It was the ancient Romans who said necessity is the mother of invention. For me, that mother was total frustration at having small parts fly, fall, or get bumped off of my workbench. When working on small models such as cars and single-engine planes, I use the pull-out writing shelf of an old oak desk. For larger models, I use the entire desk. My model room has not been vacuumed due to the pieces still missing in the carpet. When pieces hit the plastic desk mat the little parts fly anywhere. Then it’s down on my hands and knees with a flashlight, looking. I do more looking than finding – but I have a simple solution!

Buy yourself a white cooking apron. Fold the top of the apron in back of the lower half. Put in on so that you can loop the ties around behind your back and tie them in the front. About a foot up from the bottom of the apron, press on or sew a strip of double-faced Velcro straight across the apron. Put the other piece of Velcro diagonally across the bottom of the writing pull out on the desk. If I’m using the entire desk, I’ll put a longer piece of Velcro under the front edge of the desk. Connect the Velcro strips on the apron and on the desk. All parts heading off the desk are now caught in the apron. (I chose a white apron because parts show up better.) Parts stay where they land on the apron instead of bouncing as they did when they hit the plastic desk mat. Some of you may know that jewelers use an apron like this to catch small parts and to keep and reuse gold and silver filings. Watch-repair people also use a similar apron.

Tip submitted by:
Mike PetersonPhoenix, Arizona