Disappearing hand spring

[tinhorn]

Little sucker flew out of the gun, ricocheted off my beer belly, and disappeared under or around my desk. No worries?this happened once before and I found it easily, just laying on the floor. Well, not this time.

My wife has this super-magnet strip on the refrigerator that she hangs her knives on. I borrowed it to drag all over the floor, under the desk, around the desk, everywhere?no spring. Huh. Gonna have to buy a new one. And a spare.

But before I replaced the super-magnet strip on the 'fridge, there was a nail I'd dropped on the lawn and didn't want to find later in my riding mower tire. Super-magnet strip to the rescue! Found the nail but also picked up a lot of iron ore particles. (This area used to be quite the iron ore source. Old timers made square nails in the winter.)

So I'm wiping all the iron particles off the super-magnet and what do I find? The missing hand spring! Sucker was just too tiny for my old eyeballs to see on the first go-around. Pro Tip: When you buy hand springs for the repair box, stick them to some masking tape and paint them Day-Glo Pink.

[OLD and GRUMPY]

At least it didn't land in your coffee. Chug A lug!  I keep a magnet on a string on the bench. Trolling for parts. Cast and reel in. Also glued a small bar magnet to a old cleaning rod to go under stuff. Parts are one thing but primers in the shag is another. Suck that into the Hoover.Wind ,dust ,ignition BOOM .

[Uncle_Lee]

I am guilty of the same thing.
Take a roll of duct tape, roll it backwards on the roll so you have a sticky roll on the outside.
Set down in the floor and roll it back and forth on the carpet until you have covered the floor. If it is on the floor, it WILL stick to the tape.
That is how I found mine (both times). 

[pietro]

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Gettin' old isn't for cowards............

[bearcatter]

There are lint pickup rollers that do like the duct tape. Hardware stores have magnets on waist high handles. Look like you're using a metal detector.

I have two magnets from an old hard drive, kidney shaped and about an inch long. Really strong, one of them will pick up an empty 50 cal GI can. I tape one to a piece of dowel and sweep the floor like a windshield wiper.

[Canoeal]

In the boat shop mine is an old speaker magnet, I attach to the end of a Jap saw.

[Bj]

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Gettin' old isn't for cowards............

You got that right, but I know where I am going next.

[Canoeal]

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Gettin' old isn't for cowards............

You got that right, but I know where I am going next.

Yep.