Published on 12, July, 2020
There's a thing called "Repair Cafe", possibly near you, where people like me try and fix your busted stuff for free!
I can't speak for anyone else, but we are quite good!
I had five items today in my two to three hours, two were good fixes, two needed parts and one I ran out of time for.
(Clocks take up a lot of my time, I may need to actually learn something about them since I seem to get all of them anyway...)
Well done for doing that (and for being clever enough to mend things) and thanks.
There is one every month in Portsmouth, which I didn't know about.
So many things are digital now - I bet some people throw them away when the batteries stop working.
A great idea to stop waste and I notice it's a worldwide thing.
I treat it as a "sport". It's fun to see how many I can do in the very restricted time period.
It's also the most direct way I know of to rebel against the way our society is headed.
If you rely on technolgy that you cannot repair, (or get repaired, quickly and locally) you are putting yourself in a vulnerable position.
Picture yourself in your old age, with everything gradually failing around you, and even if you know a guy like me, he cannot change a part and get it going again, without having the manufacturers blessing (and special software).
Every old thing that we extend the life of, is a little bit of pushback against the dystopia or relentless consumerism and transitory possessions that big industry has planned to ensare us all in.
When I was young, anything made by Philips had a circuit diagram tucked inside, and parts were freely available, as with many other electrical manufacturers. Now it's all throwaway almost unfixable crap.
I encountered an airconditioner a couple of years ago, which I could have fixed If the tupenny ha'penny electronics board was available. it wasn't that was a two year old model and the UK importer is long gone out of business (or not answering phones or emails any way).
Everything electrical made since the 2000's is pretty much throwaway crap from which very little useful materials or parts can be extracted. If you really want "fixable" the 1980's was the zenith of electronics and mechanical items.
Quality has gone down the toilet ever since, although in some areas "functionality" (whilst you have it) is quite incredible.
Yep planned obsolescence, and throw away culture is probaly one of the the things top of my list that I hate about the modern world. Good on you for being a make do and mender.