That one little expletive part....

[Pablo68 1049]

That when it goes missing can hold you up for months.

I've dropped/lost parts before, a C clip, E-clips of course, others I can't think of atm.

But it's the worst when the part is really specific and can't be substituted, or found easily on evilbay etc.

This time it was a little mount for the steering on the Egress, 5mm diameter, hex on the bottom, 3mm thead through the middle. I was putting the Egress back together after a strip, clean, bearing replacement and I moved my left arm and felt something stick to it, then drop off. I've searched for it for hours over several days, even cleaned out the floor in my work area and couldn't find it. It has held my up for weeks.
Here is the kicker though. I put the pair of shorts I was wearing that day through the wash, and out onto the clothes line. Took them down...yesterday actually, and while checking them for spiders (I'm in Australia) I feel something in the pocket.
I take it out and low and behold, it's the missing part.

Somehow it didn't drop onto the floor, but into the pocket instead, and even stayed in there though the wash. I'm happy to have found the part, but it seems almost impossible to have happened like that.

Regale me with lost part stories, unless you are one of those actually competent and humourless individuals who never lose bits.

[c64orinoco 667]

I’d buy a lotto ticket, your luck seems to be in. 

[Silver-Can 402]

Not so much losing bits and pieces (although I do that regularly), more just never seeming to have the same number of bits and pieces at the end of a strip down, clean and rebuild, than I did at the start. Always, like always end up with either more bits than I started with, or fewer bits than I started with. Usually only the odd screw here or washer/shim there but I don't get it. And the interesting thing is that nothing ever seems to fall off or seize up as a result of my doziness. Long may it last!

[Cynan 520]

Wow lucky.

I dropped a spacer a few days ago. Searched around the desk, my clothes and pockets, carpet etc multiple times. Couldn’t find it. Luckily you can still buy them so I ordered a spare. Annoying though.

Yesterday I decided to vac the carpet. We have a Dyson handheld so you can see what’s picked up. I rotated the vac slowly and there it was. Then the post arrived with the spare. 🤦‍♂️

In the past I lost a C clip but luckily found that the same night. Was in a room with hard flooring so it was easier to see. I tell you carpet is the worst for hiding parts.

[TurnipJF 9192]

I have had several parts go walkabout while the car was out on track, which I have considered myself rather lucky to find again, including the tiny little top spring and retainer from the friction damper on an F103 (a good idea to add an O-ring to the top of the post to stop this from vibrating loose), a grey anodized wheel hex on a grey carpet track, and a 0.1mm wheel shim in an un-lit public car park after dark. 😀

[svenb 3778]

Mine is usually bearings.

Every time I build something there's usually a downtime of a few days waiting for some only to find a load the following day

[Willy iine 18806]

@Pablo68 So now you know why I buy 2 kits at a time for hard to get cars.  

Glad to hear you found it. I've lost a few parts under my RC work desk.. I just can't see very well these days so I wired up a super bright 48" LED lamp UNDER my desk to light up the entire foot area when I loose something.   haha  well, wouldn't help if it fell into my pocket, but usually they fall onto the floor.  

[dmiles 23]

not related to rc, but years ago i had a 1/6 scale action figure darth maul, the head of it fell off and went somewhere. to this day, i havent found the head, 

 

my wife and i joke when we say guess what i found, i always say darth maul head

 

we suspect the cat took it and hid it,  because the head fell off and i had not started looking for it for an hour because i was in the middle of fixing something else on the figure.

[Kol__ 3377]

I sympathise @Pablo68...

I was once putting some shocks together at my desk very late at night, when a shock spring rolled off the desk. Surprisingly a quick look did not find it, and this is a large object, maybe 3" long!

I ended up turning the whole area over in frustration at like 2am in the morning, probably waking the neighbours! Certainly having woken the wife up😯 she also started to help, sharing the frustration of this bizarre disappearance. Still not finding it and having already turned the desk swivel chair over and given it a shake, in a brief moment of clarity I turned my attention to the chair for a more in depth look...

...low and behold upon a detailed inspection there it was, the spring had somehow rolled into the chair where the back meets the seat and there is a mechanism for adjusting the back height and sliding in and out. The gap was the width of the spring and just deep enough for the spring to roll into under the absolute perfect circumstances and then not be able to roll out again. W. T. F🤬

Oh, also there is a thread somewhere on here about the part eating 'carpet monster'...😂

[Pablo68 1049]

4 minutes ago, dmiles said:

not related to rc, but years ago i had a 1/6 scale action figure darth maul, the head of it fell off and went somewhere. to this day, i havent found the head, 

 

my wife and i joke when we say guess what i found, i always say darth maul head

 

we suspect the cat took it and hid it,  because the head fell off and i had not started looking for it for an hour because i was in the middle of fixing something else on the figure.

A long time ago I bought an action figure for my nephews birthday. It was an alien from the film Independance Day.
It was battery operated and was supposed to open up and make a yowling sound when the light changed around it. It never worked very well, or predictably.
They (Sister, hubby and my nephew) had it sitting around for years, and every now and then it woiuld open up and yowl and scare the poop out of them.

[OldSchoolRC1 984]

Not RC, but my brother bought us some little HEXBUG nano vibrating bugs in some kind of battle arena for the kids. Well, the kitties took great interest in these, so my daughter put on one the floor for the cats to play with. 

Of course, within 30 seconds, it skittered it's way under the stove, then under the cabinets and vibrated there for a day or two. No way to get at it, no way to turn it off...just had to wait for the battery to die. Which it did. Or so we thought. 

That was at Christmas. Since then, it just randomly comes to life and starts buzzing in the wall. It buzzes anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, and shuts off, and makes a terrible racket. I have no idea why it does it, it should be dead by now, but it haunts us day and night. 

 

On a side note, we have 2 kittens, and they love to carry stuff around and bat at it. Especially out of my RC workshop. I find random things all over the house. I've found Airbrush stuff, zip ties, wires, and especially tire foams. They somehow get into my tire foam box, grab one, and then run all over the house with it. I have no idea why, but I find them everywhere. 

[Nick-W 1494]

I buy receivers ready for future builds. Put them away safely with all the other RC stuff. The build comes along and no receiver. I’ve no idea where they seem to be going, I’ve checked email recipes and see that I’ve brought far more than I’ve used. It’s just plain weird. 🤷‍♂️

[Saito2 6686]

I remember in my 1:1 wrenching days, dropping a tool occasionally in an engine compartment. The sound of metal on concrete? Yay! The tool made to the floor! No concrete sound? Great. Where did that thing disappear to? sigh. 

I have a "magic" area below my workbench. Typically, something will go missing down there and I don't find it. When I go to look, what I do find is something I lost last week. I know I'll never find that first part because its what I'm concerned with at that time. Give it a week and I'll find it when I'm down there again. Maybe the dropped parts go on vacation for a week or something only to reappear later. Like I said...magic!

[Busdriver 6209]

I’m still looking for an aluminium 12 inch ruler.!!!!!!!!…………….

[Jonathon Gillham 4606]

20 hours ago, Pablo68 said:

 while checking them for spiders (I'm in Australia) 

Did know one else laugh out loud at that? Luckily I had put my drink down.

Had this happen when i had to pick up my new nitro engine. I was feeling smug for remembering to take the mounts off the old one but then dropped a spring washer. Of course it turns up a week later in the slipper i was wearing while taking the old engine out.

[Pablo68 1049]

On 2/20/2023 at 1:18 PM, Jonathon Gillham said:

Did know one else laugh out loud at that? Luckily I had put my drink down.

Had this happen when i had to pick up my new nitro engine. I was feeling smug for remembering to take the mounts off the old one but then dropped a spring washer. Of course it turns up a week later in the slipper i was wearing while taking the old engine out.

Thing is, I don't like sharing my pants with spiders, and it has happened twice that I can think of. Thankfully bitten on places not too sensitive and only by non painful/deadly spiders, so all good.

[HonkSolo 21]

Not related to RC cars but still fun:

I had a GPS mounted to my motorcycle; it required mounting an adapter and replacing the original screws with longer ones. I had the GPS mounted for 10 years and then sold the bike to a friend. I still had the original screws and gave them with the bike to my friend; he would remove the adapter, return it to me and fit the original screws.

Guess what?

He lost the screws I had stored for 10 years within one week....

He couldn't find replacements, so I had to wait months for the GPS adapter ;-)

[Jonathon Gillham 4606]

22 hours ago, Pablo68 said:

Thing is, I don't like sharing my pants with spiders, and it has happened twice that I can think of. Thankfully bitten on places not too sensitive and only by non painful/deadly spiders, so all good.

Over here we don't even think about stuff like that, not everything is out to kill us, or even capable of killing us.  Just the weather lately!

[Pablo68 1049]

2 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

Over here we don't even think about stuff like that, not everything is out to kill us, or even capable of killing us.  Just the weather lately!

You're not wrong, I hope you and yours are safe and well mate.

[mtbkym01 4008]

Mine is a WW2 clear windscreen. I was building the kit on a table in our computer room, which is connected via open plan to lounge room (before my Hobby Room shed was renovated). I think one of the Rag Doll Cats knocked it off the table during a build break, probably played with it on the floor, knocking it around, and it’s completely disappeared. I have since painted the house resulting in pretty much every piece of furniture being moved and that clear piece of plastic is still nowhere to be found

[alvinlwh 5895]

Small part? Well, when making my static models, I regularly had the carpet monster eating up small parts but usually they are ok to go without as they are some small little detail that I can hide with weathering or something. What did matter is a whole 1:35 scale tank turret going missing.

[Busdriver 6209]

On 2/22/2023 at 9:00 AM, alvinlwh said:

Small part? Well, when making my static models, I regularly had the carpet monster eating up small parts but usually they are ok to go without as they are some small little detail that I can hide with weathering or something. What did matter is a whole 1:35 scale tank turret going missing.

If I could find my ruler I could tell you how big it was!!!!!

[Kol__ 3377]

1 hour ago, Busdriver said:

If I could find my ruler I could tell you how big it was!!!!!

Nobody wants that information mate, it's not that sort of forum!😉😂

[MadInventor 3884]

I've quite often lost small parts when parting them off on the lathe. They ping off and disappear under the bed, then when I check the drip tray - nothing. Sometimes it's faster to just make another rather than spend time looking for it.

 

[Kol__ 3377]

12 minutes ago, MadInventor said:

I've quite often lost small parts when parting them off on the lathe. They ping off and disappear under the bed, then when I check the drip tray - nothing. Sometimes it's faster to just make another rather than spend time looking for it.

 

You have a lathe in your bedroom?😵‍💫