Ever have a screw loose? If so, you might need this easy to build attachment to help you find that screw -- including plastic ones that a magnet would miss.
Thanks go to Frank Ford for the original article in MAKE, Volume 13.
To download The Lost Screw Finder video click here and subscribe in iTunes.
Check out the complete Lost Screw Finder article in MAKE, Volume 13 and you
can see that in our Digital Edition.
Weekend Project: Lost Screw Finder
Recent Entries
- Vacuum tube prototyping board
- Free LED Cookbook from TI
- How-To: Open source intervalometer for Canon, Nikon cameras
- PYMT, a multi-touch library for Python
- Make: Projects - Pneumatic trough, part II
- Cardboard tube battle
- Make: Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Gifts for dads
- LEGO-sized hole punch by MUJI
- Cross multi-tool
- How PCBs are routed
Comments
Oldest comments listed first.
Leave a comment
Subscribe to MAKE Magazine!
Subscribe today, save 42% and get web access to MAKE free. MAKE Digital Edition is available only to subscribers.
$34.95 / 1 year
(4 Quarterly Issues)




































Didn't Kip Kay make a video not to long ago showing how to get an earing out of a sink by putting pantyhose on a wet vac nozzle? The same method could be used here, fast cheap and easy.
Reply to this comment
No that wasn't me but if it ever happens I'll know what to do! Thanks!
Reply to this comment
...but all I caught was a spider and 4 ants. They didn't even fight each other or anything. xD Now I'm scared to put my hand down there tho. D:
Reply to this comment
great project. I'll have to make one in case I upset my small screw bin again.
The first thing I do when I drop a screw is listen. On a hard surface, I can usually hear the general location of where it stops.
Second I grab a flashlight - I always have a couple around. I turn it on and hold it at floor level. The beam doesn't light the floor, but anything sticking up higher than the surface. (Laser pointers also work well.) I've even found eyeglass and laptop screws using this method.
Reply to this comment
great project. I'll have to make one in case I upset my small screw bin again.
The first thing I do when I drop a screw is listen. On a hard surface, I can usually hear the general location of where it stops.
Second I grab a flashlight - I always have a couple around. I turn it on and hold it at floor level. The beam doesn't light the floor, but anything sticking up higher than the surface. (Laser pointers also work well.) I've even found eyeglass and laptop screws using this method.
Reply to this comment
guess we all face this problem ...
i just use a few magnets at the end of a stick :-)
Reply to this comment
Yea that does work but only on magnetic screws. If it's plastic or brass like the one I was trying to find...you need something else.
Reply to this comment