That little elf under the workbench again

[Rob McSweeneyParticipant @robmcsweeney81205]

Until someone comes up with a brass magnet, the elves will always have the upper hand.

The little ******s in my workshop also have a particular liking for the screws from tct tooling.

As I was typing that last line I realised that I should buy one of those magnetised trays and rest the toolholder on that when changing tips – bet the elves still get the last laugh though..

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by Rob McSweeney on 22/03/2021 16:20:35:

As I was typing that last line I realised that I should buy one of those magnetised trays and rest the toolholder on that when changing tips – bet the elves still get the last laugh though..

Had one of those and lost it!

It had fallen off the end of the bench and was stuck to the underside of the compressor receiver. Only found it when I scrapped that compressor a bit back.

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 22/03/2021 16:34:46

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

Wasn't there a model-engineer a year or so ago (hard to know with this time-warp we're now in) who discovered his workshop had a tidying-up "elf" putting loose nuts and things in a tray – but it turned out to be a mouse?

:

One of the most useful small items I ever bought, and from a small-tools rack in a filling-station, was a clip-on screw-holder for small screwdrivers to help you not lose small screws in workshops haunted by the Little People, Trolls, Elvish Folk…..

It was a moulded plastic sleeve that could grip screwdrivers up to maybe 3/16 inch shanks, and having two chamfered claws that gripped the screw's "neck ", releasing automatically as you wound the screw down.

Typically, it has like, like Michael Flander's French Horn, "gorn ".

Some elf in some place and time past had it and never returned it.

And typically I have never seen its like anywhere else, not even on the small-tools stands at the ME shows.

[Fowlers FuryParticipant @fowlersfury]

Nigel's reference to a "gripping" screwdriver prompted a visit to the garage to retrieve a similar sounding device made by Draper and purchased within the last couple of years. The other tool shown was purchased in one of the 'Pound shops'. Depression of the spring-loaded, red T-handle pushes out from the end 3 little prongs which can grip surprisingly well when needing to recover bolts dropped into crankcases.

[peter smith 5Participant @petersmith5]

I have one of those watgdeyercallits on a long bladed slotted screwdriver that was used to fit replacement mini transformers, closely packed together. Has been sitting in a Terry clip for at least 40 years – one day I will find a use.

pete

[pgk pgkParticipant @pgkpgk17461]

I've just assembled a metal garden shed for OH and dearly wished I;d had a spring screw holding gizmo ofr the cross head driver I used..several hundred very short self-tappers that were horribly fiddly. But once started it wasnlt practical to stop and hunt one up to fit though with beneit fo hindsight it may have been quicker to make something.

For orthopaedic work there is a beautifully designed sleeve for the driver. The screws are pre-laid out in racks by length and diameter and the gizmo can be simply pushed over the heads to grip the screw and release it as its tightened down

[Graham StoppaniParticipant @grahamstoppani46499]

The elf under my bench has become emboldened of late. It now ventures onto the bench itself.

I'm restoring and re-plating various bits and bobs on a motorbike including 8 spacers that go in the rubber grommets for the exhaust system. I noticed the 8 had become 7 and searched in vain for the missing spacer. So I just made up a new spacer on the lathe.

I am now the proud owner of 9 spacers…

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

Just asking You blokes why have You sent some of those borrowers over here across the pond? We did not want to share THAT particular misery.

[peter smith 5Participant @petersmith5]

Yup. It’s called “ lease/lend”. How many do you want?

pete

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

BEWARE! They share genes and reproductive capabilities with rabbits, plus being able to swim or fly LONG distances!

Not to mention having a cloak of invisibility, so that you are unaware of the presence of one (or more ) until it is too late.

Howard

[Nick WheelerParticipant @nickwheeler]

Posted by mark costello 1 on 24/03/2021 17:18:08:

Just asking You blokes why have You sent some of those borrowers over here across the pond? We did not want to share THAT particular misery.

As an American, at least you shoot the little buggers.

[KEITH BEAUMONTParticipant @keithbeaumont45476]

About the middle of last summer, I had just finished polishing the spherical ends of the tee bar for the compression screw of the diesel engine I was making, when I dropped it. I spent an hour looking and sweeping the floor,checking the sweepings with a magnet,etc,all to no good, so I made another one.

This morning as I was entering my garage/workshop, my neighbour, who was working on the front of his house and was high up on a ladder, told me that the gutter running above the door was full of moss. As it was dry I thought I might as well clean it out. When I was scooping the moss out of the gutter I saw something shiny and, guess what, it was my long lost tee bar! Just how it got in the gutter is anyones guess. I think the part bounced further than I had swepped and had ended up out side on my drive. Perhaps a bird was then attracted to it and took it up on the roof and then dropped it,so it rolled down in to the gutter. We do have a lot of Magpies around. At least I now have a finished tee bar that will fit my latest effort.

Keith.

[Tim HammondParticipant @timhammond72264]

It probably was a bird, Keith. First thing this morning I was looking out of my living room window and spotted something shiny reflecting the morning sunlight. I went out to investigate and found an M5 x 30 CSK. HD. stainless steel screw. It had been used because there was some sort of soft material on the threads and the slot on the head was slightly chewed. Unless some passer-by has taken up a hobby of randomly chucking used screws around ( unlikely ), I can only surmise that it had been picked up by some bird and then dropped. Anyway, I cleaned it up and put it into my stock of SS screws, and thanks very much!

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

Posted by Tim Hammond on 25/03/2021 20:03:24:

It probably was a bird, Keith. First thing this morning I was looking out of my living room window and spotted something shiny reflecting the morning sunlight. I went out to investigate and found an M5 x 30 CSK. HD. stainless steel screw. It had been used because there was some sort of soft material on the threads and the slot on the head was slightly chewed. Unless some passer-by has taken up a hobby of randomly chucking used screws around ( unlikely ), I can only surmise that it had been picked up by some bird and then dropped. Anyway, I cleaned it up and put it into my stock of SS screws, and thanks very much!

Thats a bit modern, we only get imperial Magpies round our way.

;O)

Martin

PS They only go for twitworth threads

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

There was a rather touching story back in December, in a local magazine called The Register, of someone losing a ring.

It turned up a while later on the doorstep, and the theory there is that it was spotted somewhere in the garden and left there as a "gift" by a particular pair of crows that know they can get a square meal at that house.

'

My workshop elves do more than pinch your last 12BA X 1/4" screw (do they exist, that tiny?). They have the Power of Induced Invisibility.

Using a chain block to manipulate my steam-wagon boiler, was hampered by having to avoid the chains clattering and banging against the boiler. I recalled some hoists have a chain-bag suspended below them, then that there was red polythene bucket outside the workshop, now rendered useless for water by a split. So I brought it in to become chain-bucket, and put it down to take a suitable cord from a hook on the wall.

In those 30 seconds or so… how the heck do you lose sight of a large red plastic bucket?

It re-appeared after a while, and I am sure I had not put it behind the band-saw.

[How do I know there is a hole in my bucket… dear LBSC, dear LBSC…

In that cold snap I used the bucket to rescue a large mass of frog-spawn ice-lolly from the pond, in pond water, and placed it in the front porch so still very cold but out of the worst frost. Next day, I noticed the tide had gone out, luckily Neap rather than Spring… ]

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