Category: repair cafe

Students and community repairers explore 3D printing of spare parts

Author katcorbett | Posted on

Students and community repair volunteers recently had the opportunity to explore a novel way to create spare plastic parts for repair: 3D design and 3D printing.

This idea first occurred when coming across a number of snapped plastic parts as part of UWE Bristol’s Repair Café. The traditional way of using glue and epoxy resins was not always suitable or strong enough, and after a first successful trial of fixing a Soda Stream by replacing a broken seal  with a new 3D printed version, the team behind the MAKERS project decided to explore 3D printing for repair more.

MAKERS (Making and Knowledge Exchange for Repair and Sustainability) aims to improve belonging for diverse engineering students at UWE Bristol, through developing connections with local Maker and Repair communities in the West of England.

Students and MAKERS community partners were invited to take part in a 3D design workshop led by Dr Joe Butchers, lecturer in Engineering Principles, to explore how the freely available and easy to use platform Tinkercad could be used, even by those with no relevant previous experience to create spare parts.

After practicing on some initial simple shapes and design, the group got to work on some broken sample parts, which had been sent in by members of the public to create a new part. As part of this, they successfully created a new plastic bracket for a 40-year-old baby cot.

3D printed replacement cot catch and the original, broken version

The session was a great way to explore how 3D printing could be made more accessible to the wider repair community, and the team are now looking to run another one soon, giving the amount of interest from the repair community and students to learn more, and to work through some of the other broken items that were offered by members of the public to be fixed.

The team are exploring routes to run a workshop again and seeking funding for future training.

New Repair Café at School of Engineering brings together students and wider community

Author engineering | Posted on

UWE Bristol’s Repair Café has gotten off to a great start on its very first session on October 11th 2023!

We had a fantastic team of 14 helpers, which included students, community volunteers, technicians, and other UWE staff, helping with repair and general organising.

There was a lot of demand for repair amongst the UWE community: people brought in old toys, soda streams, lawn mowers, lamps, trousers, skirts, dresses, and much more!

In total, our repairers managed to work on 16 items, of which 10 were fixed, 3 are still outstanding (waiting for spare parts, or ran out of time to finish), and 3 could not be repaired.

So far, the repairers helped save 11kg of waste from going to landfill, and 67kg of CO2 emissions, which is the equivalent of manufacturing 1 sofa, or watching TV for 116 days!

All repair data is collected in support of the work of the Restart project. Our latest repair information can be accessed on their webpages. We are able to run the Repair Café through the MAKERS project, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Radio mentions

We are delighted to have had two mentions on BBC Radio Bristol to mark the launch of the Repair Café. First, project lead Dr Laura Fogg-Rogers was interviewed by Paris Troy as part of the station’s morning show to talk about the Repair Café and the wider repair movement.

Listen here

We also had BBC Radio Bristol’s Steve Yabsley attend the Repair Café in person, where he interviewed many of the people who helped or had their items fixed.

catch up here

Upcoming Repair Cafes and how to get involved

The next Repair Café will take place on November 8th 2023 at the School of Engineering from 12.15 – 1.45pm.

The November Repair Café will also receive additional support from UWE Bristol’s Fashion Technical team who will be running a MEND session with information below.

You can just drop in on the day, or email kat.corbett@uwe.ac.uk if you have any questions.

UWE Bristol to launch new Repair Café at the School of Engineering

Author katcorbett | Posted on

The Royal Academy of Engineering funded MAKERS project is moving into its next phase, with the UWE Bristol Repair Café set to launch in October.

Students, staff, and members of the public are invited to come along to the sessions with their broken items to get them fixed by a team of student and community repair volunteers. These items can include electricals and small appliances, clothes, and anything else that can be glued, soldered, or stitched (there won’t be any capacity to fix tablets, laptops, or mobile phones, though the technical repair company Fix My Crack, which runs a pop-up on campus will be able to help with those). Repairers of electrical and electronic items will receive guidance and support from the school’s skilled technicians, ensuring all repairs are done in a safe manner, and to a high standard. There will also be food and refreshments on offer for them.

UWE Bristol’s Repair Café runs every second Wednesday of the month, 12.15 – 1.45pm in the Atrium of Z Block (School of Engineering)

  • Upcoming dates are:
  • 11th October 2023
  • 8th November 2023
  • 13th December 2023
  • 10th January 2024
  • 14th February 2024
  • 13th March 2024
  • 10th April 2024

More information can be found here.

How to get involved as a repair volunteer

Students and community partners from the wider Bristol Repair Café network are invited to get involved as repair volunteers in the monthly sessions. Please email kat.corbett@uwe.ac.uk for more information and to register your interest, or just drop in on the day of the session at 11.45am.

Other ways to get involved in MAKERS

The Repair Café and Repair Skills workshops are only some of the activities in the pipeline for the MAKERS project. People interested in getting involved in future activities can find out more and register their interest via the MAKERS Sway site.

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