Tools & Techniques

What about a raised lip along the edge of the work bench?

magnet on a stick

Magnet and spares definitely.

Ben there done that. Walmart bedding section cheap white non fitted sheet put under your chair and part of work area. When the screws fall the sheet will stop them from bouncing and makes them easy to see. When not working fold up and put away.

You can get magnet self adhesive tape about 1" wide and put it along the front edge of your work space. I would suggest a piece or 2 on left and right sides (top surface box effect?) and you can paint them white and put your parts on them as you go along . Probably the best for results you require

I use a "tack mat" in my construction business, it is a tablet of 2' x '3' or so of a sticky surface to remove dust off your feet exiting a room under construction.It does not transfer ANY stickiness yet dropping anything on it stops it in its tracks. I would cut the whole tablet in half and use it right on the table top or just under your chair. when soiled tear the thin layer top sheet off and you are anew w/fresh tacky sheet. Works great!! just another suggestion 

there's an old jeweler's trick, where your apron is attached along the underside of the table edge. anything that falls winds up in your lap and stays there, unless you get up!. (velcro works good in that application.)

You know, I like this trick. The "Tack Mat" idea is good, too. But so far this is the tops. Are you the same "Chris" involved with Cherry Valley MRRC?

John

yup, that's me.

In fact....    Micromark has the very thing!!  And here 'tis...

http://www.micromark.com/parts...hing-apron,8108.html

I don't have one.  This sort of event is what keeps these 68-year old joints limber...getting down on the floor, crawling around looking for microscopic parts/springs/thing-a-dings.  After all, if I'm going to go to my knees at church, I might as well do so at home.  (The accompanying commentary and vocabulary is sometimes quite different between those two occasions, though!) ()  I still need to do similar exercises when wiring, re-wiring, box-fetching, spider-chasing,...whatever...under the layout, too. 

Carpeting is actually a PITA for workshops.  I have a concrete floor with movable rubber runners.  If I drop a small part, I'll first carefully step waaaaaay to one side, dump the rubber floor runners onto the concrete floor, lay a flashlight on the floor and slowly pan it about the suspect area.  Often this will cast enough of a shadow from the missing part to help find it.  Of course dead and live bugs, wood shavings, corkscrew drill chips, dried paint blobs, etc., etc., cast similar shadows.  It's all very entertaining...to my wife....who ultimately rescues me from my search by finding the missing part on the opposite side of the work area from where I SWORE I heard it land!

Hey, it's part of the hobby!

KD

I enjoy the occasional floor exploration technique myself. I crawl about and discover many things I had thought were lost forever. It's a delight actually, and a test of my physical capability as well. My dog Lucky looks upon the event as reason to come and lick my face, and that brings a smile everytime. Plus the inevitable sneeze brought about by the dust help clear my nostrils nicely. Why would I want to miss out on such fun?

All the above plus work within a clear plastic bag for truck/coupler springs. 

For finding stuff on the floor I use a mag light and place an ear on the floor and visually scan sideways.  Stuff just jumps into view that way for me.  tt

For me, part of the solution is to never lay small parts on the workbench. I save all sorts of little containers, such as:

little while plastic icing cups from tubes of breakfast rolls

black plastic food trays from froozen food.

Screws and all other small parts go into one of these.

Still, parts occasionally hit the floor.

I use the flashlight pan and scan technique that has been previously described.

 This is getting good! The bathtub one too. I swear there are some two railers with humor??? Na.

George Carlin once said that there is a force in the universe that makes parts fall to the absolute middle of the hardest place to reach.

He has been proven right over and over again...

I have a black cloth apron I got from The Home Shop Machinist.  Certainly there are other places to get an apron.  It has Velcro on the bottom and there is Velcro on the bottom of my workbench.  This has saved all kinds of time and frustration looking for dropped parts. With the black background it is easy to see brass or nickel silver.  Simple, comfortable, and effective.  Micro Mark has one listed under gloves and aprons.