[ithacaartist]

My version is, of course, over-simplified. Rich is right about the dust bunnies and extraneous stuff in which the magnetic items are entangled and stuck. Going through it a pinch at a time to feel for the part...reinforces the habit of using the plastic bag method for dis-assembly in the first place!

Jerry, I had a very similar experience--hearing the Erma firing pin guide and its spring hit the shop window, having a brief glimpse of their trajectory, and isolating the landing area in a general way. First pass came up empty, even after sweeping and magnetizing. But it had to be there...and six months later when I got around to moving the stack of sheet steel and plywood leaning against the wall, it was finally revealed.

+1 on the bigger magnet. The best one I had for outdoor work was a ceramic magnet about 2" square and maybe a foot long. It was encased in a light gauge stainless steel shell, with mounting lugs on the ends. A housemate worked here at Borg-Warner and had purloined it, presumably from a magnetic separation process in the manufacture of automotive chain. I added wheels and a handle to it, and it would pull submerged 16d nails up out of the ground. Now it is lost. (I think it might be in Amherst, Mass. where I worked on my buddy's house...) So, no substitute for a robust magnet.

It is strange what surfaces, sometimes you get the part you lost last time, and the object of this search still eludes.