"DoN. Nichols" wrote:

On 2013-05-04, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

"DoN. Nichols" wrote:

On 2013-05-02, Michael A. Terrell wrote:

[ ... ]

Pants, in Florida? Are ye insane, man? ;-)

I may be insane (I haven't been tested recently), but I'm not in
Florida. I had that pants cuff experience in an Army lab on raised
white tile flooring, and with overly-aggressive air conditioning.


Air conditioning in the shop? I'm lucky to be able to afford the
window AC for my bedroom, and set it for 80° F. It's shorts, a thin
tee-shirt and a fan aimed right at me.

Air conditioning in an Army R&D lab -- not a shop. I still
wound up taking apart things with small screws and other parts.

And the government paid for the AC, not me (at least not just
me). And Northern VA near DC gets quite hot and quite humid in the
summer, so it is really needed, especially where sensitive measurements
are being made.


Some days it's over 100 degrees and quite humid in my shop.


Items with small screws are serviced on colored carpet samples, and a
foot front the edge of the bench.

Hmm ... solid colored? Patterns could act as camouflage and
make it more difficult to find things.

Always solid colors. I keep a half dozen different colors so I can
pick one that has good contrast to what I'm working on.

Sounds like a good idea. I'll remember that one.


I used to find them at flea markets for 25 cents. The last pieces I
bought were $1 each. They have fabric sewn around the edge, which is the
first place to look for missing screws or small parts. I also have a
couple hundred empty pill bottles to store hardware while waiting on
parts.