Repair café · first date coming
Bring it broken. Fix it together.
Once a month, on a Saturday, the workshop opens for anyone on Banks Peninsula with something broken. A volunteer sits down with you and you fix it together. It's free. The first date isn't set yet. Join the list and you'll hear before anyone else.
How it will work
Same Saturday, same hours, no booking.
- Free.
- Donations welcome, never asked for. Printed parts are free where we can make them.
- You stay with your item.
- It's not a drop-off service. You'll learn how it works, and you'll help.
- Every item gets an outcome.
- repairedneeds a partbeyond repair All three are honest results.
- Repaired items leave with a tag.
- A small blue printed tag stamped réparé ici — repaired here, with the date.
Five tables
Five tables, one kettle.
- Electrical and electronics Low voltage, testing, soldering.
- Mechanical Bikes, garden tools, hinges, toys.
- Textiles Needs a volunteer A sewing machine and someone who knows how to use it.
- Digital Measure, model and print the missing part.
- Intake and tea The most important table. It’s where the community happens.
A sketch of the front room. The kettle lives on table 5.
What to bring
Small things you can carry in.
- Lamps
- Toasters
- Kettles
- Radios
- Toys
- Bikes
- Garden tools
- Clothes and bags with a split seam
- Anything with a broken plastic clip or knob
Bring the charger or cable if it has one. Please take the batteries out at home if you can.
Not at the repair café
A few things stay at home.
- No repairs on the mains side of an appliance (the 230 V part) by unqualified people, and nothing goes home reconnected to the mains unless a qualified person did the work.
- No gas appliances.
- No damaged lithium batteries.
- No CRT televisions.
- No microwaves.
- Nothing wet or corroded.
And “I don't know” is always an acceptable answer from a volunteer.
The full intake rulesThe second half of a repair
When the part doesn't exist any more, we print it.
Most repair cafés stop when a small plastic part has broken and can't be bought. Here, that's where the second half starts.
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Measure
We measure the part and photograph it next to a ruler.
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Model
We draw it on the computer during the week.
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Print
We print it, and you collect it once it fits.
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Publish
The file goes online with the appliance’s make and model in its name, so anyone with the same toaster can print it too.
Over a year, that becomes a spare-parts library for the things people on the Peninsula actually own.
The spare-parts libraryVolunteers wanted
We need people who know things we don't.
- Someone who sewsTable 3
- Someone who knows small engines or clocksTable 2
- Someone retired from a tradeAny table
- A teenager who'd like the hoursAny table
You don't need to be an expert in everything — one skill and patience is plenty. We'll brief everyone on safety, refusals and filming consent before each session.
The small print
Safe, and asked first.
First aid, a refused-items list on the door and briefed volunteers are in place before the first session. Repairs aren't guaranteed. Children are welcome with an adult, supervised, and don't operate tools. We film some sessions for the channel, but never a person or their item without asking first — and “no” is fine.
PrivacyCounted every session
The numbers, every quarter.
Items brought, repaired, needing a part, beyond repair; kilograms kept out of landfill; parts printed; people; volunteer hours. Published every quarter, however small.