Question about the parts counter at the hardware store on 5th in Cleveland
Stopped in there last Thursday to grab a dryer thermal fuse and ended up standing at the counter for 20 minutes just watching the old guy behind it work. He had this wall of little drawers behind him, thousands of parts, and he could find a weird washer or a spring clip without even looking up from his coffee. I asked him how long it takes to learn that and he laughed and said most of it is just remembering what breaks on what. That got me thinking about how I've been fixing washers and dryers for 11 years and half of what I know is just patterns from the same 30 or so models. Anyway, the thing that got me was he pulled out a binder, an actual paper binder, with handwritten notes on what fits what, and he said the computer is fine but the binder is faster when the power goes out. I've been keeping everything in my phone and now I'm wondering if I'm losing something by not writing it down. Does anyone else keep a paper log of repairs or is it all digital for you?