The shop gremlin struck again

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doubleh

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Yesterday afternoon I swapped the scope on my Ruger #1 22-250. Of course I manged to drop one of those tiny ring screws and the little rascal must have grabbed it out of the air as I never saw it hit the floor. My gremlin defeating wife was under the weather and taking a nap so her help wasn't an option. A bright flashlight was no help. I finally scared him into giving it back by poking a strong magnet on a handle into all the dark places under my work desk and shelf unit beside it. It took me about ten minutes to do what my wife would have accomplished in a minute or two. At least I didn't have to call Ruger for a replacement screw.
 
Someone ought to make available an assortment of gun/scope screws for a decent price. Just because they have a fine thread, that's no reason to charge $3.50 per screw. I call that a screw job! :)
 
I have the same gremlin... he hides the screwdriver I just set down, bounces dropped things as far back under the workbench as possible, etc...:fire:
 
Glad you found it. A few years ago I bought a couple of assortments of screws. One of them was all scope ring and base screws. I've used a few of them too!
 
My gremlins are a bit different.

Just as I have an AR balanced just right that I may look down the rail to make it straight as I am tightening it down, they strike! One will look at or touch the other. Unable to let it stand, the latter will retaliate against the former. "Dadi" will be shouted and the din of discontent will grow until I am unable to finish. I will set everything down to go alleviate the confliction. Just as I get upstairs everything will subside and the cause of the disruption will be forgot, just as I inquire "What's going on here?"

With serenity bestowed back upon the living room I head back to my lair. After regrouping and setting everything back into "plane" and putting some Allen head screws back into their respective holes... "Dadi!":confused:

I have foiled the "Screw Gremlins" by hot gluing a magnet straight to the bench, up by the wall. I love magnets!

Short of hog-tying the two in separate rooms, I have not yet foiled the "Kaddiddlehopper Gremlins".:)
 
Somewhere, in the dark depths of the basement of our old house, there are several 1911 recoil spring plugs, myriad screws and a few springs. Told the new owners I'd give a small reward for each.
 
Evidently I didn't scare mine very much yesterday afternoon. I dropped a drill driver bit today and he had it instantly. I decided to let him keep it and play with it or whatever he does with the things he collects until tomorrow. If he hasn't put it out in plain sight I'll get after him with that long handled magnet again.
 
I know a gunsmith that has part of his basement dedicated to taking things apart. He collects ww1 era pistols and doesn’t like to make parts should he have one go flying.

The bench, walls, and floor are all painted white and it is well lit. The door has a rubber weather strip.

Apparently it has proved it’s worth when the alternative is making screws and springs.

Hb
 
I had to put a very low and tight carpet in the gun room to keep the gremlins away. It seems that they only like to steal things that bounce or roll. The carpet stops most of that. There is still the occasional giggle and run from beneath the bench, but a lot less now.
 
NOTHING ever drops straight down. Don't you boyz know that by now.:rofl:

I have found things up to 15 feet away from a 3 foot drop. I found a spring on my dog once and one in a box I already looked in a number of times. I would also love the time I spent looking for dropped items back in my life.
 
I've got 4 boxes of various assorted gun screws in the shop because this is bound to happen now and then and I just don't have the time to spend looking for a tiny screw.
 
I've managed to chase the gremlins away, but the singularity under my workbench was immovable.
Smooth cement floors. Swept every day after projects. The workbench was built down flush with the floor on the sides and back to prevent stuff from rolling under it from an angle I couldn't reach.
But I drop a piece of anything, watch is roll under the bench, and kneel down to look for it, and there's only ever smooth cement floor. No cracks, dark corners, or the screw or spring I dropped.
 
My gremlins usually leave me alone, although there was one episode where they just went absolutely crazy for revolver bits. It wasn't even my revolver, which made things troublesome. Usually, they are satisfied with claiming the occasional watch springbar as tribute, although it's frustrating when they take the proprietary ones.

Sometimes, I have to do delicate work inside of a gallon freezer bag just to keep the gremlins out.

However, I have found a surefire way to force gremlins to give back a part. If you order a spare, they take particular joy in leaving the part in plain sight in the spot you have searched the most, but often only after you have installed the replacement. If you have displeased them by being negligent in tribute, they will leave it in an impossible place just to confound you. In a different room, in the freezer, in the attic, on top of the fridge, in a backpack you haven't opened in years, that kind of stuff. It's amazing.

Some particularly ornery gremlins will wait until I no longer have the item before giving bits back. I don't know what I ever did to them.
 
I one time dropped a little tiny wire lock ring on the forearm of my pump 22. looked, all over with flashlight etc, prayed the whole bit. got slightly desperate and dropped the other one in the same position I was in the first time. the prayer worked, the second one fell right next to the first one. lol, I kid you not.....dc
 
The funniest thing about the gremlins, if you intentionally drop a small screw or pin they will absolutely ignore It!

Before I had a fifty two N magnet on the bench I would lose (pay tribute) small parts on occasion. (A lot) In a effort to ward off the little scamps, I had a few uneeded screws and threw them across the bench and room.

Those uproarious scoundrels found those darn things and every so often would place one under my foot. Ouch! Even through my house shoes I would get a nice poke. They are very thin soled.

I am fairly certain that the Kaddiddlehoppers keep most of the Parts Gremlins away. After they go though a house there isn't much left of interest for a Parts Gremlin.:)
 
total recoil said:
Someone ought to make available an assortment of gun/scope screws for a decent price. Just because they have a fine thread, that's no reason to charge $3.50 per screw. I call that a screw job! :)
Click to expand...

My local hardware store has one of the best assortment of machine screws I've seen, they blow HD and Lowe's out of the water. They've saved my butt more than once for about the cost of a dime for small parts like scope screws. Even better, they started selling guns a couple years ago and their prices are often better than what I see online so I have an even better reason to support them.
 
Since I rediscovered religion I completely ignore the 'shop gremlins' and, after an honest search for the dropped item (the worst for me is pins that I did not even know fell out somewhere along the line), I sincerely ask for St. Anthony's help. He is the patron saint of finding lost items and has never failed me to date, although at times he makes me work at it. But ... an hour (or two) later, there the part is.
 
I recovered two small allen set screws, a BB, and a small spring in my set to with the gremlin day before yesterday. I have no idea what any of these items were lost from and evidently none were crucial to the operation of the item that was their source as I haven't had any malfunctioning equipment that I've worked on in quite some time. :D

I also found out that he is getting greedier yesterday. I have, evidently "had" now, a small plastic box of metric set screws that I keep for things made by foreigners that use that goofy metric system and I needed one yesterday. The gremlin took all of them, box and all!
 
il.bill said:
Since I rediscovered religion I completely ignore the 'shop gremlins' and, after an honest search for the dropped item (the worst for me is pins that I did not even know fell out somewhere along the line), I sincerely ask for St. Anthony's help. He is the patron saint of finding lost items and has never failed me to date, although at times he makes me work at it. But ... an hour (or two) later, there the part is.
Click to expand...

In my adulthood I've turned into a once a year Christmas Catholic, but I do invoke St. Anthony's help quite a bit throughout the year. He hasn't failed me yet, and it's normally within just a couple minutes. It's almost freaky how well it works.
 
I have a few single-action revolvers, SAA clones. Once, while cleaning one, I saw a flash of the pawl spring and plunger flying by my face. Never found the plunger, but did find the spring. I was starting to get despondent, but then I remembered something - another of my guns has a spring and no plunger. So I stuck the spring in the hole and reassembled the gun. It functions flawlessly. I'm sure I'll stumble on the plunger one day. Until then, I have a functional gun - just like before.
 
Instances such as these is about the only reason I go to a gun show anymore. Search around enough and you may find zip-loc bags of springs, roll pins or gun/scope screws. Then stop for some jerky or brisket to celebrate
 
I rarely work on any of my guns... but I do repair lots and lots of fishing reels (I'm a full time guide in the Everglades where big fish and corrosive environments are hard on gear - and I used to repair gear for commercial hook and liners that came to me by the five gallon bucket full...) so me and the gremlins are always playing heads up... Whenever some small part goes astray - it's never something that I have in stock... no... it's always either something I have to order - or it's not available any more.... Despite my best efforts (disassembling and re-assembling gear in specific small tray, etc.) -the gremlins are ahead of me 10 to 1...
 
Are these the same gremlins that push primers off the tray and pop them off elsewhere? Or a primers simply not dimensionaly bound and too easily slip into other realities?
 
I think those are "Primer Sprites". They are in the same family as Parts and Screw Gremlins, but much faster. I know of no one that has seen one, but they definitely leave their traces.

I won't discount the "Dimensional Tranversal Theory" out of hand though. I have no background in that area of science.
 
Mine aren't picky at all, primers, brass, bullets, in fact anything at all that hits the floor is fair game and gone in a instant except for trash and that could lay there until it petrified before they would touch it.
 
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