List of items you won't work on?

[Steph_Gray]

We’re starting to identify some patterns in things we won’t generally work on at our Beckenham & Penge Repair Cafe events, either for safety or sustainability reasons. I wondered if anyone else has a policy or list which we might be able to build on and communicate to our visitors?

Won’t work on:

• three phase electrical items
• microwaves (if it involves disassembly)
• ‘fast fashion’ items
• significant adaptations to clothes - we signpost to local businesses for that

We’d also like people to ensure vacuum cleaners are empty before bringing them along but that’s a bit of a losing battle…

Anything else you routinely discourage or refuse to work on as a general policy at your events?

thanks
Steph

[Monique]

Repair Cafe Lambeth. We won’t deal with microwaves and don’t fix mobile phones other than dealing with a few software issues and factory resets - no screen replacements. Try to discourage clothing “alterations” but they will slip through - not too many though. No knife sharpening.

Toaster crumbs and the contents of vacuums are par for the course.

[neil]

Just quoting a post on this which came up in another topic recently:

@Andrew_Gabriel

In terms of banned things, these are things various different repair cafes ban that I can think of:

• Microwave ovens - never permitted to remove the top cover, or any door repairs such as the hinges or latch or interlock switches, or anything else which would require testing for microwave leakage afterwards. (You can replace the turntable motor from the underside if this can be done without removing the top cover or the door).
• Any item with a fuel tank (such as a petrol engine) even if the tank is empty.
• Electric Blankets.
• Illegal blades.
• Cane Furniture (no idea why)
• industrial devices
• 3 phase power tools
• mobile phones
• Items which might contain asbestos or other dangerous materials
• Items which are grossly dirty (e.g. unwashed kitchen appliances, unemptied vacuum cleaners, etc).
• Items which are too large or heavy to safely handle at the event.
• Alterations to clothing size.

These are ones I haven’t seen any rule about, but should probably be added to the list:

• Any Lithium battery intended to run a motor vehicle such as a bike, scooter, mobility chair, etc. must not be brought indoors. (Might impose a maximum energy capacity, as airlines do.) Some sites might consider repairing such items outdoors with extra risk assessment, or repairing the items indoors if the batteries are never brought indoors, and then tested outdoors with extra risk assessment.
• Anything containing a transmitter or laser above milliwatt levels, or any ionising source (UV or X-rays, or any radioactive substance, old clocks/watches/dials with radioactive luminous displays, BT Trimphones, etc).
• Any safety-critical appliance (e.g. medical appliance, fire or smoke detection, etc).

[philip]

I think microwaves have been on the banned list for about as long as I’ve been associated with Restart (over 10 years).

At St Albans we discourage power washers because of the risk of spillage and because we’d need a water supply to test them.

Our stitcher-in-chief (I don’t call them sewers because of the possible confusion with sanitary engineering) would have us ban zips as they can be tricky and very time consuming. Nevertheless, a few come through. I replaced my gardening anorak zip, and only the other week, a cushion cover zip (a bit trickier than I bargained for). But as I always say, my sewing looks its best on the end of 100ft of kite string.

She would also have us ban all alterations, and we have had one or two people bring new items needing alteration before being worn, but if someone has lost or gained a few pounds and would otherwise throw the item away I personally wouldn’t have a problem with that.

We have a FAQ on our booking form saying, amongst other things, what we can and can’t accept, but it seems nobody ever reads it.