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The Repair Cafe!
Yesterday I took my old fan which has been moving air for 40 years or more to the Repair Cafe. It is an entirely donation funded group of volunteers who will try to fix your stuff for free. I see no other way to cut down on the amount of garbage we produce but to learn to how to fix and maintain our stuff.

It would be nice if manufacturers would get on board with this type of thinking and make it possible to replace and repair technology. I have always told anyone who seemed open-minded to buy good quality items and maintain them for as long as possible. If you can't afford new, buy used items that can be fixed or upgraded rather than cheap mass produced junk that will break soon.

So imagine my delight when I saw that there are Repair Cafes right here in my city of Toronto!

This is the very first one I have managed to go to. The fan was full of dust and I don't have a lot of tools so I was hopeful. It turns out that the wire they used to make the electromagnet that is the motor was rusted iron and so even though he got all the gunk out of it there was nothing he could do to fix it. Still I had fun helping take it apart and looking inside and getting a bit of a history AND a science lesson from the young engineer who was donating his time.

"I spend too much time working on a computer, I wanted to have some hands on time taking things apart and putting them back together". He did fix a television before me so it wasn't all disappointing for him. For me I was happy to go and see what it was all about: It's about a bunch of awesome creative and generous people getting together to help each other reduce waste and repair useful items without it costing a lot of money!

I can wait till next spring to get a new fan. Or maybe buy a new motor on line as he suggested.

Best time ever!

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riotheclown

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