Ran into an old timer at a fleamarket who fixed my broken toaster with a paperclip

I was at the Nashville fleamarket last Saturday, just browsing old junk, and this guy probably in his 70s saw me looking at a beat up toaster that was clearly smashed on one side. He walked up and said "that ain't broke, just bent" and pulled out a paperclip from his pocket. Within maybe 5 minutes he had the heating element realigned, bypassed a blown thermal fuse by soldering a jumper wire across it, and had the thing toasting bread again. I stood there watching him work and he didn't even use a multimeter, just went by feel and experience. It really stuck with me how much basic troubleshooting skill we lose when we just throw boards at everything. Has anyone else run into an old school tech who fixed something dumb simple that you would have scrapped?

2 comments

2 Comments

tyler_hall920d agoMost Upvoted

that ain't broke, just bent" sounds like something my grandpa would say right before fixing a TV with a butter knife lol. I swear those guys have some kind of magic where paperclips and bubblegum can resurrect anything from 1985. Meanwhile I toss a toaster because the cord gets a little kinked. Kinda makes you wonder how much stuff we landfill that some dude with a paperclip could save in 5 minutes. Honestly though, I'm still gonna throw things away because I don't have the patience for it lmao.

victor_carter5120d ago

Man I was the same till I fixed my own dryer with a paperclip and saved 200 bucks.