Front page · Repair Café
Phones, toasters and a cuckoo clock: the café where nothing gets thrown away
Bring in something broken, have a cup of tea, and take it home working. Winnie Sparks has fixed everything in Cosyford at least twice, cracked phones included.
A customer comes in with something that has stopped working (a phone, a laptop, a toaster, a radio, a desk fan, a kettle, a hairdryer, a pocket games console, a wind-up robot, a cuckoo clock or Nana's music box), tells you what is wrong, and sits down at the café table with a mug of tea.
It goes on the anti-static mat. Swipe the screwdriver across the screws and they hop into the magnetic tray; a phone is glued, so warm the glue with the heat pad and run the opening pick all round the edge, and the screen opens like a book. Run the tester over the parts: good ones beep, the broken one buzzes. Unplug the battery first, always.
Then put it right. A new part comes out of the drawers in its anti-static bag and waits in the foam holder, and a green outline shows exactly where it goes. Pull a glued-in battery out by its tabs, slowly, or they snap. Hold the soldering iron on a loose wire, or brush out the fluff and the crumbs (you can do that before you test anything, too). Every old part goes in the e-waste bin to be recycled.
Back together, and you switch it on. The phone lights up, the laptop hums quietly, the toast pops sky-high, the kettle rumbles and clicks off, a little game plays on the console's screen, and the music box lid lifts and the dancer turns to Twinkle Twinkle. It is one more thing that did not go to the tip.
