Repair Café is a non-profit organization that aims to inspire sustainability at the local level by encouraging people to organize Repair Café events in their area. In more than 29 countries, over 1,150 cafes offer free services to residents that want to fix their broken belongings, including electronics, bicycles, clothing, and housekeeping devices. This not only reduces waste in landfills, but builds a healthy sense of community that allows participants to learn new skills, build their resourcefulness, and make new friends.The name is the property of a seven year old European company headquartered in Amsterdam, but they're pushing the idea as something akin to Makerspaces. A Makerspace is a place where people gather to share tools, teach each other, learn from each other, and generally learn how to build things as their hobby. Sometimes, it's to start a business. In a repair cafe', people get together with folks who help them repair things; sew clothes, fix electronics, make jewelry, a whole host of things. Unlike the Makerspace, the Repair Café emphasis is for specialists and resident repair experts to volunteer their time and skills so they can fix things that fit their skill sets and available resources. It seems to be all about getting things fixed more than learning how to fix things, but it seems that the nature of fixing things is that they break unexpectedly and when you need it, you need it. You don't think very much about your coffee maker when it's working, but when it stops, you want coffee. Perhaps that's the reasonable way to approach this.
To encourage new launches across the world, Repair Café offers a starter pack, which includes a manual with the plans for organizing Repair Cafés from the ground up. The content is based on tactics used by Café founders in the past, and discusses ways to find local repair experts, book locations for events, determine which tools to supply, and find funding. The starter pack also guarantees that the organization will contact other interested parties in the area so that communities can work together to curate events. It will also advertise the initiative through the Repair Café network. Donations to support local groups and to fund missions abroad can be submitted through the Repair Café’s website for any specified area.
In places as different as Portland, Oregon, the Netherlands, Ghana, Belgium, and more these Repair Cafes are starting up. An interesting development.
I think there's one here in Long Beach.
ReplyDeleteYep, found it!
ReplyDeletehttps://repaircafe.org/en/locations/repair-cafe-long-beach/
Looks like the closest one to me is two states away. It's a really good idea.
ReplyDeleteThe nearest one to me is a full day's drive away - North Carolina.
DeleteWe just got a Makerspace about a year ago, though. Still haven't dropped by to see that.
Humans have a desire to create. but with so much stuff having "no user serviceable parts inside", and the attraction of novelty, a lot of things are discarded. And with the elimination of shop class in the schools, and a lot of parents with white collar jobs, there is less opportunity to use their hands. So things like the repair or maker shops are very cool.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someone could start a gun makers shop. It could be called "The Weapons Shop of Isher...."
Style points for the book reference ;-)
DeleteI wouldn't doubt that Makerspaces are used to make guns all the time. I'm guessing it's one of those things that they'd rather not talk about - why attract a crowds of demanding mothers? I found this interesting link for my Pinterest account:
http://hackaday.com/2008/06/03/cnc-milling-gun-parts/
about a guy who was CNC-milling what looks to be a Beretta 92 clone. Note the Hackaday opens with, "Gun issues aside,"
Do they really need to issue a disclaimer when the subject is guns?
Nitpick alert: The Weapon Shops (plural) of Isher, by A.E. van Vogt. Early libertarian science fiction. He was a great author. Heinlein and van Vogt were my two favorites back in the late fifties when I started reading SF. I swear that Gene Roddenberry stole the idea for Star Trek from van Vogt's "Voyage of the Space Beagle". I've read all of his books that I know about.
DeletePart of the problem with modern electronics is that the cost to manufacture a new circuit board is less than the cost of repairing one. If you take a modern TV in to have it repaired, the odds are high that the repair is going to approach the cost of a new replacement.
ReplyDeleteMost people are not savvy enough about component-level troubleshooting to be able to do it themselves.
Yes, indeed. And it's not just electronics. Last July, our dishwasher stopped working. Since I was recovering from surgery and unable to do the lying on the floor stuff, we called out a "factory certified" technician. His estimate to fix it was just about $200 more than a new one (from another brand).
DeleteDo you ever pine for the days of popping out a vacuum tube and inserting its replacement?
DeleteYeah, me neither.
Of all the things in this world, electronics is one that has gotten much cheaper at the same time it has gotten more complex.
A big part of the disposable product cultureis due to the cost of parts. Buying a new magnatron for a microwave oven is at least several times the cost of a new oven - of the same make and model. Replacing my Maytag washer with a new GE washer (Maytag no longer sells a washer with an agitator that I could find) was just a little more expensive than the $330 to replace the Maytag transmisson that failed. I used to repair most of my appliances, power tools, etc., but now parts are so expensive it is cheaper to buy either new or factory refurbished.
ReplyDelete