One of those serendipitous moments at today's Lambeth Repair Café. I was explaining to a lady that we had no-one on hand to fix her 100 year old violin when a chap walked in behind her to volunteer as a fixer of musical instruments, specialising in guitars. His brother fixes violins. 💫 #RepairCafe#repair#London
ALT TEXT (client doesn't have a text input function) : a large mouth screaming with the diagonal array of of the word "VOID" in the background with white words on a black background "Scream into the void of the warranty". The word Void is pink and blue, and "warranty" is underlined and in a deep saturated red.
@Tattooed_mummy
Removable wheels will hopefully also mean replaceable wheels.
We do see a few trolley cases at #RepairCafe in need of wheels as they have worn out or been battered to bits on rough paving.
At today's #RepairCafe I repaired:
A steam mop that was blocked with scale
A trolley suitcase with stuck zip and a bent telescopic handle
Advised on:
Parts for a pushchair
Filter cleaning on a cordless vacuum
Examined an old clock and recommended submitting it to the RepairShop.
I assisted on:
A folding travel cot
A toaster
I also returned a cast iron skull money box I did a welding repair on from last month.
Other items included:
Hetty Vacuum cleaner
Electric fan
Audio Amp
Another vacuum cleaner
Skirt
Trousers
CD Player
Bag strap
Dress
Hair dryer
Spin dryer
Laptop
Not all were repaired, some failed, and some needed parts and/or more time next month.
An academic colleague, a bio-engineer who builds artificial heart valves, just said to me that he likes this sort of engineering because it’s about repairing and maintaining existing systems (the human body) rather than just building new widgets. It had never occurred to me that a far better attitude to what engineers are for already exists in the engineering world. I think that all engineers working on anything related to climate should also have this attitude. #engineering#sustainability
@helenczerski
And this is why I love volunteering at Repair Cafe. We get to fix existing items, and maybe make modifications to them to keep them working and in use for longer.
Unser #Repaircafe findet wieder am Freitag, den 18.08.23 von 16 - 19 Uhr im #Citywohnpark in der Heerstr. 31 in 47053 #Duisburg statt. Bei Kaffee und Kuchen kommt man ins Gespräch und mit Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe ... und ein bisschen Glück, wieder zu einem funktionierenden Gerät. Wir freuen uns auch besonders über neue Reparateure und eine Berichterstattung über die "Bewegung Repaircafe". Wir sehen uns Freitag!
A fun afternoon with the #GlasgowRepairCafe at a pop up cafe with Rags to Riches in Govanhill. Best fix of the day being a record player that just worked when I switched it on! Some good fixes and a few people sent of to find parts for us to fix next time.
At #RepairCafe today I fixed an expensive folding umbrella for one of the volunteers. It wasn't folding as the internal drawstrings and one of the telescopic tubes was stuck. Got it fixed with lube and brute force.
Then I replaced a fuse in a sewing machine. Not the plugtop fuse, but the 1.6A 20mm glass fuse behind the switch that required half the machine to be taken apart to access! The client was able to buy a replacement fuse locally.
There was also:
A steam iron - Fail.
A electric toothbrush - Soldered in a new battery.
A video player - Fail, needs IR LED and plastic parts.
An external hard drive - Needed reformatting.
Cycle panniers - sewn up.
A handbag - Needs new clasp, client will purchase and return.
A paper shredder - Fail, cutters and gears stripped.
A1: #MakersHour@makershour This week I have been mostly doing #RepairCafe, both regular and a pop up. I had to bring home and weld up a globe stand.
In the workshop I have been making big 800 x 600 x 550mm wheeled boxes, out of 18mm MDF, for a client. Five out of six done so far, but stuck for hardware to fix castors on.
I have also been covering for my line manager at work, sorting out insurance, and a lot of admin.
It has been a really hectic week all in, and I am looking forward to taking a break soon.
So at the pop up #RepairCafe I fixed a table leg that had been snapped off one of the venue's tables It was a bolt on leg and it ended up with 14 screws and three dowels to rebuild and secure the broken end back onto the table frame so it woud be safe to use.
I couldn't fix the milk frother because ther was no way into it. Despite removeing the screws, the base seemed to also be glued very solidly to the case.
The globe of the world was brought home and a new stem welded on to replace the snapped one.
Sue will repaint the metalwork and then I can reassemble it. for return at next Saturday's repair cafe.
A1: #MakersHour@makershour I’m Alfred and this week I have been repairing an old and much loved baby doll for a #RepairCafe client. It had a cracked hand, and broken leg. Also it was dismembered and required hip joints remaking and new elastics.
I also started converting my small electrical tools to have detachable power leads. https://strangeobject.space/
In my #RepairCafe tool kit, where I already carry too much stuff, I had a pyrography iron, a soldering iron, and a mini hotair gun. Each one had a mains lead and a three pin plug to have to pack away.
So this week I researched and found a small 250v plug and socket connector (Hirose RPC2 500V 5A rating) so I could have one lead to connect each tool as needed.
The chassis plug fits nicely into the end of the iron handle and is held with an M3 grub screw.
I think I will also do the same with my workshop soldering iron too.
Using heavier duty PowerCon connectors I have done the same with my four wood routers and four angle grinders to save swapping out cutters or discs for each task.
@repaircafe_de Wir führen hier gerade in unserer Reparaturinitiative eine Diskussion durch, ob wir gleich schriftlich auf der Homepage vermerken, dass wir keinerlei Windows Support mehr machen. Eine Linuxinstallation jederzeit, gerne, aber das Geraffel von Microsoft ist doch eh nie zu reparieren. Nie. Dann führt man irgendeinen Reparaturvodoo aus, und nach 3h ist der Fortschrittsbalken bei 19%. WTF? Was da nach 2 Tagen dann rauskommt weiß doch eh schon wieder jeder. Ich denke wir sollten als Reparaturinitiative deutlich klar machen, dass wir nicht dazu da sind, Monopolisten zu unterstützen.
@sven222@repaircafe_de Bei unserem RC, wenn solche (Software-)Fälle kommen, die viel Zeit in Anspruch nehmen würden, verweisen wir auf die lokalen Reparatur-Fachbetriebe.
Den generellen Ansatz "keine Monopolisten unterstützen" kann ich selbst (zumindest in dieser stark allgemeinen Form) nicht nachvollziehen, wo zieht man da die Grenze? Sollten dann zB auch keine Reparaturversuche an Apple Geräten in #repaircafe s mehr durchgeführt werden? Was ist mit PlayStation und Xbox?
Today we had eggs for breakfast,
As is tradition.
Then I reorganised my tools a little bit,
And loaded half the tool boxes into the car.
We headed into Manchester,
To a pop up #RepairCafe.
I did a few repairs,
Most of them were things at the venue.
It was better than we expected,
So we'll have to do it again next Sunday.
Home to unload tools,
And to unwind a bit.
Watched a load of YouTube,
And chatted a bit online.
Checked on parents,
Still trying to explain my food intolerances to them.
Pizza for dinner,
Keeping things simple.
Still catching up on YouTube,
So many videos to watch today.
Tired now, #NightAll.
I take it back, the #RepairCafe venue wasn't bad, and despite the long walk around and two, yes two, lifts it was quite easy to get to and from the car.
It wasn't very busy though, but I did manage to fix three chairs, and a toilet seat, and offer advice on a barstool that really needed to be welded, or brazed, or riveted, or bolted, but all those tools were in the tool boxes I didn't bring!
Chris repaired a laminator, then repaired a record turntable and Nigel and I helped. Nigel had a printer, and Chris helped, and Sue had a sewing repairs. She replaced a strap tie on a dress.
Same again next Sunday, but withour Chris, and probably more clients.
The only annoying part was the person with the really small penis in the Range Rover who kept beeping us as we waited the 20 seconds for the carpark service entrance barrier to be opened.
At today's #RepairCafe I had:
A zip in a bag - fixed
A mascara polishing thing - broken gears inside
A cheap cordless drill - Checked and not servicable, left working
A kettle - burnt out switches
A steam iron - out of time, Nigel will fix it
A bike front reflector - Glued back together
An industrial sewing machine - Advised on repairs needed
There was also:
An air frier - fixed
Two bags - fixed
An Apple laptop - looked at
A bike rear light - too broken to fix
A toaster - fixed
An amplifier - fixed
A blender -
A pair of bluetooth earbuds -
A stereo set -
And probably other stuff I can't remember or missed.
It was quite busy after a slow start.