Category: Repair
Helping other people fix stuff at the Repair Café or Fixit Clinic
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This Fixit Clinic was held in the Hayward Library. It was a slow day, possibly because of the July 4th weekend travel rush. First, I watched other people fix a 50-year-old blender running loudly and slowly, even at the highest setting. It was a joy to take apart: a few hex-head self-tapping screws held the bottom plate in place, which could be removed to access all the electronics. The bearings on the universal motor were dry and needed oil, though amazingly, the carbon brushes were still in fine shape after so many years of heavy use. An older fixer also…
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I attended this event after taking a bit of a break from Repair Café/Fixit Clinic, which I enjoy and benefit from, in order to self-study two AP courses, which I dislike and… maybe benefit from. Anyhow, this event was at the Saratoga Library and there were a few high schoolers attending! First up was an adjustable-height overbed table that the client had bought disassembled and couldn’t figure out how to assemble. The upper part of the table was supported at one end by a square tube that telescoped into a slightly larger tube extending out of the table’s legs. A…
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This one was held in San Mateo Public Library. First, I worked on a rice cooker whose non-rechargeable lithium battery had run out. From my understanding, the battery was used to avoid the need for an AC power supply, needed not only to keep the clock running when the appliance was unplugged, but also to operate the entire user interface. After disassembling the device, we replaced the battery by desoldering the old one and soldering the new one in. It was pretty clear to me the battery was not meant to be replaced, which surprised me since the rice cooker…
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This event occurred at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, a collaborative hackerspace for software projects. I first worked on a portable electric radiator with a detached cord winder (the plastic thing you wind the cord around for storage), a loose caster, and a plug with burn marks. The cord winder had a cantilever snap-fit that was bent back so it wouldn’t clip properly. I used a heat gun and file to bend and shape it back into place so it could be reinstalled. The plug’s burn marks were most likely due to arcing from an improper connection, and we…
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The event was held at the Museum of American Heritage from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. First, I worked on a Technics SL-MC7 CD changer. It had a magazine into which up to 60 CDs were loaded and a sliding carriage to select and play discs. When plugged in, the machine showed “checking discs” on its display and made various mechanical noises as it attempted unsuccessfully to move the carriage. The problem (as with many old CD players) was that the belt driving the carriage was loose and had to be replaced. Fortunately, there were plenty of spare belts on…
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This Fixit Clinic was held in the Hayward Public Library from 11:00 to 2:00 PM. I took on the unwise challenge of attempting to repair a person’s VHS VCR, a task probably best left to someone older with direct experience with these devices. Luckily, I had watched a few YouTube videos on the subject so things weren’t as bad as they could have been. First, given that the year is 2024, let me put a brief explanation of how VCRs work, taken from pages 260-261 of The Way Things Work, a wonderful book that you should read. Like a …
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The Fixit Clinic is an event in which “coaches” help people repair their broken household items with a focus on teaching repair skills rather than actually getting the item in question repaired. I, along with another person spent the entire 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM period helping to repair a leaking Nespresso Inissia. This coffee machine forces hot water through coffee pods at high pressure to produce an espresso brew. After spending quite a bit of time disassembling, testing, and staring blankly at the thing, we found out that the leak came from where the cup-puncturing piece connected with the…
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This Repair Café took place at the Palo Alto Museum of American Heritage. The Repair Café is an event in which volunteers (“fixers”) repair peoples’ things for free, usually appliances, clothing, or bicycles, though most anything can be brought if it’s broken. I participated as a fixer and had the opportunity to repair some interesting things. There was a broken IR remote that was the only way to control a Bose radio and CD player. In my opinion, based on trying to fix the thing, this was a very poorly designed product: not only were there no buttons on the…
