January Repair Cafe Update
Repair cafe 14th January 2024
14 people visited us on a cold January morning to see if our talented volunteers could repair their items. Here are some success (and nearly success!) stories to inspire you to bring your items along for us to take a look at.
First through the door was Ricky with a hand blender. Ricky had been to a previous repair cafe in November where it was identified that a new part was needed to get the blender working again. He came with part in hand and Steve had it fixed in no time!
Sometimes needing a new part is the answer to repair the item - and we had a few other visitors on Sunday who were in this boat. Stephanie brought in a DAB radio with a display screen that wasn’t working. Gordon took a look at this one and identified the part that was needed so Stephanie will be able to source that and bring the radio back to another cafe.
Louisa brought a handsome craft lamp with a light that didn’t work. Dave worked out that it had an incompatible bulb in it - so sent Louisa off with the name of the correct one to buy. Hopefully this will make the lamp work again! (see pic of lovely lamp below)
Another lamp with a temperamental switch was brought in by Janet - which Gordon got working again good as new.
Michael brought in a beautiful and huge lamp with 5 turquoise shaded lights and a big marble base that turned heads in the cafe. The lamp hadn’t worked since one of the bulbs blew, and Micheal was hopeful that we could get this stunning item working once more. Dave took it apart and identified that it needed a new fuse. Michael was really pleased and able to go and acquire the necessary fuse to hopefully get this statuesque lamp working once more! (see pic)
As well as lamps, Sue brought in a string of Christmas lights which needed a bit of re-soldering - which were twinkling again in no time thanks to Dave.
Our talented sewing volunteers Sally and Hannah put a smile on Gillian’s face by attaching a butterfly patch onto a favourite jumper and repairing a blouse with a ripped seam (see pic). They also gave Charlotte some expert advice about some repairs for a bag lining.
Our resident sharpening specialist Simon breathed new life back into a set of garden shears for Steve, and had a good go at trying to fix a paper guillotine for Regina - the blade is now nice and sharp but a mechanical issue meant it still didn’t work.
Not everything is destined to work again, but our volunteers always give things the best go they can.
We’ve got some top tips for how to bring things in for the best experience:
Try to make sure that any fabric items are clean before you bring them in for repair
The more information the better! The more you can tell our repairers about your item the better their understanding will be of what the issue might be
Think about things for testing! For example, if you bring something like a cd player or a lamp for repair - bring along a cd or light bulb so we can test the repair!
Our next cafe is on Feb 11th 2024 - we hope to see you and your items there!
