Gravesham Repair Café

On our second event at Vigo we had several electrical items as expected. First for attention was a vacuum cleaner which turned out to have a broken cable so no power reached the machine.  Luckily the damaged section was near the plug so it was cut off and a new plug fitted.  Then it was safety checked with our PAT tester. One of our sewing experts brought back a teddy bear that had been worked on at home after our last Vigo visit. Also returning from a bit of "homework" was a battery powered horse racing game.  The motor needed lubricating and it required new drive bands.  The fun was back. A sewing machine had a faulty foot pedal.  This was returned to service with a temporary repair and safety test.  A new component will be obtained to effect a permanent repair. In addition we fixed a broken radio aerial, ascertained that a coffee machine required a deep clean of its filter and mended the switch of a solar-powered lamp. We're also very happy to report tha...

We had our usual haul of repair jobs. The owner of this juicer arrived with a replacement drive-wheel but it couldn't be fitted because the old one's brass bushing had 'welded' itself to the shaft. We had difficulty holding the motor still while unscrewing the bushing...  but with muscle and determination we succeeded and the machine was back in action. An elderly clock was presented with its owner asking "will it work again?".  Our expert soon determined that it would if properly cleaned an oiled.  The owner returned home eager to complete the restoration himself. This next was a little alarming because a pair of lamps were presented and in both cases the plastic of their inline switch had gone brittle and literally fallen apart exposing 240 Volt metal parts. A pair of new switches from the local DIY store allowed us to effect a safe repair. As we did with the juicer above, we ran electrical safety tests (PAT testing) with our testing machine to make sure we...