The illusive flying part. Teaser----Happy ending.

[Bawanna]

So our story begins as I was reassembling a Beretta 92 that a co worker had cerakoted. I went to Beretta school but it was long long ago and you know the memory thing. When I stripped the slide in preparation to get the cerakote I knew it would be challenging to put back together.

Anyhow it ended up taking months to get it back, I took a M&P slide in as well and it too took months. Bad communication, I think the guy just forgot but that's another story.

So finally the guy brings the slide back to me after I recovered some of the small parts that had to be redone (wrong color).

I'm assembling the slide assembly and not taking any chances, working in a plastic bag. I'd sorted out in my head how everything had to go and was feeling pretty confident. Wouldn't you know the spring and detent on the left side took flight, I felt them hit the palm of my hand, but I was not worried, I'm in a bag. WRONG. I found the spring right away on the floor, it had made the gap in the bag and got away. Now I was worried, had to have that little detent or it was game over.

I tore my room apart, got on the floor, emptied boxes of wood scraps, searched hard for over 3 hours!

I'm not giving up.........then I gave up........ then as I was cursing myself I decided to search the bench again. No way it could be there as I felt them hit the palm of my hand so they should have went to the floor like the spring.

Found it in a cup I keep Qtips on a stick and tooth brushes in. There was a half inch of sawdust in the bottom and as I sorted through that wala, there she be. I was able to complete the assembly and happy to report it works slick.

I would have had to take it apart again as the cerakote added too much, the safety worked very hard, I took and exacto knife and scraped some off and now it works slick than possum snot.

The hole in one cup.

[gb6491]

I love happy endings!

[yqtszhj]

My latest adventure was about a year ago. Took apart the CZ SP-01 to polish everything. Did the pre assembly of the sear cage and everything was good. Put it back in the pistol and pushed through the pin that holds the sear cage in which removed the slave pin used in the pre-assembly. Well I thought it was all good and I looked at the table. Laying on the white towel I always use to keep things from rolling away was the little lifter spring that flew out during final assembly. They are about fine as a human hair so it was lucky I saw it. I would have issues if I tried firing it with out it. Last parts order I ordered a spare since they are only $3 and not having one would shut down a project.

[wyntrout]

Thankfully, my mag didn't fly apart on the latest drop of my P380. It did in the past when I was carrying it in my Uncle Mike's IWB soft holster. It was a good thing, because this time I was at the Walmart Local Grocery Store, whatever, and I had just started getting stuff out of the cart to put on the conveyor belt in a self-checkout line. I felt something and heard something hit the floor. I looked down and there was my holster with the pistol in place, but the mag half out! The lady ahead of me was just about to leave with her bags and we locked eyes momentarily. I smiled and she looked about to do the same. I said "Crappy holster!" and she smiled before leaving... not in panic... or screaming "Gun!"
She didn't look as if her home had wheels... now or ever... and was obviously not a screaming Liberal. :)

I've been carrying the P380 a lot lately since I've been getting radiation treatments Monday through Friday for very localized prostate cancer. I've completed 32 out of 45 treatments... piece of cake so far, but the Terk Oncology Center is 15.4 miles away and I've been using Wifey's new Subaru Forester as much as possible. We're lucky to have the best facility and doctors in the country... possibly the world, for the treatment I need.

Anyhow, I always take the pistol off and leave it in the car. It and my spare mag holder are really easy to get on and off, but I've had to rethink the holster choice. I only have 6 or 7 for the P380 and started using my steel-clipped Center of Mass Kydex IWB holster most of the time.

At least I wasn't walking in the big store and kicking it across the main walkway with many people about! :eek:

[ltxi]

I've found a high output flashlight helps a lot when searching for small parts on the floor of my workshop. :)

[Bobshouse]

I've found a high output flashlight helps a lot when searching for small parts on the floor of my workshop. :)

I have a huge speaker magnet that I use quite often to search for springs..It has helped me on several occasions.

[Bawanna]

Oh I had that going, had to replace the batteries I ran it so long. I just didn't want to wait a week for a new detent, I wanted to be "Done".
I almost took the one out of my 92 but thought, heck I might be looking for 2 detents.

[JohnR]

All the parts I’ve lost are probably huddled together inside the one missing sock, wherever that is.

[CPTKILLER]

Good story!

[jeepster09]

Thank goodness for CUPS....that's why C and D cups can be better BIGGER ;)

[Bawanna]

All the light and magnets in the world don't do a lick of good unless you shine or hold it in the right spot.
I just find it amazing where some of this stuff ends up and where I've found stuff in the past. Seems impossible that this thing jumped out of the bag, bounced off my hand and landed in that goofy cup, and must have been a message from above for me to bother looking in that cup which hasn't been emptied or looked at other than to grab a Qtip for years.
It would probably still be there when the archeologist dig up the remains here in 500 years, and say to themselves, I bet he was looking for this detent.

I had a 77 Ford pickup for many years. It had the old wing windows, everybody here probably remembers wing windows? Great invention that went by the wayside. Anyhow they had a spring loaded lever to hold them shut and after time a person had to take it apart and snug up a little nut to make them tight again. Same kind of deal, has a little spring set up. Well one Saturday I'm doing this of course on a gravel driveway. Dropped the dang spring....grrrr. Clean drop, not a launch.
Ended up I took the other side apart, brought the spring over to the drivers side and while watching carefully, dropped it on purpose. It landed right smack on top of the first one. Two miracles in my life time. I looked for that for a long time, guess a lot of wasted time in my life time too.

[gb6491]

LOL, you are blessed.....I would have two lost springs if I tried that:)

[wyntrout]

I do stuff like that, too. Sometimes another of the same item lying there gives you a better idea of what the first one looks like... and a BRIGHT light can really help.

The worst I saw was trying to find an extractor that flew off my PM9. It was a light day at the range and they cleared me to go out onto the range floor and look, but there was so much debris from targets, shell cases, bullet fragments, and who knows what, that I gave up after a few passes.

I have a LOT of spare parts to cover things like that now... Kahrs and Glocks... just about anything that can go flying. Got extras for my .308, too. :-)

I don't remember who coined the phrase "fiddly bits", but that's what I think of.

[340pd]

I love happy endings!

I used to, but now I am old.

[340pd]

Get yourself one of these. The first time I ran it under my workbench I found s**t I didn't even know I was missing.


https://www.harborfreight.com/17-in-mini-magnetic-sweeper-62704.html

[yqtszhj]

I had a 77 Ford pickup for many years. It had the old wing windows, everybody here probably remembers wing windows? Great invention that went by the wayside. Anyhow they had a spring loaded lever to hold them shut and after time a person had to take it apart and snug up a little nut to make them tight again. Same kind of deal, has a little spring set up. Well one Saturday I'm doing this of course on a gravel driveway. Dropped the dang spring....grrrr. Clean drop, not a launch.
Ended up I took the other side apart, brought the spring over to the drivers side and while watching carefully, dropped it on purpose. It landed right smack on top of the first one. Two miracles in my life time. I looked for that for a long time, guess a lot of wasted time in my life time too.

Now that’s a good story there.

[JohnR]

I remember the wing windows on our ‘71 Torino wagon. The “latch” was a sort of L-shaped chrome piece that swung left and right. Such simple times. That mechanism probably cost a dollar to make. Today you’d push a button somewhere to open and close it and fixing it probably costs a thousand bucks.

[ltxi]

I have a huge speaker magnet that I use quite often to search for springs..It has helped me on several occasions.

Yep...I've done that, too

[ltxi]

Get yourself one of these. The first time I ran it under my workbench I found s**t I didn't even know I was missing.


https://www.harborfreight.com/17-in-mini-magnetic-sweeper-62704.html

Me likes this idea. Ordered one.