Just remembered the time I bought a generic hoistway door lock tool that snapped on the first job, costing me about $80 and half a day. | Elevator Mechanics - Pinecone Attack
Just remembered the time I bought a generic hoistway door lock tool that snapped on the first job, costing me about $80 and half a day.
I mean, it was a rush job in a downtown office building and I had to drive clear across town to get the proper Otis part, which just made me miss the old supply houses that actually knew their stuff, you know?
My uncle ran a small hardware store for forty years, he could find any obscure part just by rummaging in the back. When he retired, the new owners cleared all that old stock in a week, sent it straight to the dump. That kind of knowledge just vanishes, and now you're stuck driving across the city for a simple piece of metal. Makes every job take twice as long.
Tell me about it. I once bought a cheap universal key for those old panel boxes. Thing bent like a paperclip on the first turn. Had to explain to a building manager why I was stuck in his basement, then wait two hours for the real part to show up. That's the hidden tax of all this "convenience", you end up wasting a whole afternoon.