The Davis Makerspace presents an Earth Day repair cafe at its space in the Tim Spencer Alley from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, April 22.

A repair cafe is where people get together to help each other repair or improve an item they are having issues with. Volunteers will provide help, while participants research (lmgtfy, ifixit, youtube) and repair their items, with available tools and parts. The Davis Makerspace has a selection of power- and traditional hand tools, electronics tools, 3-D printers and a few other things.

If you bring a 3-D model software file, such as an .stl file, you should be able to print it either at or after the event. At past events we’ve seen things like vacuums (conventional and robotic), portable air-conditioning units, lamps, electronic pistol targets, computers, outdoor electrical cords and arc welders.

Anyone wishing to participate should contact rob@omsoft.com.

Visit https://wiki.davismakerspace.org for open hours. For directions to the location, see www.davismakerspace.org/about/location.

This is free and open to the public, but donations will be accepted. Post any questions to the Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/davismakerspace/.

Crossposted from the Davis Enterprise

From the Davis Makerspace web site:

Repair Cafe

 What do you do with a chair when the leg has come loose? With a toaster that no longer works? Or a computer that won’t boot? Toss it? No way!

You can repair it at a Repair Cafe

Repair Cafes are free meeting places and they’re all about repairing things (together). In the place where a Repair Cafe is located, you’ll find tools and materials to help you make any repairs you need. On clothes, furniture, electrical appliances, bicycles, crockery, appliances, toys, and more. You will also find repair specialists such as electricians, seamstresses, carpenters and bicycle mechanics.

Visitors bring their broken items from home. Together with the specialists they start making their repairs in the Repair Cafe. It’s an ongoing learning process. If you have nothing to repair, you can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. Or you can lend a hand to someone else. You can also get inspired at the reading table – by leafing through books on repairs and DIY.

Why a Repair Cafe?

We throw away vast amounts of stuff. Even things with almost nothing wrong, and which could get a new lease on life after a simple repair. The trouble is, lots of people have forgotten that they can repair things themselves or they no longer know how. Knowing how to make repairs is a skill quickly lost. Society doesn’t always show much appreciation for the people who still have this practical knowledge, and against their will they are often left standing on the sidelines. Their experience is never used, or hardly ever.

Repair Cafes are changing all that! People who might otherwise be sidelined are getting involved again. Valuable practical knowledge is getting passed on. Things are being used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away. This reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new products.

A Repair Cafe teaches people to see their possessions in a new light. And, once again, to appreciate their value. Repair Cafes help change people’s mindset. This is essential to kindle people’s enthusiasm for a sustainable society.

But most of all, a Repair Cafe just wants to show how much fun repairing things can be, and how easy it often is. Why don’t you give it a go?

Not competing with professional repair specialists

The Repair Café Foundation(link is external) sometimes gets asked whether access to free repair get-togethers is competing with professional repair specialists. The answer is; quite the opposite. Organisers want to use Repair Cafes to focus attention on the possibility of getting things repaired. Visitors are frequently advised to go to the few professionals still around.

Furthermore, people who visit Repair Cafes are not usually customers of repair specialists. They say that they normally throw away broken items because paying to have them repaired is, in general, too expensive. At a Repair Cafe they learn that you don’t have to throw things away; there are alternatives.