Update from our March Repair Cafe

March 10th was Mother’s Day, but the Repair Cafe was still busy! 

A couple of people came with their families for repairs. Thomas had a rucksack with rip in it and Hannah did a great hand stitch job on this to reinforce the hole and frey in the seam.  

Bhupinder brought some school power packs that were not working, Steve got one of these working again and then gave Bhupinder some advice so that he will able to sort the other ones. His mum brought in a couple of items in for some advice from Steve, including a keyboard that hadn’t worked for more than 30 years! Steve got it working again, much to everyone’s surprise and delight. 

Ian brought in his Great Niece’s favourite toy - a stuffed lion toy with its head falling off. I (Sarah) repaired this in a quiet moment on the welcome desk and the lion was soon good as new. 

Kitchen items were out in force again. Stephanie had come to a previous cafe with her DAB radio and returned today with the replacement part which Gordon got working again. 

Ruth’s four slot toaster was only toasting on one side, using the other would cause it to fuse! Dave took a look at this and we think got it working again - Ruth took it home to test if her household could be living in a 4 slices of toast at a time utopia again. 

Jennifer brought in a kettle which was leaking from the spout, and thought it might need some soldering - Dave identified that it actually needed to be welded to repair it.  

As always, we had a some lamps as well. Terry brought in a lamp that wasn’t working - Dave looked at it, as did Gordon, but we couldn’t get it working again. Regina brought in a broken lamp - it was in need of a new part, so she’ll bring it back to another repair cafe. She also brought a small kitchen knife which Simon brought back to life. 

Barry brought in a mechanical clock from around WW1, having seen pictures of a similar clock on a previous repair cafe blog. This was looked at by Gordon, Steve and Dave and to be honest pretty much everyone in the cafe! Everyone was fascinated by this very handsome clock, and we were all looking at the mechanism and Steve working his magic on it!  

On the unusual front, Annie brought in a hover board which wasx broken on one side so was just turning in an endless circle. Dave and Gordon took a look at this, but sadly couldn’t get it working. 

Peter, our bike expert, fitted a new mudguard on Sophy’s bike, and Jonny, our resident wood work expert, brought in a couple of repairs of his own too! Some trousers which were taken up by Hannah, and a toaster which Steve looked at. It had been short circuiting his kitchen, and whilst they got it to stop fusing - it will require new testing! 

We hope to see you at the next cafe on 14th April!

Read more about our Repair Cafes on the website here