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OT: Dropping stuff


snailracer

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Having just emptied my kitchen bin looking for my facecage screw :( (for my American Football helmet, which fell out whilst trying to knock the mud off) has anyone done similar or worse?

I was tempted to just leave it but figured getting hold of a replacement would be a nightmare.

That bin was grotty but I'm sure someone has had to fish parts from much worse.

Lets hear those stories.

(mainly because I'm hoping it'll make me feel better for putting my hands in a student kitchen bin :blink: ).

Matt

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About 15 years ago I droped my two way Motorola radio (walkie-talkie) down a long drop field latrine. Had a couple of M8s lower me head first down into the smelly depths from where I was able to rescue the thing. After a good clean with disinfectant it continued to give reliable service for years to come.

If that doesn't make you feel that you got off lightly then I don't know what will. The memory still causes me to shudder with disgust.

Adam

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Retrieving an impeller housing screw from the bilges of the boat, it was about 10mm long and less than 5mm wide. Involved diving through the engine hatch head first until my shoulders were resting on the gearbox and a hull web, and then fishing around in grimey oily bilge water in 2 minute stints, as after 2 minutes i'd feel like passing out and my legs'd go numb. Had a block and tackle on the boom in case i couldnt push my self up and out.

oh the joy!

'bin juice' is what student living is all about! our bin got to the state i took it outside and attacked it with the pressure washer :D

Luke

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About 15 years ago I droped my two way Motorola radio (walkie-talkie) down a long drop field latrine. Had a couple of M8s lower me head first down into the smelly depths from where I was able to rescue the thing. After a good clean with disinfectant it continued to give reliable service for years to come.

If that doesn't make you feel that you got off lightly then I don't know what will. The memory still causes me to shudder with disgust.

Adam

Did a similar thing with my first mobile phone (one of those massive nokia bricks). I had it clipped to my belt. When pulling my jeans up (apres dump) the phone fell from my belt and into the post curry house toilet bowl. It still worked after a good was, but I didn't hold it quite as close to my face afterwards

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where do I start.....

Dropped a rocker cover stud down the flywheel inspection hole on a mini...bellhousing off time.....

Dropped a vent screw down the back of the dash on my MX5 and it rattled like hell for three days until I spent an age trying to find it...

Dropped the end of a spark plug (the screw on bit) down the hole in the head on the same mini also..

Worked with a girl in theatres once who dropped her wedding ring down the instrument washer sink (as in where the surgical instuments used to get washed) had to get the hospital engineers to remove the whole sink to get it out.

Sure there's more....

Jas

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Working on a friend's mini, giving it a service prior to selling it, I dropped an M5 nut down hole normally filled with a spark plug. As the person was due to come and buy it in about 25 minutes, I just put it all back together. It made a nasty noise when I first started it up, but settled down nicely after a few revolutions of the engine.

The bloke bought it, and I saw it quite a few times over the years driving around Stockport. Those A series engines were incredible. The gearboxes in the bottom of them, however, were shocking.

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Mine involves the "A" Series engine and gearbox too, but this was on a 1300 GT not a mini.

I had just finished attaching the new gearbox to the engine, assemblingthe clutch etc and was connecting up the distibutor drive and managed to drop the drive cog thingy down the hole! :unsure::(

Luckily a mate was able to retrieve it with a bit of bent wire!! :rolleyes:

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Having finished loading up Mum's car outside the local scout hut late one evening, I proceeded to lock it and put the keys in my coat pocket! All was well and good I thought, until I realised that I had missed my pocket completely and happened to be standing over a gully in the road! AR#E!!!

An hour or so and a lot of poking around with a bit of wire and a torch got them back! Needless to say, I wasn't exactly in the good books for a while!!

Bit lame really as no damage - or potential damage - was done, but still one of those moments that you look back and laugh at.

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Dropped a Motorola Radio into a bridge on the A32 while its being poured oops

Key's from bin in petrol station after throwing rubbish in the bin with my keys in the same hand

key's from gully outside mates house

My cousin lost a washer in the engine of his 'Y' reg Isuzu and to get the sum off you need to remove the axle or something reticularis so he got the biggest magnet he could find and stuck it to the sump were it stayed for for some years and he sold it with it still there.

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my mum dropped her mobile down the loo about a month ago, certainly made me laugh.... as for the worst place, anyone who has worked in the printing industry, or with any large, complex machines must know that sinking feeling when either a bolt or a screwdriver slips out of your fingers into the depths of the machine.... and you just know its going to take 2 hours with a torch and a telescopic magnet to retrieve it... my mate Darren dropped a screwdriver into a big Heidelberg press while it was running, caused 18k worth of damage...

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Just remembered one - Was running around town in a mad panic a couple of years ago, and the final job was to post a couple of letters into the box outside the post office before getting into my car and going to see a customer. Got back to the car to find myself still holding the letters - and no keys..... It seems that the post office don't hold keys to the box outside. I had to hang around for about 4 hours before the postie came along and released my keys. He wasn't as sympathetic as you might imagine, either.

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I watched a mate drop a 10mm spanner into a S111 gearbox (don't ask how) while parked in Mcdonald's carpark so he stripped the box down in the carpark (S1 80" hybrid) the boy racers could not beleive he was stripping it down in the cark park at 11pm with two other landys useing headlight so he could see.

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a portion of piston ring into a CR500 crankcase 15 mins before the start of the second race during a frantic rebuild at Mallory pits, personal worst of a washer down the cam tunnel of a charged XS after a 10 hour rebuild with the van ticking over outside waiting to take it away........ you know, that tired sinking feeling :blink:

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