Owners Manuals

[Wubicon]

I was reading the recent article and posts of people keeping shop note books and all the various options and alternatives people use. Which got me to thinking about the user/owners manuals for various tools, equipment, household appliances etc etc. How do people store them? Do you keep them or toss them? Do you keep them attached or stored with the thing the book is for?

I have kind of by accident started keeping things in 2 different places: 1 is in the garage, I keep reference materials for tools, field guides and service manuals for my cars/motorcycles there. Everything else is in a file folder stashed away in closet in the house.

 

[Stuart in MN]

The manuals and paperwork for my furnace and water heater are in plastic bags taped to the side of them. Most everything else in the house that requires a manual is in the kitchen, so all their manuals and paperwork are stored in one kitchen drawer.

 

[x95braat]

I have a physical file cabinet for the important documents and manuals that I cannot find digitally. The ones that are scanned or digital downloads are stored on the PC for easier search and reference. I'm more likely to do a quick search on the PC than dig through the piles of manuals in the file cabinet looking for that one specific one in the folded random sized booklets. It also clears out a bulk of paper documents taking up space.

 

[zmotorsports]

I keep all of my owners manuals in my shop filing cabinet. I have folders for OPE, shop equipment, shop tools, etc. then a separate folder for each vehicle as well.

For equipment I purchase used, I can usually find an owner's manual, parts manual and even service manuals online and then print them off and put in the corresponding file. I also write purchase dates and any relevant information on the manual and the part #'s as I purchase parts, etc.

Probably overkill, but I like to keep hardcopies of manuals and write in them as needed.

Maybe that is part of my childhood as I loved seeing my dad's handwriting in various manuals for farm equipment.

I don't sell tools but when I sell a piece of lawn & garden equipment or something similar, I will give the manuals with the item and most people I have found don't know what to think about that. Not sure if they toss them or keep them afterwards, but I don't often sell items unless it is something I purchased with the intention of flipping, which does happen on occasion with some OPE.

Service Manuals for my personal vehicles are never given away or sold afterwards, those I always keep.

 

[Wubicon]

I have a physical file cabinet for the important documents and manuals that I cannot find digitally. The ones that are scanned or digital downloads are stored on the PC for easier search and reference. I'm more likely to do a quick search on the PC than dig through the piles of manuals in the file cabinet looking for that one specific one in the folded random sized booklets. It also clears out a bulk of paper documents taking up space.

I agree with the sentiment. But when working with dirty greasy components from my vehicles I have paper manuals so I don't muck up my devices. But I like idea of having digital versions so I can quickly and easily look up some random thing from the manual quickly and efficiently.

I keep all of my owners manuals in my shop filing cabinet. I have folders for OPE, shop equipment, shop tools, etc. then a separate folder for each vehicle as well.

For equipment I purchase used, I can usually find an owner's manual, parts manual and even service manuals online and then print them off and put in the corresponding file. I also write purchase dates and any relevant information on the manual and the part #'s as I purchase parts, etc.

Probably overkill, but I like to keep hardcopies of manuals and write in them as needed.

Maybe that is part of my childhood as I loved seeing my dad's handwriting in various manuals for farm equipment.

I don't sell tools but when I sell a piece of lawn & garden equipment or something similar, I will give the manuals with the item and most people I have found don't know what to think about that. Not sure if they toss them or keep them afterwards, but I don't often sell items unless it is something I purchased with the intention of flipping, which does happen on occasion with some OPE.

Service Manuals for my personal vehicles are never given away or sold afterwards, those I always keep.

I have FSM for the vehicles. Usually keep a PDF saved and then I'll print off the relevant section when it's time to do a specific job so I don't my devices all mucked up. I also keep a separate folder with reciepts and invoices for work I didn't do myself. On top of that, I keep a spreadsheet for the work I did myself.

I do the same for the house and I should for the garage as well as I've been buying up and doing some improvements lately.

 

[zmotorsports]

I do the same for the house and I should for the garage as well as I've been buying up and doing some improvements lately.

Agreed, for house and household appliances the wife and I have a separate file system in the house for those manuals, receipts, etc.

 

[bdbecker]

Other than the heater/AC unit, I put everything into 3-ring binders and store them in the garage. One of these days I'll sit down and sort them out into categories because it can take awhile to dig up the manual I need, but at least I know where everything is at.

 

[Copymutt]

One cabinet is dedicated to manuals. Also keep digital copies on my ipad. Easy enough to find manuals for most anything not purchased new. Then save to a folder. Vehicles, I keep long hand written service history w/ the owners manuals.

 

[BillK]

4 Drawer filing cabinet in the garage.

 

[RegeSullivan]

Anything new for the past 10ish years I've kept a pdf copy accessible on any device. I have a few old laptops that if they got destroyed while working on something it wouldn't be a loss. That said... they are surprisingly resilient.

 

[mikedodge]

For shop related stuff a drawer in my tool box.
For home stuff in a cupboard.

 

[Joe Reed]

I have a portable file box with hanging folders for that stuff. I don't bother with a folder for each item. Instead I just have folders labeled "Large Appliances", "Small Appliances", "Electronics", "Garage" and so on. I find that I don't actually need access to those manuals very often, so it's easy to just flip through the appropriate folder to grab the manual I need.
I have started to download manuals more often....especially since some manufacturers have started just having online manuals - no paper ones supplied. Nice thing about those is that it's so easy to make new sub-folders, move manuals from one folder to another, etc.

 

[Skellyii]

I put most of them in those magazine holders sorted by type. I have a similar set out in th egarage for tools and yard stuff. I also have PDF versions of stuff that doesn't come with manuals stored in an online folder.

The binder in the left of the picture has all of the household stuff that the previous owner left for us.

 

[JoeLee1]

I keep all the manuals for my machines and welders in a folder and in a filing cabinet.
I also keep all my receipts and invoices from all the suppliers that I buy from. I keep notes on the receipts as to what the stuff was used for.
Steel distributors, hardware stores, and lumber yards.
I also keep notes on what I used all that stuff for so if I have to buy it again I know where to go.
I have another file box with folders for all my different shop projects.
I keep detailed notes and all my machining projects, where the raw materials came from, and what I paid for them at the time.
I keep detailed notes and mechanical drawings on everything I machine or grind.
For years I've always kind of neglected doing that and I would say I'll remember..... Well guess what 10 or 15 years later you don't remember.
I keep track of the process I use when machining something and even the cutters I used along with feeds and speeds.
All my steel is inventoried and marked where I bought it from what I used it for and what I paid for it. I found it to save so much time if I have to repair something or make something again I know just what I did just what materials I used and where I got them from.
The same goes for all my woodworking projects.
I also keep detailed records on all my Machinery repairs and maintenance.

Joe....

 

[PoorUB]

All the manuals that came with various tools are in a cabinet in the shop.

 

[BurtEggley]

file cabinet. Large envelope if needed with manual, supporting paperwork and receipt. I will be digitizing the receipts due to a family member losing all in the LA fires, and the insurance company asking for photos and receipts to prove they owned what is now melted metal, and ash.

 

[bassJAM]

I have a home office with a filing drawer I keep manuals I think I'll actually need. If I can get a pdf to store on my external hard drive even better.

I don't keep the manuals to most power tools though.

 

[Skyman]

File folders in a filing cabinet, or PDFs on the computer. When I sold the house that I'd lived in for 30+ years, I left a stack of documentation that was around six inches thick for the new owner of the house. A few of the docs in that stack had been left for me by the two previous owners.

 

[RalphInCA]

The last few times I’ve needed an owners manual, I found it on line.

30 second search.