I swear I need to clean up and organize my bench, but I never do. I’ve had to buy all sorts of springs, detents, and other random screws and small parts because I drop them and lose them.

Today, I was putting a scope back on a rifle with Warne Maxima scope rings. I put one ring on the scope and get the screws started. Just as I start the other ring, I hear something land somewhere and I just knee it was that cross slot lug. I proceed to tear apart my bench looking for this thing. I get so irritated with myself and the situation that I have to walk outside.

I stand there and the fresh air does nothing to calm me down. So, I do what any reasonable man would do. I throw a mini cussing tantrum and kick some imaginary version of my own ass. That’s when I saw something small and silver fly off my foot and into the blackberry bushes.

I think that lug was riding on top of my shoe this whole time. Looks like I’m off to buy a new set of rings.

I would like to have the gas to Lowes for #6 or #8 screws and such, only to find the last 10 bags I bought looking for a file next week....

Every time I go to the auto parts store, I buy a pair of Mechanix gloves because I wear them at work. Problem is, I don’t go through them at the rate that I buy them. So I probably 6 or 7 extra pairs.

I have at least two of everything because when I can’t find one I have to buy another. Last big ($100) lost” item was a Fluke volt/amp meter. Stumbled across the lost one a week or two later rolled up in a plastic grocery bag underneath other stuff. WTH was it doing there?

My workbench isn’t too bad, but my shop floor eats screws. You drop any kind of scope ring or base screw and it is gone, never to be seen again.

Same thing my rosin for the barrel bushings were doing in the garage medicine cabinet........hiding. Yep , found it with more on the way.

Have a lot of duplicate stuff,
it's easier to just buy new than look.
And possibly, after I look around and get so mad I have a headache
and am sick in the guts, still might not find it.

Buy new, do the job, move on!

You have way too many little bitty parts off the cloth. Suddenly comes the “tink” of a small object hitting the floor. Never mind you’ve been trying for hours to fix something that has a reverse thread screw you weren’t aware of. Never mind you’ve had to stop 3 times to help your wife find something right now. Never mind you never really liked or needed this dang thing anyway and already put in the garbage twice. All that matters is that you beat the devil at his own game. So there you are with your cheek as close to level with the floor as it can be, searching diligently along the beam of a flashlight at midnight hoping against hope the next micro bump that casts a shadow will be the unknown part you seek.

for the first time in my life i have a shop that i can both have all my schit in one place, and find it. never been so organized. its great. i also have 4 work benches and a big layout table so that when one bench gets trashed i just move onto the next.

That's because they elope to Australia with the socks that get lost in the wash and live happily ever after....

Took years, but I am organized, bins on the wall for spare parts

I have a little magnet on an extendable shaft/handle that is pretty good at locating tiny lost screws and springs. Dropping a nut or screw under a car hood results in a 0.0000001% chance of it hitting the ground. A spring that launches it’s self from the workbench has about the same probability of landing in the open floor.

I need to clean my shop out bad, freaking mess in there!

Which is why it's a good deal when doing close work to have a baking pan under your cr@p, sitting on a soft but NOT BOUNCY plain cloth surface. Preferably with some of those Harber Frate magnets on each corner. Saves lots of screaming and yelling, trust me.

When I worked on a corporate history of Columbia Helicopters, I interviewed a guy who had been doing fuel system overhauls on their turbines for years. He was on his last one. But man, talk about meticulous, organized and "lose proof."

One of my pet peeves was people who who wear mechanics gloves, what a bunch of pussies

You're a peach.

After I turn the lights on and the radio on,I vacuum the shop and before I close up I vacuum again and I still launch springs into the next universe never to be seen again.

They’re great for LE work. Not so thick that you cant do pat searches, apply cuffs, or shoot. They’re not so thin that you can’t knock on a bunch of doors or hit someone without banging your hand up. They’re also great on the range when shooting ARs or shotguns. Keeps you from burning your hands after several hundred rounds.

The safety/slide stop detents and spring on a 1911 are under a lot more pressure than I ever thought. Glad my gunsmith has a sense of humor and lots of extra parts.

I’ve said it a hundred times, “if you can’t find it quickly, you don’t own it!”

I don't really have a work bench.

But have learned to throw a blanket or towel underneath if you're working on stuff outside.

The only gloves I can work in.
Sometimes it's too darn cold to be working on stuff barehanded.

As I have gotten older, my fingers have no texture, and are as slick as a greased door knob. I constantly drop things. Pain in the ass. miles

Magnetic parts trays have saved me hundreds of $$ in NOT LOST screws/parts/pieces.

Sometime, 200 hundred years from now, an archaeologist will be digging through my shop ruins (it's already a ruin) and find about a thousand tiny steel check balls and two thousand tiny springs from chainsaw carb metering jets. He will ponder it for a while...and conclude that they are indeed tiny religious artifacts sacrificed to the gods to atone for fat fingers and poor eyesight.

I've moved my shop 3 times in the last 11yrs.

Found lost stuff all 3 times, especially that first move because that one had been in use for 20+ yrs.

Magnetic trays and telescoping magnets/grabbers help a lot.

Sometimes I'll use a large clear plastic bag with the bottom cut out as a see thru sleeve to catch things.

Absolutely nothing. My 2 workbenches are clutter free before I wander into the house. I never go to bed that my garage and workbenches are not organized and cleaned. The only exception to a clear work bench is when either an object is being glued or painted and must remain in place till dry. I use my workbenches multiple times per day. Have used it 2 times today before 8 AM. Will be using it while changing ATF and solenoid in transmission later today when it warms up. I do not have OCD. I have CDO. That is OCD put in proper alphabetic order.

And that is why I have a magnet on a stick in my shop.

A magnet doesn’t work on dropped primers 😮

Loosing a spring & knowing it has me really pissed at myself & I go on a complete tare to find it.

But seeing a spring on the floor & not having worked on anything for weeks will probably haunt me for life.

Decided to clean my bench up . Don't it look better?

Nor on aluminum, but it was a lifesaver the other day when I dropped a tiny screw on the floor. I knew it was there as I heard it hit, got down on the floor and did the cheek to the ground look and nothing. Got the magnet and ran it around and at first thought - nothing. But on closer examination, it had found the little screw.

My wife still kids me about a time many years ago when I was rebuilding the carb from her race car and I sent a small part into orbit when a large spider dropped onto the work bench (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

Call that an Indian Creeper.

Cardboard works good too.

A clean workbench doesn't stop anything from rolling off.

Work on a towel or carpet piece instead of a hard, slick surface.

Get an aluminum angle and screw it to the lower edge of your workbench top, making a small gutter to catch rolling screws, pins. etc.

Wear an apron. Use a couple of clips or velcro to fasten the lower apron edge under the workbench when you are sitting. But not so strong it will stop you from getting up. It will catch parts that jump the gutter.

Bruce

If you can't keep a job site clean and organized you aren't going to make it.