The Ship Modelers Abyss

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Apr 9, 2013
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Location
Newmarket, Ontario Canada
I contemplated writing about this on my Sovereign of the Seas log but it seems like a more general topic so here goes.

The Ship Modelers Abyss has, over the years, swallowed up numerous tiny parts which should have found a home on my models but alas ended in the abyss instead. It happens when you have spent generous time perfecting the part and are about to glue it to the model when YOU DROP IT! Henceforth you will spend several hours searching for it on the bench, floor etc and inevitably you will not find it. I have even put a nylon stocking over the vacuum tube ending and vacuumed the entire floor and bench with no success.

Yesterday I completed a carving which was about 1” long x 1/8th” square and was about to fit it to the hull when it fell into the abyss. Now you would think it would be easy to find but here I am writing about how it has disappeared. I thought I might have knocked it into one of the gunports when it was falling so I shook the model and heard the other carving that went in there about 5 years ago rattling around but it was evident that there were not two pieces in there. Note that it is nigh impossible to get a part out of the hull no matter HOW MUCH YOU SHAKE THE DARN THING! :mad:

Today I will vacuum with the nylon stocking and dismantle the heating vent to see if it went in there. One thing I did not mention is that when we built this house we chose nice carpet for this workshop room. The only thing I missed at the time is that the carpet is beige and very close in colour to the woods I am using on my model. Hindsight eh? 20-20. :roll:

If you have any thoughts on the abyss, I would love to hear your comments.

Regards,
Bill
 
this is something most people just shake off thinking hum that's odd things just don't vanish, so they forget about it and move on. This has happened to me so many times I lost count. Most of the time I will find the missing item, it may fall and roll or bounce. Then there are the times they DO vanish never to be found again. One time I was working at by bench and tried to fit a part, set it back down on the bench adjusted the model and went to retry the part, lo and behold to this day I never found that part. I was determined to find it so square inch by square inch I cleared and cleaned the top of the work bench, the floor and myself it never was found. I sat and wondered I did not move at all just sat there how can this "vanish" in thin air?
This is something recognized by many people but like I said no one has ever explained it so we just go hum odd and let it be. There was a book by Charles Fort Book of the Dammed and at the turn of the 1900 he inherited quite a family fortune so he spent his life going to the library in New York city and searched newspapers and journals for odd events and then investigate them. There are documented cases of things that vanish and are gone and things that vanish from one spot and reappear someplace else. Even big things will go missing, many years ago I was doing a repair job in my house. I was removing molding around a door frame, pried it loose with a hammer, it was loose so I set the hammer down on the floor and pulled off the molding. Then I reached for the hammer and it was not there nor did I ever find it. I was alone in the room I know for sure I set in on the floor, nothing left the room not even me no one walked in the room but yet that darn hammer is still missing.
 
Whew!!! I thought the abyss only existed at my house. I am truly sorry that you are infected with it as well but in a way I feel vindicated as I am not alone. I am going to deep clean the workshop this afternoon and have a final look before I embark on carving the piece for the second time.

Any more stories about the abyss?

Regards,
Bill
 
The abyss is most certainly a real phenomenon. My workroom has a hardwood floor, no nooks and crannies, Yesterday I heard the last belaying pin drop (no spares in this kit) and hit the floor, spent an hour on my hands and knees looking for it. Nothing. I used a duster to smooth across across each and every inch of the floor, but nothing. In the end I turned another one, but at least the floor is super clean!
 
Also known as the Carpet Monster, it eats anything model related. I once had a small piece of Photoetch go "ping", searched everywhere for it. I found it the next morning whilst reversing my car out of my driveway, attached to the sleeve of my Fleece jacket that I was wearing, my jacket had been over the back of my chair the previous evening. Now when I loose something the first place I look is my Fleece. The other lads at work are always amazed that I can find small "C" clips and washers that are dropped on the floor,

Cheers Andy
 
Oh yes indeed, I think every modeller can relate to this topic.
Its so frustrating when you drop a small part on the floor, and how many times have we been on our hands and knees feeling around for that tiny part.
 
Yesterday afternoon I cleaned the workshop from top to bottom using a nylon stocking over the vacuum nozzle. Every square inch of the shop was checked and you guessed it, the missing carving did not appear. :sad:

The only benefit was that the shop is nice and clean again. Oh well, on to the replacement carving. The abyss wins again.

Bill
 
Bill, did you find my six inch steel rule while you were tidying up?
 
I find a very reliable method of finding lost parts is to buy or make a replacement.
The more difficult or expensive this is, the more likely you are to then find the original.
 
Being new to photo etch, I've found myself thinking, "be careful as I cut the next tiny piece from the sheet so I don't shoot it into the Abyss." Then, naturally, it flies out from under my blade and I commence to the search. Found one piece stuck to the end of my Miniature Pinscher's wet nose. Good Boy, Minimum!!
 
I try to clean the floor under the work bench / table as often possible. Often it is easier than.....but often not ;-)
 
While this isn't a tale of the Abyss, it may advance our understanding of how these frustrations actually occur:
One day I was doing something in my bedroom and had a small card in my hand. As I turned and accidentally brushed against the dresser, the card was knocked from my hand. Had I been a spilt second slower in whipping around to follow it to the floor, it's whereabouts would've been chalked up to "The Abyss".
But, I caught a glimpse of it disappearing into a lower drawer, which is seldom used but was ajar by less than half an inch. Already astounded by the unlikely odds of such a thing happening, I opened the drawer expecting it to be lying there. To my surprise, it was no where to be seen. Only after rifling through the drawer for a minute did I find it--pressed against the inside front of the drawer, down at the bottom of the stack of t-shirts stored in there.
The thought immediately occurred to me, "Had I not spotted that card slipping through that crack, I would've been utterly dumbfounded by the amazing disappearance, "into thin air" that had just occurred.
I often remember this when trying to track down those little parts to my ship that head toward the shop floor, but may not have made all the way there...
 
I don't have an abyss in my shop. It's more like a black hole. It gobbles up lots of small parts. I work on a tile floor and have even swept the floor immediately after it falls into the black hole but I still don't find the part among the bits and pieces of wood shavings. It just disappears.

My workbench has its own black hole but it swallows tools. I'm working on a model and stop for a minute to look at the plans. When I turn around to pick up the tool I was just using, it's gone. Nowhere to be found. Not on the floor, not on the workbench, just gone. Weeks, maybe months later I open a drawer under the table and there it is. Don't remember putting the tool there, don't know why I would put it there because i prefer to just keep all of my tools there on my desk. That way I always know where they are. Anyway, I figure all these things are sitting in another dimension so that when I pass and go to the big dockyard in the sky, all those tools and parts will be there waiting for me to pick up where i left off.

Bob
 
I’ve spotted the creature from the abyss , must have been really hungry to venture out forraging for food! Or on a few occasions making off with masts and yards!
 

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Has anyone heard from EPICDOOM lately, in my last comunication he was not feeling well at all, has anyone heard how he is doing, a little concerned about him, AT THIS TIME OF YEAR PEACE BE WITH YOU. Don
Last Saturday he was the last time online - I do not know more
Hope you are well @epicdoom ?
 
Last Saturday he was the last time online - I do not know more
Hope you are well @epicdoom ?
Same here Joe.ill be praying for your quick recovery and return to SOS.

Talking about the abyss or black hole etc. In sure I've got both of them and also a gremlin.
I have a habit now and I sing a song (to mysrlf) the words I used in the song is like 'the file is on my left near the mat. Ir something similar. Most of the time it works, until the gremlins take it and put it is a completely different spot.

I find a very reliable method of finding lost parts is to buy or make a replacement.
The more difficult or expensive this is, the more likely you are to then find the original.

This method sometimes works for me but sometimes its has gone into another dimension!
I'm sure my counterparts Greg in the other dimension has lost a brand new set square one day, because out of the blue, there was the said set square that was magically appeared on my desk.
I have never seen that before and it is a great piece of equipment that I now use regularly.
Strange things happens.
 
I contemplated writing about this on my Sovereign of the Seas log but it seems like a more general topic so here goes.

The Ship Modelers Abyss has, over the years, swallowed up numerous tiny parts which should have found a home on my models but alas ended in the abyss instead. It happens when you have spent generous time perfecting the part and are about to glue it to the model when YOU DROP IT! Henceforth you will spend several hours searching for it on the bench, floor etc and inevitably you will not find it. I have even put a nylon stocking over the vacuum tube ending and vacuumed the entire floor and bench with no success.

Yesterday I completed a carving which was about 1” long x 1/8th” square and was about to fit it to the hull when it fell into the abyss. Now you would think it would be easy to find but here I am writing about how it has disappeared. I thought I might have knocked it into one of the gunports when it was falling so I shook the model and heard the other carving that went in there about 5 years ago rattling around but it was evident that there were not two pieces in there. Note that it is nigh impossible to get a part out of the hull no matter HOW MUCH YOU SHAKE THE DARN THING! :mad:

Today I will vacuum with the nylon stocking and dismantle the heating vent to see if it went in there. One thing I did not mention is that when we built this house we chose nice carpet for this workshop room. The only thing I missed at the time is that the carpet is beige and very close in colour to the woods I am using on my model. Hindsight eh? 20-20. :roll:

If you have any thoughts on the abyss, I would love to hear your comments.

Regards,
Bill
You are right about the abyss. I call mine the black hole. I have lost enough stuff that I fully expect some day that a completed model will rise out of my carpet. I have found that often when searching for the latest AWOL, I find a part that was previously lost and not yet recovered. This happens a lot to me.

Vince P. Ship-1
 
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