fixing

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Celebrating/talking about repairing stuff, the right to repair stuff, and the intersection of tech and solarpunk ideals.

What does it mean to use what we have, including technology, to try to build a better, more environmentally just world?

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repair cafes are oriented to “give you fish”, rather than “teach a man to fish” (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by diyrebel@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/fixing@slrpnk.net

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Repair cafes are great for getting appliances fixed. But I think they could improve from volunteers just doing the work to a more instructional format. It’s great that you can watch them work and ask questions. It’s almost a teachng experience in that regard, but teaching is merely incidental. The repairer probes around with the DMM¹ quickly because they want to get answers quickly. Understandably so, as there is usually a line of people waiting to get stuff repaired. They don’t generally have time to explain everything.

But what if instruction were part of the goal? I would like to hang out in the workshop and watch other repair jobs and ask questions. But I get the feeling I would be in their way and slow them down. It feels like it would be unwelcome.

In principle, they could have one repairer who welcomes an audience where he describes his every move. He works slower, but ~5 or so people could learn from it. It could even be recorded and posted on peertube (not Youtube!).

Repair cafes do not accept large appliances because they are working out of classrooms and community centers on weekends, which don’t accommodate bulky things. So I have a broken refrigerator and washing machine that will not get repaired. In principle, a repairer could have a planned session and meet “students” outside to demonstrate and teach large appliance repair.

¹ digital multimeter

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[–] foxymochakitten@slrpnk.net 3 points 4 days ago

My local repair cafe has said that folks are welcome to show up and just learn from the other volunteers. Have you asked your local one if it'd be okay to just hang out?

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 6 points 5 days ago (2 children)

A what?

Repair Cafes exist?

[–] Mastema@infosec.pub 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That was exactly my response! I thought I was in a Solarpunk writing thread. @OP, you should totally just ask the folks at the repair cafe if there is a way you can get involved to learn. Maybe volunteer your time.

And also let us know what utopia you are living in. I'm guessing Europe somewhere...

[–] SSUPII@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I live in Europe and have zero idea what they are talking about

[–] Tiresia@slrpnk.net 7 points 5 days ago

In that case, check out this list of repair cafes and other DIY stuff around Europe. It's far from complete, but there are repair cafes in the Netherlands, England, France, Italy, Portugal, and Poland.

[–] diyrebel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 days ago

https://www.repairtogether.org/ is involved and there are links that give locations and times, though I don’t have it at the moment.

[–] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 5 points 5 days ago

Have a look at

https://therestartproject.org/parties/

Participate in a free community repair event, where volunteer fixers will help you learn how to repair your broken or slow devices - and tackle the growing mountain of e-waste.

Keep in mind that some people are not actually interested in fixing their own things, they may not be able to because of disabilities too.

Informally I'm the guy in my hood who fixes shit, neighbors bring things to me all the time. Been doing it for years, only one person has shown any real interest in learning about it though. I always try to say "If it happens again, you can do this" if I think it's safe for them to do so.

Some will take the initiative, some won't. I also don't want someone unqualified to just start poking around on Mains voltage or with powerful motors.

[–] solo@slrpnk.net 2 points 4 days ago

I think this depends very much on the project itself. Repair cafes are not by definition one way, or another.

For example, even tho I am not super tech-savvy, I have participated in 2 different makerspaces, in 2 different places in europe and both of these project had a very similar approach. We met weekly or bi-weekly do stuff in the workshop, and every month or so we had a repair cafe event. Some people wanted just their stuff to be fixed. Those who wanted to know more about fixing them themselfs, they were invited to attend the makerspace meetings.

[–] greengnu@slrpnk.net 0 points 3 days ago

The problem is money, if they had stable funding they could go the library route of training and equipping people with the tools and skills without limits.

But the models they work in don't have that and they are just struggling to survive and do what good they can in the now.