Over the past few days I've been building a few Shapeways puzzles. And on the final build of Eric's Master Starminx I came up one piece short! (A megaminx edge). I turned the house upside down, checked outside where I'd dried some pieces (thought about birds flying away with it!). Under the lounges, in the dishwasher filter, I asked the kids if they knew (guaranteed response: not me!) I even went through the garbage because I'd put the paper I dried them on in there (and tonight's bin night!) You know where I found it?? I strained the dye I kept !

Got a good story (or a nightmare)? I was thinking I'd have to order another one.

Happy ,
Burgo!

I've lost a Zhanchi edge piece, a C4U teraminx center piece, and about a million caps.

In my first Subatomic Cube attempt (which failed because the centres were unstable), I was using the type of tweezers that are closed on their own and you pinch them to open them. I had a piece in the tweezers and all of a sudden it shot out behind me. After quite some time, I ended up sweeping the floor and managed to pick it out of the dirt. I think I got pretty lucky because those pieces are 2mm across. I wasn't too freaked out about losing it however because I put spare parts in the design.

Callum

So that's why my wife keeps hiding pieces under the sofa.

I accidentally vacuumed up a center cap off my Alpha V. I looked through the dust and hair but never found it. I ended up just cutting a piece of plastic we use for laser engraving and double-sided-taped it on. The only problem is the only orange stickers I have are much darker than cubesmith's bright orange so now it looks ugly.

Funny you should mention losing a part on the Master Starminx because my worst part loss was with the Master Starminx. I lost a tiny internal Gigaminx + center (the small parts that sandwich a megaminx edge between two centers. I count parts between each stage of tumbling so I learn about missing parts pretty soon. In this case I had all of the parts before the porcelain spheres stage and rather than counting after the spheres but before the dyeing I just put the parts straight from the spheres into the dye bath. After dyeing (during the assembly) I realized I was missing the part.

I spent 3 hours tearing apart my apartment without any success. I took apart my vacuum cleaner, pulled out the fridge, poured all of my grits through a screen, poured all of the porcelain spheres out into the bathtub, re-strained my dye, etc.

The next day I decided it probably went down the garbage disposal so I took that out and took it apart. I found a part to a different twisty puzzle I'd been tumbling that I didn't realize I was missing -- but not the Master Starminx piece.

Finally, I pulled out my stove and found the part under there. It was not dyed which means somehow I dropped it while transferring it from the tumbler to the dye bath. In all the search took about 6 hours over two days.

I've been thinking about testing UV-fluorescing dyes to see if I can get any of them to take in the nylon. If so then I'd dye the parts with a UV dye before tumbling which would really improve my ability to find lost parts.

Personally I think all designs should come with extra parts (and pass this cost on to the purchasers). Even one extra of each part type for all small parts and 0 extras for the big parts would be much better than the current situation.

EDIT: I just ordered http://www.riskreactor.com/mm5/merchant ... _Code=DFSB so I'll test and report the results.

I can only imagine losing a clear Subatomic part!A clear sign of having too many puzzles , well.. also saved yourself another 7 hour adventure. Under the stove!

My adventure was only about 2 hours, but it did require going through the garbage. I am always super careful to take account of every piece, and I like the idea of counting between stages, I'm going to start doing that. I agree 1 extra piece for the smallest piece types would be good, especially for puzzles like the Master Starminx.

My eyes nearly popped out when I saw it, I literally could not believe I found it.

Yes, I lost an internal piece to my MF8 3x4x5 that has made it unusable. At this point I'm thinking of selling it to someone who has some casting skills and can bring the puzzle back to life for themselves unless someone could make one available on shapeways for me .

Hi Burgo,

I had a very similar experience a few weeks ago, but without the happy end.
Actually, I had finished the dyeing successfully (my first dyeing project with a very nice result ), but it happened after some intensive lubrication of 55 small internal pieces. When I reassembled the puzzle, one was gone.
I'm beginning to believe in ghosts
It is possible that it still lives somwhere in our house, who knows.
Fortunately, the designer has promised to make a spare part

That leads me to a question: Do you see it as a good idea that designers include a few spare parts, at least of the smaller pieces? That should not push up the price by much.

I have to admit, that this was the first accident of this kind, but I perceive it always as a wonder that no parts are missing.

That was what was running through my mind, likewise it was a small unseen internal part- could I make one? I have some milliput or fibreglass, a simple mold, a dremel, I reckon I could come close backyarding it (when it's just one part). Desperate times hey?

Aargh, Konrad, keep looking, take an example from Brandon for a never give up tenacious attitude! Consider it a treasure hunt. Tell you what, after an extra 24 hrs in the dye it was very black.. noticably darker. I'm beginning to believe in ghosts too, I was going to share a photo of it unstickered but it's gone from my camera! And you have to make an effort to delete photos .

I was going to show the finish I got with a `Dremel 84922 13/32" Silicon Grinding Point`. I think I got a nice finish for not much effort. I tried using it to take a little bit of firmness out of the screw holes, turned out I kept grinding with very little to no result, and checking it, the screw hole was mirror smooth. The nylon is very strong. So I went over the outer surfaces and some of the larger flatter internals at a slow-medium speed. It worked really well (not as good as a rock tumbler though), I think it's worth it to make the stickers stick better. I'm so disappointed to lose the photos, but I'm not picking the stickers off to take more, especially with 240 of the small ones superglued on (many hours work).

Yes, in answer to your question, I think Brandon said it well: just one replacement part, of only the smallest piece types, just on puzzles that have those very small pieces, would be handy, I think too. It could save major hassles and probably wouldn't cost much more.

Cheers,
Burgo.

Isnt it strange that when you loose something, you always find it in the last place where you are searching?

It's only the last place you look because after you find it there's no reason to keep looking.

- Billy

One of my megaminx caps is currently missing. I know it's somewhere in my van....

In eight years of puzzling I've only lost a corner cap on a square 2.

I just lost one while dying. Strange though sense it was one of the larger parts. I checked the drain but nothing. Hope for the best!

Edit: Found it! Right after posting I thought "oh what the heck" and shuved my hand down the sink and tada! Now I really need to wonder how the heck that happened. This part is 2 cm by 2 cm and not something you'd expect to lose.

Check out my photo ^^ Mike, I always use the extra strainer in the sink `just in case`. Glad you found it .

Ironically, this is a bit on topic in a few ways.. When I was taking some pictures of my collection, I was juggling the memory card from the camera to the computer, and I noticed on the camera's internal memory (which holds all of about 6 photos and is deplorably bad to navigate) Bam! There they are. You just never know what you're going to find!

So far...only one, but it wasn't my fault.

It was actually C4U's fault! I ordered a 5x5x4 from them which arrived with a piece which was broken, the outermost part being missing.

It then took 4 weeks for them to send me what they thought was the missing piece, which was not.

Finally, after another 4 weeks, they sent me more than enough parts to get it working...

Glad that they attended to me for that long though.

When I first saw this thread, I thought, "Lucky me, I don't have a story to share here". Unfortunately, however, circumstances have changed.
My younger brother had (well, has, but it's not exactly usable any more) a LanLan 2x2 that he always managed to pop. Fixing it, however, was never a problem, until one instance in which an entire arm popped off. I had figured it was no problem, I would just have to reassemble it and tighten the screws a bit more. I brought it down to the garage, assembled it, and was just giving it a few test turns when, again, the arm was propelled through the air by the spring. This time, however, the spring was lost somewhere on the June beetle graveyard of a garage floor.

ITS ALIVEEEEE