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Shop Mystery

Emiliano Achaval

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A few days ago I had to take the point out of my Oneway live center. There are a few reasons why I periodically have to do this. I have a hole on the edge of one of my benches, I stick it in there, and with an old file I give it a tap with a hammer, and out the point comes. I have been doing this for years. The other day the point shot out and slipped through my fingers. My floor had about 3 feet of shavings in some areas. Where I was guessing the point was about 2 inches. I spent almost an hour on my hands and knees, used a magnet, clean the shop floor, looked shovel by shovel. Nothing. Went online, almost ordered 2, they cost $3.25 each from Woodturners Catalogue. They wanted $10.51 shipping, so I did not. You have heard already my rants about shipping to Hawaii.
Today, I reached for my jar and brush of Anchorseal, y by golly, there it was the point!! A few inches from where the hole to stick the live center is. I need a mathematician or a physicist to tell me what are the odds of the point hitting the concrete floor and bouncing perfectly on top of the bench. I have to add I was listening to music at the time, with my Bose QC30 noise-canceling headset. SO I did not hear the point hit the floor, or heard a bounce. I honestly feel like I'm losing my mind, this is the strangest thing that has ever happened in the shop. I'm adding 2 pictures so you can see the scene of the crime.
 

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Emiliano Achaval

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I lost a machine screw the other day.......never did find it! Consider yourself lucky, Emiliano! :D

-----odie-----
Don't be surprised if the screw all of a sudden show up in front of you! You can not imagine how much this is bothering my mind. How did this happen?
 
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Well I'm glad I'm not the only one... However, there is a perfectly logical explanation. The Gremlins found it, and put it in a place where you would eventually find it. They didn't do this to be nice, as we all know how mischievous Gremlins can be, they did it to mess with your mind...
If you hadn't had your headphones on, you may have heard the theme from "The Twilight Zone" rustling in the shavings.
 

Emiliano Achaval

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Well I'm glad I'm not the only one... However, there is a perfectly logical explanation. The Gremlins found it, and put it in a place where you would eventually find it. They didn't do this to be nice, as we all know how mischievous Gremlins can be, they did it to mess with your mind...
If you hadn't had your headphones on, you may have heard the theme from "The Twilight Zone" rustling in the shavings.
That's funny, The Twilight Zone was one of my favorite shows, ever. I wasn't wearing the headset, I probably would have heard the pings and dings of the bounce. What are the odds of the point bouncing back up onto the shelve?! I'm baffled, to say the least.
 
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Bill Boehme

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Today, I reached for my jar and brush of Anchorseal, y by golly, there it was

Spanglish? A mixture of English and Spanish. :D :) Funny thing is that I read it and automatically translated in my mind.

What are the odds of the point bouncing back up onto the shelve?! I'm baffled, to say the least.

Many years ago I was repairing the ice maker mechanism-on our refigerator that dumps the ice out of the tray. It had a bunch of gears, cams, and springs. Not paying close enough attention while disassembling things, a spring shot out like a bullet and I heard it ricocheting from ceiling to floor to wall several times. I spent the rest of the day looking for it and even pulled everything out of the garage, but no luck. The next day I opened a drawer on my tool chest to get a nut driver and there was the spring laying right next to the nut driver.

I've had numerous occasions where space aliens borrow a tool, but they are always nice enough to return the tool days or weeks later.
 

Emiliano Achaval

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Spanglish? A mixture of English and Spanish. :D :) Funny thing is that I read it and automatically translated in my mind.



Many years ago I was repairing the ice maker mechanism-on our refigerator that dumps the ice out of the tray. It had a bunch of gears, cams, and springs. Not paying close enough attention while disassembling things, a spring shot out like a bullet and I heard it ricocheting from ceiling to floor to wall several times. I spent the rest of the day looking for it and even pulled everything out of the garage, but no luck. The next day I opened a drawer on my tool chest to get a nut driver and there was the spring laying right next to the nut driver.

I've had numerous occasions where space aliens borrow a tool, but they are always nice enough to return the tool days or weeks later.
That's funny, my Spanglish has gotten better thanks to Grammarly, LOL. I'm surprised she did not catch that. That's an amazing story Bill, almost as good as mine! What are the odds of the point bouncing back up almost next to the live center? I did hit it with enough force for that to happen. I know I should not be using a brittle chainsaw file, but it has worked for a long time. Sometimes the point is totally stuck. Todavia no puedo creer lo que ha sucedido. Aloha
 
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100% of the time you will find a lost tool in the last place you look, start looking in the last place first and you will save time. :)
Whenever I lose a tool I start by looking in my neighbors garage and tool shed first and have found more of my tools using that strategy.:)
 
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It's the same reasoning behind dropping a small item and it ALWAYS bounces off your shoe, then goes under what ever has the most junk and is hardest to see under. Lost a screw to a chuck jaw like that, never found it. You'd think one extra screw from Nova, but nope.
 
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Well, I have had things disappear many times. I can search the shop several times, and eventually find it in a place I already searched several times. One good way to find the missing item is to buy 2 new ones, and then the lost one magically reappears. Never did find one remote for my dust collector though....

robo hippy
 
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I had a somewhat similar event, although the outcome was not as happy. I wanted to remove the point from a safe driver. I didn't realize it was spring-loaded, so when I loosened the set screw on the side, I heard a "sproing" and something hitting a area about ten feet away. I didn't bother to search for the spring which had disappeared from the drive, let alone the point, given the general landing area ("messy" shall we say?). Several weeks later, I was by the surface where I had been working when launch occurred and noticed a spring! Still missing the point.

There is no manufacturer's name on it -- only "Part No. 2593". Part numbers for other Oneway things I have suggested that this drive is a Oneway product. I tried checking the Oneway site and can't find a safety drive (it is probably there, but I can't see it). On the other, searching on Amazon immediately yielded "Oneway 2593 #2 Taper Safe Driver" -- the picture there even showed "Oneway" printed above the part number on the drive. The Amazon listing also notes
  • You have complete control over the amount of tension in the spring by adjusting the screw in the bottom
  • The set screw in the side prevents the point from being ejected due to the tension in the spring
I didn't know about the spring-tensioning (hadn't used the drive for a long time), and, on the other safe driver I have, the set screw in the side controls the position of the point, and there is no spring. The drive center did not come with that information when I bought it. Live and learn.
 

Timothy Allen

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I have the optional set of three different points that go in the Oneway live center. I was using one of them, but now I can't find the original point ... I have a recollection of putting it somewhere safe, and have looked in all the likely suspect spots, but no bueno.

BTW, I think these Oneway points might be made of non-magnetic stainless steel -- I don't think they stick very well in my magnetic parts dish.
 
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Well, I have had things disappear many times. I can search the shop several times, and eventually find it in a place I already searched several times. One good way to find the missing item is to buy 2 new ones, and then the lost one magically reappears. Never did find one remote for my dust collector though....

robo hippy

That's why I have 2 caulking guns, 3 speed squares, 2 framing squares, ...
 
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All you have to do is go to the Oneway site and type point in the search box and you will get all the different points they make for their tools, also te safe driver do come as a MT to place in the tailstock with an opening through it, (no point and spring), just go and look at safe drivers that they make, link to the points here,

https://oneway.ca/index.php?route=product/search&search=point
 
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IF this were ever to happen to me, I would immediately look around to see if some guy in a black suit was holding a signpost about some obscure destination. Happily, this has NEVER happened to me...
 

Emiliano Achaval

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Ameliano, sad to say, this sort of thing gets steadily more frequent as you get older. I seem to experience something like this every day now.
I was also questioning my sanity. Did I actually find it and forgot that I did?? I spent most of the day in the shop. I spent a few minutes looking at the scene of the crime. It is possible that the point bounced off the concrete and up to the bench. If I ever try to reproduce that, it will never happen again...
 

odie

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Such as searching for the glasses you're wearing? @MeToo


Like looking for something you have in your hand?

It's worse when someone tells you that you have it in your hand! :rolleyes:

Also, I think I swept up a chuck key with the shavings, and threw it in the garbage.......:eek:

(I didn't even know it was missing, until a day later......rats!:oops:)

-----odie-----
 

Tom Gall

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A few days ago I had to take the point out of my Oneway live center. There are a few reasons why I periodically have to do this. I have a hole on the edge of one of my benches, I stick it in there, and with an old file I give it a tap with a hammer, and out the point comes. I have been doing this for years. The other day the point shot out and slipped through my fingers.
Putting on my "sleuthing hat" here! Hard to tell from your photos---- but the LH bench in the photo (where the live center is standing) looks to have the cabinet(?) under it .....so, is it really a through-hole? Did you actually feel the point? Sherlock says --- "maybe the point didn't come out fully and partially remained in the hole......you picked up the live center and moved it around.....the point then came out fully and landed on your other bench"! That's my conclusion and I'm sticking to it. ;) Of course, senility may be coming into play here. DAMHIKT :D
 
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Emiliano, it is the work of Pele'!
1. To find a lost item, buy a replacement and the lost item will turn up.
2. I was grinding the foot of a guide for a fly rod. Yep. Got a catch with it. Gone into the ethereal world! Friend brought a replacement so I could finish the rod. Found the guide six months later- in the workbench drawer about 10 inches from where I was working.
Compared to me, Murphy was an optimist!
 
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That is the reason woodturners have so many duplicate tools, they can never find one when they need it and purchase another one for the job.
 

Emiliano Achaval

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Iceland another volcanic island is overrun with elves and trolls.
Does Hawaii have any of these little people?
They are active mostly at night but are capable of mischief. :)
We do! We have the famous "Menehune" little people. I'm starting to believe they are around!!
 

Emiliano Achaval

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Putting on my "sleuthing hat" here! Hard to tell from your photos---- but the LH bench in the photo (where the live center is standing) looks to have the cabinet(?) under it .....so, is it really a through-hole? Did you actually feel the point? Sherlock says --- "maybe the point didn't come out fully and partially remained in the hole......you picked up the live center and moved it around.....the point then came out fully and landed on your other bench"! That's my conclusion and I'm sticking to it. ;) Of course, senility may be coming into play here. DAMHIKT :D
I like your theory!!!!!! Makes sense! I did say I did not hear the pinging sound because I was wearing my noice canceling Bose QC30's ! It would also explain why I could not find it, LOL. I did not check to see if it was gone out of the hole, I thought I felt it go through my fingers... Feeling better already!
 

Emiliano Achaval

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Emiliano, it is the work of Pele'!
1. To find a lost item, buy a replacement and the lost item will turn up.
2. I was grinding the foot of a guide for a fly rod. Yep. Got a catch with it. Gone into the ethereal world! Friend brought a replacement so I could finish the rod. Found the guide six months later- in the workbench drawer about 10 inches from where I was working.
Compared to me, Murphy was an optimist!
I was hesitant about starting this thread the other day, I'm so glad I did! My son built quite a few fishing rods, lots of patience and time needed. ALoha
 
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Oh, one other type of shop mystery... I was searching everywhere in the shop a few days back for one of my screw guns. Couldn't find it at all. Of course it turned up a couple of days later. Some one actually put it away where it was supposed to go when not in use instead of leaving it out on a bench in plain sight.... No clue as to who that idiot was....

robo hippy
 
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If I lose/misplace something, my wife finds it along with the gloating smirk. I worked at Lowe's. We would look at the top shelf for additional stock. Where is it??? Ask another employee and they spot it in less than 15 seconds.
Does anyone here believe in gremlins? They are everywhere!
 
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Emiliano, I read your initial post and felt for you, but at the same time thinking I must be extremely careful in the future, having had the experience of losing tiny objects in drifts of shavings many times. Today knocking out the point from my Oneway live centre it bounced off the bench and disappeared - didn't hear anything, I had a compressor running at the time, hunted everywhere - found it some time later in the pocket of my jeans.
 
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