Reducing dropped parts loss

[misterNNL]

We've all been there...we drop a part while working on a project,it hits the floor and disappears for ever to who knows where. We grumble,growl and possibly mumble a couple bad words to ourselves! My biggest problem other than chronic clumsiness is having a hard floor in my dedicated model room so everything I drop bounces away at weird angles and is lost forever.

Having had multiple knee surgeries and closing in fast on my 76th birthday I can no longer get down on those knees to search for small stuff. I needed an easy solution. Last week I decided to simply lay an old bath towel right under my bench to catch fallen parts or at least stop them bouncing way. That works very well and I have happily been able to find all but one really small dropped piece. This is simple and inexpensive solution to a problem we all have.

[John Pol]

some people use apron to catch parts and put vecro on the side of the table and two strips on the apron

[oldnslow]

Yep , I have a bad case of fumblitis , I have a grocery store style apron tacked to my bench , about 3' wide . I hook the top over my head when I sit down and it catches 99% of what I drop .

[BigTallDad]

If you have a small vacuum, stuff a sock (with no holes) on the inside of the tube and secure the outside of the sock with tape. Fire up the vacuum, hose around the area, then shut the vacuum off. When you remove the sock, everything sucked up will be inside the sock.

[peteski]

4 hours ago, John Pol said:

some people use apron to catch parts and put vecro on the side of the table and two strips on the apron

That's exactly what I do.  My neighbor (RIP) made an apron for me (sewing was her hobby) and I had her put a strip of Velcro on the bottom edge.   The mating Velcro strip is stuck under the bench top.  I put the apron on, sit down and reach under the workbench to attach the apron to the Velcro. Even if I accidentally get up, the Velcro releases safely.

It is an age-old watchmaker's trick.  It works great (if I don't forget to wear it)!

[Art Anderson]

I simply use a terry cloth bath towel (in my case, it's a dark maroon),  which simply catches and holds any small part I might drop in my lap accidentally.   My workroom is carpeted with large remnants of closed-loop commercial grade carpeting, which I got at Office Depot years ago, when I moved in here--laid down originally to protect the carpeting already laid down, and in case something hits that floor covering, I have several of the very bright battery operated LED hand-held lamps, two are 10" bar lamps, 4 are 3" round units---those have yet to fail me whenever a  part drops to the floor and skitters off somewhere.

Art