While I hate reading, I’ve always found an instruction manual a useful tool in the workshop… as a last resort.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve always strived for electronic copies of manuals. Putting your face 25mm from the page may get ink on your forehead, however, a zoom in your favourite PDF reader will distinguis the smallest font,
Nowadays most suppliers provide electronic copies on their (or manufacturers) WEB sites. To prove my point, I noticed a tattered box and ancient Doweling jig in one of the forums,
Failing that there are dedicated sites that list just about every imaginable manual, some of the listed were documented before printing was invented.
FAIW, I do this for all manuals and have a comprehensive collection of electronic manuals... All categories,
Household items,
Tools, and of course, Years ago, I always scanned in my manuals or took photos (then combined into a PDF) and filed the original away in a place that I never visited until I had to stow another manual there. I had no hesitation to removing staples or breaking the spline, which I still do if I can’t download a manual.
Why? Not too many people read manual from cover to cover, until you are ready to toss out that bloody useless tool as it just doesn’t work and you finally succumb and decide to open up the manual for the first time… however, we all need access to those critical few pages that explain exactly what needs to be done.
Rather than drag the manual into the workshop and Titebond the pages together, print of those selected pages, take them into the workshop
and when finished, either bin it or stow it in a catchall folder
if you plan to use that tool again.
I keep all my pen making instructions laminated and all in one folder,
Hell how many of you has that odd impromptu purchased tool that you no longer use as you threw the packaging out which had explicit instructions on then back. This had me climbing up a ladder until I found it,
If you admired Hopalong Cassidy and like being a cowboy, you can now toss away those manual and just keep the PDF. A quick Windows/Mac search will find your manual much quicker than ferreting through boxes in your attic.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
A quick Windows/Mac search will find your manual much quicker than ferreting through boxes in your attic.
I don't have boxes whit manuals in my attic. Nor do I scan them for digital storage. But what I do is to keep them as much as possible in the room/environment where I may need them. This reduces the search to a minimum.
Those of the kitchen and appliances are behind the cabin plinth
Those of the kitchen and appliances are behind the cabin plinth
Those of the machines and tools are in the shed.
The printer's is underneath
That of the TV and radio is in the box below
And so on. and so on.
Obviously you don't have some of your family that take out a manual, fan themselves with it and leave it sitting on some furniture or dropped on the ground... then someone else that's tidy in the family (not necessarily you) that sees it, screams and after putting it away repeatedly 20 times gets so anoyed that they finishes up throwing it in the bin... then you'll be screaming for that Window/Mac program...
My workshop is my domain... unfortunately I'm disorganised and don't have anyone picking up after me and they finish up ruined and eventually put in the rubbish.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
A well-organized solution, I keep the manuals that would be needed. and have downloaded the manuals for some that I did not have being purchased used. Like the idea of the binder for the assembly instructions. I need one for the designs that I have created with intentions of building more.
Yep, big + for this method. The only drawback for me is having sit in front of the idiot box to do a look up. I'd rather waste an hour combing through binders and stack of papers. Lots of long lost items get found that way!
A discreet choice of wallpapers make it less unpleasant... furthermore the zoom in prevents the search for the magnifying glasses... zoom in is of course on the manual,😉😉😉...
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
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