How likely was this screw missing?

[pamela]

My 16 year old nephew assembled my floor standing fan. All went well except he said a screw was missing. It's one of three very small screws to attach the name plate in the middle of the mesh guard:

Maybe I'm lucky but over the years I've never once has a missing screw when assembling this sort of thing.

Maybe he lost the screw because he was watching Netflix as he worked. Before I get unfairly annoyed with him, how likely do you think this fan was sold with the screw actually missing?

[ARW]

I do believe that a screw is missing - but not from the fan assembly kit.

[damduck-egg]

Unlikely, He hasn't been trained very well, normally when something like that has been reassembled there are screws/bolts/nuts left over though the item seems to function without them. These are called pocket screws, so called because rather than find out where they were supposed to go you just put them in your pocket.

G.Harman

[newshound]

+1

[pamela]

It might start to rattle.

Actually I got to wondering how that big nameplate would affect air flow. I thought it would hinder air flow but it must help in some way because most fans have that big disc (even without displaying the manufacturer's name).

[pamela]

:-)

[pamela]

As the screw is one of the small ones it makes me think it got dropped and couldn't be found.

My nephew is rather careless and organises his work badly. Maybe all

16 year olds are like that.

Even if he dropped it he would be convinced it was never in the pack to start with but, as I said, I've never seen one missing - even with cheap goods and their poor quality control.

[Tim Watts]

Pah - amateur.

When we bought MFI furniture in the 70s, it *always* had something missing.

Ikea got wise to this and provide bins of "bits" on the way out of the store - at Croydon at least.

[Tim Watts]

Later to be found when they have jammed the washing machine pump or punctured the door seal.

A lesson well worth remembering when drywalling and having a pocket full of very pointy screws!

[pamela]

And nowadays?

I've never seen that before.

[James Wilkinson]

Decent self assemble stuff has extras of small things.

[James Wilkinson]

Ask the seller for a spare screw, or just buy one.

[ss]

This is modern day culture of blaming someone else, Pamela is to blame in this instance. It is normal procedure when asking family to help out that you personally check the components list to ensure all parts are available. In fact it is normal procedure to check any self assemply that all parts have been supplied. As you obviously havent then it is a 50/50 as to him or the manufacturer. :-)

[Bob Eager]

I bought a small flatpack bathroom cabinet from Argos recently. It included a plastic bag marked 'Spare parts'. It contained spares of the smallest screws, and a spare shelf peg.

[pamela]

I must be living in a different world (no comments please) in which I have always got all the fastenings and no more or no less.

Maybe I should be more forgiving of my nephew?

[pamela]

I'm not short of a screw (as they say) but instead I want to know if my nephew is telling me porkies. :-)

[James Wilkinson]

Well I've had loads of parts missing from these things. I always count them before I start.

[James Wilkinson]

Think about it, if you've never had anything missing, then someone else (perhaps your nephew) never has all the parts? Someone has to have the bad luck, it's a law of physics.

[James Wilkinson]

If I demote a job to someone else, I expect them to do the checking.

[Richard]

Send him to Adam as an apprentice for fixing.