My Two Cents: Skilled fixers are ready to help at Repair Cafés

Search for “Repair Cafe” and you will find events across the Lower Mainland. The Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS) has one coming up Oct. 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Langley City Library. There is also one at Surrey Library this month. Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC) holds events in North Vancouver, Coquitlam and West Vancouver, although it may be losing its municipal funding. SPEC’s events are distinctive because they offer IT and computer repairs, which most Repair Cafés do not. The writer’s touchscreen PC was repaired there after Norton slowed it down. Repair Cafés also operate in Maple Ridge; Surrey and White Rock have one in early November, and Mission and Port Coquitlam have them as well.

Repair Cafés depend on tinkerers, and all fixers volunteer their time. Members of the public bring broken items in the hope that a skilled volunteer can repair them. Some fix bikes, others sew, and some can turn their hands to many different jobs. The events cannot take every kind of item: what people bring must be household goods they can safely transport to the venue. Large recliners and garbage disposals, for example, are not suitable.

The writer has been impressed by what fixers can do. They have soldered tiny wires that came loose in LED patio lights, got the writer’s mother’s 1940s Christmas tree turntable working again, and repaired the wiring in a vintage Bakelite Christmas village building. One fixer diagnosed a failed motor in the writer’s countertop water distiller. The writer ordered a replacement online and went to the next café, but that fixer was not there. Another fixer remembered the earlier discussions and replaced the motor. With the machine open, the writer and fixer also changed the gaskets, and the writer cleaned the inside.

Visitors must bring the parts needed for their repairs. Fixers bring tools, basic hardware such as screws, nuts, bolts and electrical tape, and specialist equipment such as soldering irons and epoxy. Of about 20 items the writer has taken to different cafés over several years, only a couple could not be fixed. A 1940s toaster also stopped working again a few months after a volunteer repaired it.

Another benefit is that a fixer can assess whether an item is worth repairing or should be sent for recycling. Many modern appliances are made with fused plastic, but fixers can still get inside them. Sometimes that means cutting them open, with the owner’s permission.

Repairs are free, and donations are welcome. They usually bring in enough to cover poster costs and buy the volunteers a sandwich lunch. The writer says the fixers they have met are lovely people, and has talked with them about refinishing old wooden furniture, repairing electrical items and other tips.