My ex-partner and I used to have "drink it and fix it" on Sunday evenings where she would bring stuff out for me to fix and we'd slowly get pissed! Some things remained fixed, some things, erm, needed re-fixing!
Like others, I love this idea. A related idea I had was a library of 3d models of parts. Like thingiverse, but specifically for repair/replace components and not limited to plastic. My thought was if it's plastic you could 3d print whatever little busted plastic part was going to send your household item to landfill. But also models of things like automotive parts that you could have made by somewhere like xometry. I thought of it as an "international component database."
Considering that for the average person things, not food, nor housing, nor transport are the main drivers of our negative impact on this world. Repairing instead of throwing away is very undervalued.
I was surprised my house got me so up. It's not a big house by my country's standards, although it would be immense somewhere like Amsterdam. Still, practically all our energy comes from solar panels, I expected its impact to be better than average.
Love those places! We have a very vibrant one here in town that is open almost every day of the week (with different focuses per day, like textiles, electronics etc.).
Sometime ago I've been there to have an old German radio from the 60s repaired and there was actually a guy there who used to work in a radio manufacturing company in the 80s and really knew all about these kinds of devices. I think he was retired and going to these repair cafés just as a pastime and for fun and was super enthusiastic to repair it.
I think these places are not only a great way of community-building, but also great for passing on knowledge. And to prevent electronic waste of course. (The repair café actually got some fundings from the federal state government, who were subsidizing these repairing initiatives for a while. Not sure if that's still going on.)
I love this idea. A lot of repair knowledge is buried in non-English forums or unsearchable Discord servers (grr Discord). We need to localize it and rebuild community expertise.
I've been involved for several years. If you don't yet have one in your area, are handy at fixing things and have the inclination - contact them for info on starting one up.
I fixed a lot of stuff over the past couple of years. Recently I put alot of our shellys back to life. They were taking care of our rolling shutters, but died due to a low quality capacitor. I soldered quality ones in it and they now do their job as expected again.
Similarly, even the higher-priced Logitech mice often use tact switches that are only rated for a relatively low number of clicks (probably 1 million?), so many of them started failing on me after about two years. Replacing the switches with higher-rated ones (50 million clicks) is trivial on all the mice I have disassembled so far. The switches and replacement glider pads (which need replacing after removing the screws hidden below them) are often just a few bucks but make the mouse last for several more years.
I've done this fix on at least 3 MX Masters, just going in through the rubber on the side to remove the switch, since disassembly through unscrewing everything is more work.
Needing to replace the feet every time you open the mouse is pretty frustrating.
I feel you. Here in Europe you have to pay around 100 bucks or more to get some decent quality from Logitech. In the past I used mice like the G9 which was build like a tank. Nowadays it's something like a throwawy part, even in the higher price range. Same goes for keyboards, which I tend to build now on own.
Yes, I no longer pay extra money for Logitech. If the quality is as bad as a cheap offbrand from China, why wouldn't I pay less for the cheap offbrand?
I'm glad to pay for quality, but Logitech no longer seems to offer good quality.
I have been a "repair mentor" at our "repair studio" for 3+ years. It's very rewarding. We did have to set some ground rules: (clean your fan/vac, bring batteries, etc).
Collaborated with our local library.
We have a Fixit Clinic join us every other Friday at our maker space open build nights in Berkeley. Next event is 28 August https://eastbaymakersclub.com
Would love the idea in Ireland as we are flooded with vape selling and repair shops on every street. Fixed Dyson v11 twice now and I wish there was a place I could come to get someone with experience to help I broke PSP in attempt to fix it and had to rely on repair shop for broken button on steam deck
Have you looked into the different Hackerspaces around the country? TOG in Dublin run Repair Cafe events [https://www.tog.ie/repair/] and I'd be durprised if other spaces don't.
Our economy is weird. Paying someone to sharpen a knife in Switzerland (high hourly wages) can easily be more expensive than a new cheap knife. Same for a proper sharpener tool.
We have one in my town, meets once a month at the local community centre. I've only been there once, but It's pretty awesome seeing all the stuff people bring in to get repaired.
Worth reaching out to Rossmann Repair Group https://rossmanngroup.com/ to see if they are willing to do more free repair workshops/cafes which they were in the past.
I had a washing machine break a couple of weeks ago. 3 years old. Just past warranty. Manufacturer advertised 10 year warranty on the motor. Motor controller burned out: not covered. PCB looked perfect. Had it swapped today: suddenly everything back to working. $240 for the part, $170 labor. As an individual, I can't buy the part.
In theory, our national government has a 'crackdown' on 'bullshit whitegoods warranties' this year. In reality: they're letting it happen.[0]
When it costs $400 and two weeks of screwing around to fix a $900 appliance, you just buy a new one.
I'd happily fix the thing myself, but it's not designed to be fixed, and they refuse to sell the part: the supply chain is designed to make the option impossible.
In vengeance, I kept the old motor controller but haven't yet taken a look at it. Might send it to China to get it reverse engineered if necessary or if simple enough just release an open one as a KiCad file. Frankly I think it's just a large motor controller IC, a cap, a heat sink and one or two other components.
The guy fixing it told me basically they're all bad, and designed to fail after warranty now. He said Samsung has good service, Miele has good value, the rest are meh. I hear good things about Fisher & Paykel, which is an AU/NZ brand. He said don't buy combined washer-dryers, and always buy a larger one than you need: mostly they die from overloading not from under-use. He also said: unplug them when not in use. Sadly, that makes sense. I guess they sometimes design them to 'slow burn'.
Interesting approach however what's the physical interface for re-enabling when you get back to the machine? If it's a wireless plus socket plus switch thing that's starting to get a bit exotic / high failure mode.
Problem is, in Europe at least the Energy efficiency isn't very joined up. Separates have lower spin speeds because it uses less energy (to spin) so you need more energy to heat dry.
Combined ones have a higher spin speed because spinning uses less energy than heating to dry the clothes.
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