Anyone else lose electronic components around their 'lab'

[lordvader88]

For about 1 month I can't the thing containing  100k-999k resistors

And now in the last few days I misplaced some Darlington BJTs, and also boxes of 100R range and 1k range resistors.

And I'm just in my bedroom, thats my little lab, so where did I put them ? What have I buried them under ? There's nothing under the bed, there not in the clothes dresser or in misc dissembled parts big cardboard boxes

[Brumby]

At first, I thought you might have been talking about single components.  I've dropped more than one SMD item on the floor - and I rarely ever find them again.  They just become some silicon sand that gets vacuumed up from the joints in the floorboards and the carpet pile.

But missing a whole container of something?

   Yes, I've done that.

The latest was part of my LED collection.  One container with contents I could name.  Couldn't find it for a couple of weeks.  Went through every container in the workshop.  No luck.  Gave up and moved onto another task.

Then one day, SWMBO brought over a bag and showed me what was inside and asked "Is this what you were looking for?" ... with a slightly critical look.

Lo and behold, there it was.  I then remembered I had been over at my son's place a couple of months earlier, helping him build props from the game card franchise "Magic" for a show he was helping out with in Sydney.  Two 'Hedrons' with coloured LED lighting, slowly fading in and out.

I'd left the bag in an out of the way corner of the living room - and completely forgotten about it.

[lordvader88]

yup

well right now I need the +100s resistors, its a about 4"x7" clear plastic box ......and I can't find it in my room, and there's hardly anywhere I'd put it temporarily, so its just buried under something else random

also I can't find 1 of 2 spoons I have in my room

I don't trust my roommates but they don't go in my room and I don't think they sneak in and steal or move my stuff

[CatalinaWOW]

Of course.  If you haven't done it you haven't got enough stuff.

The sure fire method for finding the box is to order replacements for your current project.  About the time the replacements show up the missing box will be right in your line of sight.

[sleemanj]

All the time.
 
If you have ever seen "Wristcutters: A Love Story", my office/lab seems to have a similar black-hole floor...

https://youtu.be/h_pfLuFDx7I?t=1m25s

[mmagin]

Please don't remind me.  Neverending struggle to organize things usefully, because anything that falls outside the organizational scheme ends up in weird miscellaneous boxes and lost for many months.

[trophosphere]

This tends to happen to me whenever I purchase parts ahead of time for a project* and by the time the PCBs arrive the parts required for that project have become lost. I have started placing all parts ordered for a project into a single box and that has helped but takes up more room vs just throwing everything I order (regardless of what project it is for) into a single large box.

* Purchased ahead of time with the intention to make sure footprints match and sometimes it's my luck that if I try to order later they would be out of stock

[Cubdriver]

Do you have cats?  I have been unable to find my Edsyn solder sucker; it's been missing for at least 6-8 months.  It was on the bench.  I expect that at some point I will find it under or behind something at the far end of the house.

-Pat

[VK3DRB]

Take on "5S" and problem solved. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5S_(methodology)

Incidentally, from my experience most workplace electronics labs are devoid of 1K, 10K and 100K resistors. Why? 1. They are the most popular. 2. No-one can be bothered getting off their arse to order replacements.

Another issue is Ethernet cables. When you buy one because you are short of one, you have made a mistake. Instead, buy five because you will need them. Same with power cords.

[CJay]

For about 1 month I can't the thing containing  100k-999k resistors

And now in the last few days I misplaced some Darlington BJTs, and also boxes of 100R range and 1k range resistors.

And I'm just in my bedroom, thats my little lab, so where did I put them ? What have I buried them under ? There's nothing under the bed, there not in the clothes dresser or in misc dissembled parts big cardboard boxes

Noooo, never done that *glares at three tubes of FETs, the second two ordered to replace the 'lost' forever prior tube.

It can be a problem with a non dedicated lab when you have restricted space and have to move or tidy things away, the only way around it is better storage. More space will not necessarily help as that's just more places to lose things if it's not organised.

[Brumby]

Another issue is Ethernet cables. When you buy one because you are short of one, you have made a mistake. Instead, buy five because you will need them. Same with power cords.

Are you spying on me?

[KhronX]

It's a way of life, really... The best thing you can do is just give in and deal with it... 

[German_EE]

Somewhere in n space there is a tube of solid state relays, twenty of them. I bought them for a project and then I couldn't find them so I had to order some more, and they were damn expensive!

Since then I've moved and everything was packed away then unpacked at the other end. The relays were nowhere to be seen.

[CatalinaWOW]

If and when you do decide to organize, make sure that your filing/storage system is consistent with your recovery system.  Once at work a project needed a peculiar pin, expensive and only available in boxes of 500 (or maybe 1000, it has been a long time).  These were dutifully ordered in plenty of time to meet the need date.  When it came time to use them the receiving organization swore they weren't there, while the vendor swore they had shipped.   After much heated argument another box was ordered.  As all the slack in the schedule disappeared the vendor again swore that they had been shipped immediately and should have been there days before, while the receiving organization swore that they were nowhere to be seen.

An intensive search of the Indiana Jones like warehouse found both boxes, sitting next to each other.  The assignment to storage method had worked consistently, but didn't match the recovery method.

[Vtile]

Yep, happens at times. I have improved a lot after I started to minigrip anything and have one box per type. I hate that I lost my tools after working a while and my workpiece starts to get nearer and nearer of the edge of the table from all the boxes and meters and wires and and.. It would be different story if I would have a real lab and not just a desk.

[David Hess]

Parts which go missing actually change form as they grow into larger things.  So for instance pins grow into coat hangers which grow into bicycles.

[Cubdriver]

Somewhere in n space there is a tube of solid state relays, twenty of them. I bought them for a project and then I couldn't find them so I had to order some more, and they were damn expensive!

Since then I've moved and everything was packed away then unpacked at the other end. The relays were nowhere to be seen.

They're in orbit around the planet that's made up of the socks that disappear in the dryer..

-Pat

[switchedmodepsu]

For about 1 month I can't the thing containing  100k-999k resistors

And now in the last few days I misplaced some Darlington BJTs, and also boxes of 100R range and 1k range resistors.

And I'm just in my bedroom, thats my little lab, so where did I put them ? What have I buried them under ? There's nothing under the bed, there not in the clothes dresser or in misc dissembled parts big cardboard boxes

Sorry, we can't help you:

#1 We are not you
#2 We are not there
#3 It would be more fruitful to have spent this forum time on continuing to look for them

Just saying it how it is.

[Brumby]

#3 It would be more fruitful to have spent this forum time on continuing to look for them

Maybe.  Maybe not.

Having some external distraction might be just what is needed for him to realise they are hiding at the bottom of his wardrobe ... or fallen down the back of the lounge.

[Seekonk]

Parts, I loose equipment. Last year I found a meter I lost for 14 years.  I haven't found my TDR in four years of looking.

[rrinker]

 just the other day I found a box of something or other, never remembered buying them, but there they are. Now if I could just remember what I bought them for..

[Conrad Hoffman]

For many years I collected phono cartridge screws in a little plastic pill bottle. Kept it in a very specific drawer in the electronics lab. Come to find out, those lightweight machined aluminum cheesehead screws have gotten expensive. At some point I lost the little bottle. Probably looked for it for 4-5 years. Convinced myself I either accidentally threw it away or loaned it to somebody. Some weeks ago I was looking for something else in the garage and found it in a box on the back of a shelf where no sane person would have put it. I've lost other things for years at a time and it drives me nuts, but I'm also capable of setting something down on the bench and not being able to find it 30 seconds later. In the machine shop I have a lovely habit of never setting a tool down in the same place twice.

[artag]

They're in orbit around the planet that's made up of the socks that disappear in the dryer..

-Pat

This one ?

http://hitchhikersguidequotes.tumblr.com/post/16166477046/the-hitch-hikers-guide-to-the-galaxy-is-a-very

[james_s]

I have a bad habit of leaving packages of parts on the coffee table or other places they don't belong. Sometimes something comes in the mail and I don't put it away in time, other times I have it in my hand and set it down to grab a snack or answer the phone and then forget to pick it up. My other half has a tendency to pick up stuff that gets left around like that and stick it in a box of all the other random stuff and stick it in my office/lab. Drives me nuts because while it makes the house look cleaner, it creates additional work and sometimes I end up buying more parts after looking everywhere and not finding the ones she packed away.

[casinada]

I think we might be affected by the same misplaced gene syndrome