lie there on the floor, all innocent while they've been on some kind of interdimensional journey to other times and places. This pair of tweezers has done that before.Am I insane? Have you got a tool that does that, too? Maybe my tweezers have turned up in your lab?Have a nice Sunday.

author: NivagSwerdna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 11:23:17 am
content: Borrowers

author: chris_leyson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 11:42:23 am
content: I had exactly the same thing happen at my last job. Knocked the tweezers off the bench and heard them land on the floor, they were never seen again, weird.

author: cvanc
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 12:18:18 pm
content: A few minutes ago a small spot on my wall got... well... 'shimmery'... and a pair of tweezers shot out and embedded themselves in the far wall.Please give me your mailing address; I will return what's left of them.

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 12:19:44 pm
content: Just buy new ones and the old ones will show up in no time.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 01:30:27 pm
content: It was the tweezers monster sitting on a gigantic pile of tweezers well hidden at some secret place.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 01:37:23 pm
content: You guys are too tense ... some refreshments ...

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 02:19:33 pm
content: Check your trousers / shoes / legs / feet for protruding tools!

author: mk_
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 03:10:49 pm
content: I buy always(!) 2 of of the same kind when buying this tiny tuff, not only tweezers.If one of them disappear the other one appears within minutes. They all play this game now for more then 25years :-)

author: edpalmer42
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 04:15:13 pm
content: You'll find them next to the pile of missing socks!

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 05:26:47 pm
content: Missing socks? Have you looked in the freezer?

author: Messtechniker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 05:38:00 pm
content: If the tweezers are magnetic, dicking around with astrong magnet on a (former antenna) stick may helpto find this item and possibly other lost items.

author: david77
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 06:18:26 pm
content: Quote from: madires on January 12, 2020, 05:26:47 pmNice suggestion.I've actually moved the freezer, which is located in the lab. No tweezers, just dust and all kinds of othe junk.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 06:25:52 pm
content: At least you have to DROP things into your black-hole. I lay a tool down and turn around to do something and turn back (without moving to a different place) and the tool is gone! I swear there's something reaching out of my black-hole that reaches out and snatches my tools! My black-hole has been following me around for years. It's even moved from side of the US to the other and from the north to the south.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 06:28:52 pm
content: No problem, I just pull another from the pile i got at the scrapyard.......

author: thinkfat
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 06:38:56 pm
content: Quote from: Messtechniker on January 12, 2020, 05:38:00 pmIf they are, they're not worth keeping.

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 06:47:46 pm
content: Dropped things can bounce. Dropped things that are "springy", like tweezers, can REALLY bounce! You might get out a big magnet (salvaged fromloudspeaker or hard drive) and sweep a wide area. Of course, you'll get lots of small junk, but maybe pick up the tweezers (and all that other stuffthat you've been missing.)Jon

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 06:51:12 pm
content: I've used the magnet trick many times, it might not work with tweezers though as they are often made of stainless which is not magnetic. Look closely in the nooks and crannies of the furniture, I've had things fall and catch in various parts of my chair and the framework under the bench. Things also fall into boxes of parts, or land at an angle that makes them nearly invisible with the way the light is falling.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 06:53:14 pm
content: Quote from: Stray Electron on January 12, 2020, 06:25:52 pmThe worst is when I start looking for it and then realize it's in my other hand. I've done that once or twice with my phone too, I was talking on the phone with a friend about something and thought oh I'll just take a picture to show you, and reached for my pocket to grab my phone to take a picture and thought "where the heck is my phone??"

author: Gregg
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 08:20:25 pm
content: All of your “lost” SMD devices have kidnapped the tweezers and are holding them in ransom for past torture the tweezers have inflicted on poor SMD components. As soon as the numbers of the rebel SMD forces are strong enough, the soldering iron will be next to disappear.And who knows where lost SMD devices go?

author: david77
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 11:53:10 pm
content: At least the irons are kept on leashes...

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 12, 2020, 11:59:40 pm
content: It is the same with Bic pens and umbrellas - your tweezers left the Matrix and were red pilled.Just wait for the day they find themselves in enough numbers and rise from their hiding places to dominate the world.

author: aargee
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 01:11:21 am
content: Strange, I have this spot on my workshop floor where pens, fasteners, tweezers, SMD components keep appearing... waiting for the socks to show up. :-P

author: blacksheeplogic
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 01:14:24 am
content: My stuff always turns up once I no longer need them. Be patient, one day when you don't need them, they will be right where you left them however, if you really really need them now, purchase a new pair and they will be waiting for you when you get home.

author: vk6zgo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 01:42:29 am
content: Quote from: PA0PBZ on January 12, 2020, 12:19:44 pmThis is what happens with 9/16" / 1/2" AF set spanners.When we went Metric, I thought "Aha! that won't happen any more", but now it's 14mm / 13mm spanners.Never mind, the "Imperial" sized spanners are now turning up from the other dimension, & they are "near as dammit" the same size, anyway!

author: I wanted a rude username
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 01:46:01 am
content: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a very unevenly edited book and contains many passages that simply seemed to its editors like a good idea at the time.One of these (the one Arthur now came across) supposedly relates the experiences of one Veet Voojagig, a quiet young student at the University of Maximegalon, who pursued a brilliant academic career studying ancient philology, transformational ethics and the wave harmonic theory of historical perception, and then, after a night of drinking Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters with Zaphod Beeblebrox, became increasingly obsessed with the problem of what had happened to all the ballpoints he’d bought over the past few years.There followed a long period of painstaking research during which he visited all the major centers of ballpoint loss throughout the Galaxy and eventually came up with a quaint little theory which quite caught the public imagination at the time. Somewhere in the cosmos, he said, along with all the planets inhabited by humanoids, reptiloids, fishoids, walking treeoids and superintelligent shades of the color blue, there was also a planet entirely given over to ballpoint life forms. And it was to this planet that unattended ballpoints would make their way, slipping away quietly through wormholes in space to a world where they knew they could enjoy a uniquely ballpointoid life-style, responding to highly ballpoint-oriented stimuli, and generally leading the ballpoint equivalent of the good life.And as theories go this was all very fine and pleasant until Veet Voojagig suddenly claimed to have found this planet, and to have worked there for a while driving a limousine for a family of cheap green retractables, whereupon he was taken away, locked up, wrote a book and was finally sent into tax exile, which is the usual fate reserved for those who are determined to make fools of themselves in public.When one day an expedition was sent to the spatial coordinates that Voojagig had claimed for this planet they discovered only a small asteroid inhabited by a solitary old man who claimed repeatedly that nothing was true, though he was later discovered to be lying.There did, however, remain the question of both the mysterious sixty thousand Altairian dollars paid yearly into his Brantisvogan bank account, and of course Zaphod Beeblebrox’s highly profitable secondhand ballpoint business.—Douglas Adams,The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 10:46:32 am
content: Hmm. So we should look for an online shop for secondhand tweezers?

author: digsys
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 10:57:47 am
content: I'd long for something that easy !!A few weeks ago, I suddenly let out a huge sneeze, and blew a few 100 - 0603s, TSSOP transistors etc etc all over the carpeted room !! I was sorting them for a production run. I now have a very expensive carpet - wonder if I should sell it, mentioning the component list?

author: Brumby
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 11:03:41 am
content: I took steps to address this issue...I mounted two LED strips from a TV backlight under my desk, with a switch close at hand. It lights up the under desk area better than my desk lighting. When anything hits the floor, I hit the switch and things immediately become more visible.Well, that was the theory.In practice, it's only reduced my lost item count by a small percentage. It doesn't help much for items that roll or bounce long distances.Quote from: digsys on January 13, 2020, 10:57:47 amAh, yes.... SMD sand. I have a bit of that going on as well - but not 100 transistors in one go!

author: Circlotron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 11:15:32 am
content: Quote from: rsjsouza on January 12, 2020, 11:59:40 pmWe lived in our first house for 3-1/2 years and during that time we progressively bought 6 boxes of 100 ball point pens. When we packed up and shifted, completely emptied the house, we found 4 pens. 596 of them had slipped into a parallel universe.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 07:27:57 pm
content: Quote from: vk6zgo on January 13, 2020, 01:42:29 amFunny enough, speaking about 9/16 spanners, I was using some today, helping a guy to undo a few bolts on a Cadillac, 1904 version. interesting vehicle, no electrics in it aside from a 6v battery to run the ignition, no lights, and it is coach built, meaning all of the upper section is wood. exhaust needs repair, and it will be easy to rebuild, just have to find some stove pipe to make a new muffler, though i think there adding a few baffles and some glass wool would also help, seeing as the inside is just soot, none of the asbestos fill left any more.

author: jmelson
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2020, 09:41:00 pm
content: Quote from: digsys on January 13, 2020, 10:57:47 amGet a magnet salvaged from a scrap hard drive, it will pick all these parts up just fine. All SMT components seem to have a tiny bit of magnetic plating or something in them.Jon

author: TerraHertz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 01:37:53 am
content: Quote from: david77 on January 12, 2020, 11:21:30 amPlease stop dropping things! It's getting hard to walk around in here.

author: Neomys Sapiens
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 02:43:14 am
content: Things like that happen. See here:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/testgear/test-equipment-anonymous-(tea)-group-therapy-thread/msg2813808/#msg2813808

author: SparkyFX
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 05:14:45 am
content: Quote from: david77 on January 12, 2020, 11:21:30 amTime to get glasses.... otoh the glasses have a similar behavior.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 06:20:29 am
content: Ah yes the mysterious teleporting tweezers.Not only do they have this capability when falling on the floor but also when just left undisturbed on a table. With how my tweezers disappear and somehow reappear 2 weeks later in a spot i clearly would have seen them if i had been looking for them means that they must have traveled to an alternate dimension for the duration of those 2 weeks.But falling from the table seams to stimulate this effect that much more since every time i drop a more important component or screw or some other delicate part, i start looking around under there and find about 20 different components/screws/parts but none of them is the one i have just dropped, that one will reappear after a few weeks when i drop another one and go looking for that.

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 06:47:52 am
content: Also the reverse logic feature that the easier the flooring material would seem to make finding lost screws / tools, the harder it becomes to locate them, e.g. carpet > wood > Concrete > white linoOh dropped a bag of 100 0402 black resistors into dark brown carpet, found 98 of them in 10 minutes, dropped 4 black screws onto white lino, in a room with nothing else on the floor and only elevated workbenches, nope, gone from existence,I've faced the same with large panels out of vehicles aswell, oh where did that 1 meter long air vent panel out of the bus go?, go for lunch, come back and suddenly somewhere we would have tripped over to even go for lunch. sometimes you just need to call there bluff

author: paullo
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 01:08:47 pm
content: You will find them in the last place you look, every time.

author: larrybl
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 03:54:48 pm
content: I have a tool socket set in the trunk of my car, needed a 10mm socket, yep you guessed it, gone. Brand new set also. I have several containers of stray sockets in the shop. went through about 100 sockets and not one 10mm in sight. I have heard of the 10mm issue from others also.And yes, I have a magnet bar on wheels and a magnet retractable wand, neither captures what I have dropped, but work great finding stuff I wasn't looking for.I need to move the freezer and see what is lurking under there.

author: Messtechniker
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 06:32:00 pm
content: Yep, same problem here with both 10 mm sockets and 10 mm spannersBuy ten 10 mm sockets and soon have none

author: PA0PBZ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 07:15:12 pm
content: +1 for the 10 mm sockets, they seem to live in a 4th dimension like USB cables.

author: Berni
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 09:07:10 pm
content: Quote from: PA0PBZ on January 15, 2020, 07:15:12 pmNah my explanation for that is that USB cables always start off in a quantum superposition of both up and down states. The first attempt of plugging it in collapses it in to the right state, so turning it around for a second attempt always gets the wrong state and finally the third flip gets you to the right state.However with recent advances in quantum physics we have finally managed to perfect a technology for collapsing superposition state of the connector before making physical contact with its mating part, thus allowing it to get into the up position by the time it is connected, so due to this it got the name USB-C (C standing for Collapsing superposition)

author: Ice-Tea
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 09:19:40 pm
content: Check behind your ear. Or in case you're really tired: in your hand. As in "now, where did I put that pen"? While pointing around the room with said pen.

author: Whales
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 15, 2020, 10:28:06 pm
content: Rolled up cuffs on my pants.

author: bsudbrink
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2020, 04:16:09 pm
content: Guaranteed method for finding the lost tweezers:1) Remove shoes and socks.2) Shuffle randomly around your lab for ten to fifteen minutes.3) Ask the emergency room doctor to give them back to you after he/she removes them from your foot.

author: shakalnokturn
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2020, 08:41:12 pm
content: Once you've forgotten them they'll show up as plasma in that expensive high energy equipment you have lying in a corner.Just the same way tools lost working on car mechanics will eventually show-up across the starter motor solenoid B+ and body or caught on a belt.Try sending us a few photos of your lab from different angles see the wild suggestions you get, maybe see someone will actually corner them!

author: Red Squirrel
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2020, 09:45:41 pm
content: I had that happen with a "go / no go" test tool for a pex crimper. It was just to check that your crimp is ok. I did a crimp, checked it, got off my ladder and I never saw it again. that was like at least 5 years ago and never found it. Still a mystery to me to this day.

author: jh15
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2020, 02:38:18 am
content: I have some kind of // universe portal. If something disappears of great importance, worthy of a major search, I'll find an equally important item long ago given up on.

author: jh15
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 17, 2020, 02:41:26 am
content: Over thousands of miles on my road bicycles, I've collected many nice automotive tools. Likely forgotten under a hood or on roof.

author: ZaphodBeeblebrox
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: January 19, 2020, 06:21:54 pm
content: Quote from: I wanted a rude username on January 13, 2020, 01:46:01 amPoor Veet. He lost his towel somewhere along the way. Hoopy frood though. Hey, wanna have fun? I got this collection of ballpoints on limited offer...Also, I seem to be suffering from Elusive Calliper Syndrome. Can anybody help?

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 19, 2020, 06:43:26 pm
content: I can attest to the 10mm socket issue. was helping a friend yesterday to install his new built in oven, seeing as the old one was kind of not useful, having the bottom rusted completely away. Using his tool set, and on checking the box afterwards I saw the 10mm 1/4in drive socket is gone, missing, just a hole in the black foam insert. We did not use it, just needed a T10 hex driver there to undo the bosch screws that hold the back on, and the flat screwdriver to attach the mains wiring. But it was gone, though we did not use it. We have suspects as to where it is gone to, so he is checking the car today to see if it was transported there, though probably we will end up buying a new one to replace it.I do however have a large collection of 12mm 1/2in drive sockets, they tend to breed, but you can never find the 10 or the 13, though today I was using the 12mm, because of course Renault! Did manage to fit a VW electric fan in instead of the unobtanium Renault part, just a little finessing and it went in.Now have to buy a new one, because the old one on my car is still noisy but running, but is not likely to last too much longer. Also got to remember just how French design works, having to dismantle the front half of the vehicle to get that fan out, though I was pleasantly surprised that almost all of the plastic clips actually came undone with little problem, and actually mostly went back as well, though I did add a few bits of red rubber grease to them going back, because some time or the other it will have to come apart again, and I was aiming to make life easy for the person. Only 2 cable ties needed to get it back together, and now the engine will keep cool.

author: Neomys Sapiens
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2020, 12:54:00 am
content: This series extends downwards to 5.5/7/8mm, corresponding to regular M3, M4, and M5 nuts and hex head screws. So when you find nutdrivers. they are always 5, 6, 9, or 11mm. When you reach for a small cutter, you are going to find only scalpel blades and vice versa. The universe seems to dislike tool users.