This is our 11th year for the Repair Café in Oak Park. Originally, I saw an article in AARP magazine about a repair cafe. That inspired me to do it here.
We meet one Saturday a month. There are eight to ten people who come in to help fix things. They can do electronics, sewing, furniture. It’s a whole range.
If you break something, it doesn't mean you have to throw it away. With the right tools and if you just ask the right questions and try to find out what's wrong, then with YouTube and whatnot, you can do it.
Here’s an example of something that looked really simple. It was a vintage stapler, paper stapler. The guy said he thinks it was at least 100 years old. And so it looked easy, we took it apart. It had a broken spring that we could replicate, but then we couldn't figure out how to put it back together. It just seemed so simple. Fortunately, it had a patent number on it. We found the patent drawings and instantly we could see what we were doing wrong.
I probably know more people now then I see people on the street. They say, "Hi, I was at the Repair Cafe."
We meet one Saturday a month. There are eight to ten people who come in to help fix things. They can do electronics, sewing, furniture. It’s a whole range.
If you break something, it doesn't mean you have to throw it away. With the right tools and if you just ask the right questions and try to find out what's wrong, then with YouTube and whatnot, you can do it.
Here’s an example of something that looked really simple. It was a vintage stapler, paper stapler. The guy said he thinks it was at least 100 years old. And so it looked easy, we took it apart. It had a broken spring that we could replicate, but then we couldn't figure out how to put it back together. It just seemed so simple. Fortunately, it had a patent number on it. We found the patent drawings and instantly we could see what we were doing wrong.
I probably know more people now then I see people on the street. They say, "Hi, I was at the Repair Cafe."