How do you search for small SMD parts lost to floor, carpet, or working mess?

[Unixon]

No doubt, everyone who ever hand-soldered small SMD parts someday encounters oops-it-just-flew-away-to-nowhere situation.
It turns out that a sufficiently strong neodymium magnet that fits in hand is perfectly capable of recapturing SMD parts like 0402-1206 resistors or capacitors.
Do you just cut off next piece of tape or do you try to get these small goners back?

[Psi]

i get a desk lamp, put it close to the floor, and shine it horizontally.

You can usually catch reflections of things on the carpet much easier that way.

However its not worth looking for SMD resistors when they're $0.0003 each
Unless they're 0.01% or something, but even then how can you be sure the resistor you found was the one you dropped 

[Unixon]

However its not worth looking for SMD resistors when they're $0.0003 each
Unless they're 0.01% or something, ...

True. Digging in resistor box for a new part or trying to get the damn thing back: the faster way wins.

[alm]

Unless you're trying to finish that project and that resistor was the last of that particular value you have in stock. Spending half an hour digging through all the surface mount parts on the floor beats waiting for the next Digikey delivery in that case.

[KedasProbe]

Obviously if you always pick them up there will only be one on the floor to find.
It can help you when you look for that 0.1% or last part.

[Psi]

You're assuming i don't come into your house while you sleep and scatter random SMD components on the floor.

[alm]

Even if you always pick them up then you will still find at least a dozen other parts before finding the one you were searching for (or giving up searching). I guess you should just go down to 0201, then you won't find any regardless.

[Mechatrommer]

if horizontal torch light doesnt work. sweep the floor with broom or vacuum (depending on floor type) just as normally routine lab cleaning. put all dust in one pile, you'll find something there. actually its one of my routine during normal cleaning, i'll never know what my kids dropped on the floor i only realized that i missed it when its long gone and i'm in deep need for that part.

[WhiteWolf]

At my last work we didn't even bother to find those smd components if the fell down on the floor. The floor where I sat we had a carpet on the floor which made it impossible to find those smd components..

At home I use a bright flashlight so I can see the contrast or shadow off them but if they are smaller than 0805 then I just taking a quick swap with my hand and if I can't find the smd component by that I just take a new one. I'm not wasting to much time on finding them.

[JuKu]

Reqular brooming, then when I drop something valuable (like high value small COG cap), I brrom again and don't have too much dust to go through.

[karlmag]

My first thoughts are;

- Don't have carpets on floors you do that kind of work on (or any floor for that matter).
- Vacuum cleaner.

The latter might be incompatible with the "last part/expensive part" problem.

Though, I guess you would want to have a somewhat clean floor even without a carpet to be able to find lost parts.

Best way to find parts that have pointy legs on them;  go barefoot. Murphy will nearly always make sure you'll step om them. :-P

[Stonent]

Maybe put a nylon stocking over the vacuum.

[JuKu]

My first thoughts are;

- Don't have carpets on floors you do that kind of work on (or any floor for that matter).
<..>

You want ESD floor mat (and an ESD chair) where you do SMD work. (A non-ESD chair, non-ESD floor, roll chair a couple of meters to the desk: I generated more charge than our meter was able to show (>100kV)!)

[mrflibble]

If it's cheap ==> neeeeext.

Otherwise, get the biggest lamp that's still convenient and search. Obviously you already made sure you are not anywhere near a carpet.

[WhiteWolf]

Well the carpet wasn't just a ordinary carpet, it's made for lowering down the sound noise in the room and is ESD proof. 

[madires]

Since it's Friday we should be able to come up with some more creative solutions. The US Navy got dolphins for minesweeping. We could train some cockroaches. Or a more EE-ish solution would be to build tiny robots with a firmware supporting swarm intelligence. They could also sort your SMD stuff :-)

[free_electron]

One word : lintroller

Or double sided sticky tape on an empty toilet roll.

But, the cost of resistors and caps is so low, that, if you even stop a fraction of a second to look down and think' damn, where did it go', you just doubled your loss (cost of the compinent + cost of the time looking down and thinking 'where did it go')

If you actually put the soldering iron away to get down on the floor and start looking the cost explodes exponentially !

The same is true for : i took. A few caps out of the trays, populated the board and there is 3 still on the bench. Im gonna put em back .
There is the cost of putting em back,
And the cost of potentially putting the wrong value in , mixim them and spending hours figuering out a few months later why something doesnt work right....

We have a policy at work: any part dropped or left over on a bench after you are done gets left behind. Take the rules and sweep em off the bench. The cleaning people that come at night sweep everything away.

[krivx]

The easiest way to find any metal object on the floor is to take your shoes off and walk around barefoot. The soles of your feet will tell you when you've found the part.

[c4757p]

How do I find lost SMD parts?

[Unixon]

But, the cost of resistors and caps is so low, that, if you even stop a fraction of a second to look down and think' damn, where did it go', you just doubled your loss (cost of the compinent + cost of the time looking down and thinking 'where did it go') If you actually put the soldering iron away to get down on the floor and start looking the cost explodes exponentially !

Personally in my case the cost is multiplied anyway, firstly and mainly the time cost. When a part is lost I have to find another one in stock which is as slow as looking for the one that's gone. But I'm not doing commercial volumes, so it doesn't matter. I'm assembling devices from 'kits' prepared from stock with exact number of parts.

We have a policy at work: any part dropped or left over on a bench after you are done gets left behind. Take the rules and sweep em off the bench. The cleaning people that come at night sweep everything away.

Good practice
I put all unused parts back to labeled zip-locks where they came from in a 'kit', never had an issue with stray parts on my desk.

[vk6zgo]

Pushing chip caps round an RF amplifier PCB  with a toothpick to adjust the tuning is such a joy!
Just as you have tweaked the response curve to your liking,the toothpick slips & the cap flies off the board & disappears.
You usually only have a few of each value,so you end up having to fit two smaller ones,so effectively doing it all over again,only to have another one flip off!
Rinse &  repeat!

[MacAttak]

If I drop something (even an ultra-cheap resistor), I still spend up to 15 minutes looking for it before giving up (horizontal lamp at a glancing angle works well).

I have two small dogs who will surely find and eat anything I leave, so it's not a matter of cost.

[JohnnyGringo]

No! No! No!  You spend hundreds of dollars building  a little cleaning smart-bot to find and pick up the part for you!  Scheeeesch. And ROMBAs don't count.

[G7PSK]

Just pin an old sheet to your bench which you then tuck in around your waist, anything falls while you are working lands onto that and is easily findable.

Learnt this when I first started as a Horologist (watch maker) we had wash leather fixed to the workbench. Don't want to keep scratching about on the floor for for balance staffs and hair springs etc.

[JohnnyGringo]

Just pin an old sheet to your bench which you then tuck in around your waist, anything falls while you are working lands onto that and is easily findable.

Learnt this when I first started as a Horologist (watch maker) we had wash leather fixed to the workbench. Don't want to keep scratching about on the floor for for balance staffs and hair springs etc.

Best suggestion so far.  What's "wash leather" ?