An expensive cell phone has fallen down a virtually inaccessable channel in the framing (also involves tile so breaking through isn’t a great option). Is there a tool… or a trade that uses a tool that would be an articulated arm equipped with a light, camera, and grabbing device? The path this tool would take would involve one 45 degree bend. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!
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Can you push a shop vac hose into the cavity? Put a sock or some type of filter fabric on the end of the hose so it won't get sucked all the way in.
good luck
My phone fell out of my pocket into the septic system distribution box a few years back, the water did not agree with it.
Is the phone is any kind of a holder?
I was wondering about a treble hook on some fishing line. It might take a lot of tries, but you might get lucky.
Q: Why do doctors slap babies' butts right after they're born?
A: To knock the pen!ses off the dumb ones.
Fish tape. Add a bit of bent #12 with the insulation on to make a hook. "V" pointing the hook a bit will help get it in (not a bad idea to take the needlenose to the last 1/4" and bend 180º back on its self, to keep from snagging on the way back).
Then go to Radio Shack. Spend the $45 they want on the cell phone number organizer for your computer (if they have a package deal with a features CD, that's also good, together you're getting both for about 1/2 price). Get the info off the phone and some place you can keep it (and put it back, if needs must).
The software from RS includes the different "ends" to communicat with different phones too. So you can "sync" numbers in two different phones. This can be particularly handy if you have several phones to keep track of/be leashed to . . .
Like anything else, update the files with any changes.
Why go to the trouble? What if that phone had leapt down a 21' pier hole with the first batch of concrete?
I did a similar thing a few years ago with a new very expensive chisel. I was just trying it out where I shouldn't, in a bathroom window. But I wanted to pare a little wood away so I could fit in the new garden window unit. I could have used the regular chisel in my bag but no..... I had to go out to the truck and get my new $45 chisel.
It fell down between the exterior stone and interior foundation wall. After 2 futile hours I took an empty medicine bottle from the clients bathroom applied some masking tape to the side and
[
[
[
[
wrote "Message Inside!" To whom it may concern, if you find this then your remodeling or tearing down this house. I dropped a valuable chisel down this wall and I want it back!!! I may be 80 now, I don't give a s#$%, did I say REWARD! Yes I did. My name is ________ my number is _______ Give me back my g$%&&mn chisel!
I tossed it down the wall . What the heck maybe I'll get it back someday.I'm not holding my breath, tho.
Good Luck
Edited 9/21/2004 12:33 pm ET by JAGWAH
As an environmental engineer who enjoys doing field work, I've hauled a lot of stuff out of 2" and 4" wells.
A big shop vac with a big hose is a good idea.
The treble hook is often easier than you think. But I have looked like an idiot at times, "fishing" through the pavement of a gas station. A really new one or recently sharpened helps.
Nothing vary magnetic in a cell phone so that is out.
A highly trained hamster? <G>
A loop of super-sticky tape on a fish tape or bent piece of long sheet metal? Like the metal foil tape for ductwork.
With the 45 bend, I'm liking the shop vac the most.
To recover tools dropped down the cavity of a double brick wall, I've always found a really strong pot magnet on a cord to be as good as anything.
IanDG
Ya,Great idea ,a magnet will really make the phone work good... Geeez!
Exactly how will it adversely affect the phone?
IanDG
Was the phone on, with a fully charged battery? Ringer on full blast with some annoying ringtone, or maybe on vibrate?
Maybe you can wait a few weeks, call yourself a few times in the middle of the night and see if the home owner busts the wall down and retrieves it for you!
My wife just dropped a nice phone in the toilet on an airplane ... we had visions of the FBI showing up at the door .....
All in fun ... I think it will cost you more to retrieve your phone at this point than it's worth ... oh well ... Bill.
OK ...
step one ...
Buy a pet ferret ...
step two ... now this may take a while ..... but .....
Jeff
Buck Construction, llc Pittsburgh,PA
Artistry in Carpentry
Thought! Do you have replacement insurance? If not call and activate your insurance....wait a week then call and say hey I lost my phone please send me a new one.
Ya I know what you guys are gonna say, but hey it's tough making a buck and then to drop it all down a wall.
Insurance fraud over a cell phone ???
Pretty lame.Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. [Theodore Roosevelt]
See see! I knew someone would take it wrong. LOL
Just a little fraud,ya know. It's not like I faked a bunch of military papers or anything. One guys fraud is just another guy's misinformation. Ok maybe not. Sorry Geeze!
the problem with this idea is the cell phone co. says, your last phone call was at 11 am tues. you took out ins on weds, you never placed the call since tues........... go directly to jail. ouch for a 100 phone. larry
Ya see,that's why ya need a bunch of friends smarter then yourself. With a smarter friend they can point out why your idea is bad and save you from 'bed time with bubba.'
Now if another smart friend could figure out how to place a call from this lost phone to the cell company to get the insurance we might just be golden, eh?
How about either some kind of noose or claw assembly clamped to a mousetrap? or one of those pickers they use to reach very high shelves? Orrrrrrrrrrrr one of those contraptions they sell for reaching lightbulbs in very high ceilings?
Edited 9/22/2004 10:48 am ET by PaulB
Speaking of mousetraps, wasn't there a scene in Stewart Little II like this (for those of you that also have kids)? Where Stewart the mouse is lowered on a string down the kitchen drain to retrieve his mother's ring.
Like someone said: 1) get ferret, 2) train ferret, . . .
Real idea:
Could you drill up from below? Drill the bejeezes out of the bottom plate - 2.5" or 3" hole saw. Reach over in that bay and grab it. (A 6-year-old might come in handy for that part).
Or don't they need some decorative thing hanging on the house right at the bottom of that stud bay? You know, some decorative thing big enough to hide a 4" hole in the siding <G>?David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
A quad recptacle cover could hide a hole...hummm?
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations.
"Insurance fraud over a cell phone ??? Pretty lame."
I'd do it.Who Dares Wins.
In most cases I'd agree with you.
however we're talking a cell phone company, and since they try to screw me out of money on almost every bill...
well anyway you can stick back to them..
Thats FRAUDULENT STUFF! a no no
What us the specific gravity of a cell phone? If it is less than 1.00, then you can just fill up the stud cavity with water and the thing should float up to the top. For added effect you can add lots of salt [NaCl] to inclease bouyancy -- like the Dead Sea.
Other than that, you will have to resort to the heavy hitter: Mercury. This is readily available from thermometers and used florescent lamp tube bulbs.
Is it possibly to puncture the drywall above the level of the tile? I don't understand the 45º angle thing.
There are various bore-scopes available. Also plumbers use small TV cameras to inspect sewer lines. If you are friends with a doctor who does those colon [:] inspections, that would be the thing to borrow -- if it is long enough. You will probably need to drill 3 holes in the top plate -- one to see, one for a light and one for your fishing device. HD sells a set of screw-together green rods by Greenlee which you might be able to equip with a loop of string to snag your phone.
Currently, I have two hole saw mandrels in similar locations in this county.
~Peter
I realize (at least assume) you are joking about floating it out in water. Submersion kills cell phones really quick. I haven't done it myself but have seen others give a number of cell phones and beeper a watery death.
You need something non-conductive and dense. TCE or PCE would work great. Old-style dry-cleaning solvents. Dense (spec grav = 2.7), non-conductive, and volatile, so it all evaporates away pretty quickly. A known human carcinogen, so maybe you don't want it percolating down the walls. And really tough to get anymore. People used to use it in 55-gallon drum quantities, but not anymore.
Superglue on a string?David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
Or maybe a glob of construction adhesive or caulk on a string or wire - get it into good contact & let it cure...
Dave
Probably the same guy that wants to use a strong magnet posted the water floating suggestion..About as dumb a suggestion as the fraudulent suggestion.
Edited 9/22/2004 6:26 pm ET by Hube
What's the issue with magnets? I know they don't swim well, but my cell phone has been next to credit-card killing magnets with no ill effects. I wouldn't take one inside a MRI scanner (for a lot of reasons) but your basic 10- or 20[pound of pull magnet?
David Thomas Overlooking Cook Inlet in Kenai, Alaska
Edited 9/22/2004 6:34 pm ET by David Thomas
Couple comments on the magnet ideas
For those saying there is not much magnetic on phone - what about the battery?
For those insinuating that a magnet would wreck the phone - how?
I know a guy that has a strong magnet in a case with velvet type wrapping on it that sticks to the dash of his truck. This thing holds the phone vertically on the dash by the magnetic pull on the phones battery. Holds well and has not wrecked the phone yet. Can't remember the manufacturer of this thing (Magnatite or something like that), but it is designed for this purpose and works well.
hey shoeman--How are ya? right you are about the phone holders-seen lots myself- Not so sure that the plastic case over the battrey wouldn't insulate it makeing that part essentuly non-magnetic ( different phones different cases) I know that my phone won't hold to a magnet without the case which has a spring steel clip. Mike
Hey Hube--I'm the guy with the strong magnet idea and No I never said anything about water( someone else posted that one)
the magnet won't do anything to the battery or the phone--check other post about magnetic phone holders.
the pull from a regular magnet won't do anything to your credit cards either.
besides I was referring to the clip on the case and not the phone itself which is mostly plastic and that would be a moot point wouldn't it?
"...About as dumb a suggestion as the fraudulent suggestion. "
I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought that.How come there's only one Monopolies Commission?
I was thinking about this today. Actually, as my phone was ringing (again) how this really isn't that bad. Maybe if we all lost the phone, think of how things would be "better"- less stress, less headaches, less payments, less insurance......less work, less money, less food, etc!
I resemble that remark.
We are tryung to help out a fellow brother and this seems to call for brainstorming, an old college technique. I can see certain problems with the water technique since I don't know whether the cell phone will float or not. That's why I suggested using mercury.
The proper term is endoscope.
Drywall is easy to repair. Do a cost/benefit analysis.
Have we heard from the original poster?
~Peter
Peter, all very good ideas, however I believe the international sign for the colon examination is not [:] but rather.... #%$&*@&%!!!
don't know if a doctor is going to loan a mega expensive colonoscopy rig to some carpenter to hunt for his cellphone on a jobsite, but i know wouldn't want him using it on me afterwards in case a framing nail or sumthin gets hung up on it eeeyuu!
would you and helper have to borrow white lab coats from him too?
now to business... are there lots of minutes on the cellphone? just tell us where it is and we'll go get it, have it back to you real sooon
I'll go off on a little tangent here to let you in on a secret. The same scope they use for the upper GI is the one they use for the bottom GI. Of course on your day, if you're getting both done they do the upper first. The drugs they use do induce amnesia though... I'm sorry, it was too much fun to pass up. I've never seen any monkey business while they are being done. Usually in the ED everybody is in a hurry to get things done.
Now back to the thread.
do they get to wear the white lab coats? if they do, can they charge the homeowner extra?
Don't feel too bad...
two years ago I was pulling up my pants in the Sani-Kan job site sh!tter when I heard a suspicious Ka-plunk. Yep, there's my shiny new yellow and black Nextel amongst the unmentionables. Had to see that thing every day for about a week 'til the caca-sucka showed up for the weekly cleansing.
Contact the CIA, FBI, or any other alphabet soup agency. The have the equipment you need. If all else fails, call Hollywood. Otherwise, just get a new contract with a free phone.
Ian has the right idea but if you sant to get serious about magnet grip go to a Rare- earth magnet ( the only way to get these apart is to slide them sideways)
Hopefully there isn't a lot of ferrous junk down there or you could wind up dredging the wall and never get your phone--the phones themselves aren't very magnetic but hope fully you had a case on it with a beltclip.
Got my almost new Vaughn framer out of a foundation cavity with the glue-on-a-stick trick , Stuck it against the hammer one day, came back next morning and Poof! back to work. Mike
Where's JUNKHOUND when you need him!!!?? He may be able to come up with a solution. Might try e-mailing him to pick his brain.
-m2akita
What brain.?
You didn't mention the size of the channel your phone fell down. I own a security camera bought from Radio Shack that hooks to your VCR. Its about 3.5" in diameter. It has about fifty foot coax. You could drop a camera down the hole to specifically locate its spot. Maybe you could then cut a hole. If you have a friend in the plumbing business don't they use cameras for drain lines. ???????????
leave it in the hole customer hassling you, dial him up slow in paying bill? give him a call... ringing walls, that's a new one
i think you're onto something here recommend burying cheap cell phones in the wall though expanded use- wife gives you a hard time, take it out on customer, give him a call
Ya know, you might be onto something there.
Hide a cell phone in the wall in the master bedroom. Turn off the ringer and set it to "auto answer".
Then you could call the HO at 3AM and scream at them about not paying their bill.
Guess you'd have to hook the phone to a charger so you could keep it going indefinitely...I'm not a complete idiot, some parts are missing.
SWEET! I like it.
It's not fraud but that's ok. What's a little harrasement. Maybe a misdemeanor.
Buy the phone under an alias and post 'For A Good Time.....' in some dive's bathroom.