Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

The Repair Café

The Repair Café is a network of places where you can take broken stuff and fix it for free. This is not limited to geekery with machines. You can take clothes, toys, all kinds of stuff.  Find one near you or start one.  Sadly, the only two in Illinois are right next to each other, in Chicago and Oak Park.  :(

I will add, not knowing that things can be fixed and not knowing how to fix them are only two thirds of the problem -- the ones you can influence yourself.  A much more serious issue is that most modern products are not designed to be fixable at all, only thrown away the moment anything breaks.  They are made so covers won't come off, so broken areas can't be separated from whole ones.  That's vicious, and it's also infantalizing, because it prevents people from doing things for themselves.

So another part of this movement is to search out and buy products that can be repaired.  For a brilliant example, look at 3D archery targets.  These things take a beating.  The core, and sometimes the whole midsection, can be replaced with spare parts.  For some targets and companies, all the parts can be replaced.  You can even buy repair kits with foam, paint, etc. for smaller touchups.  That's fantastic, because these things are really expensive; repairing them saves a lot of money and resources.
Tags: a little slice of terramagne, how to, life lessons, networking
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  • 3 comments
elenbarathi

elenbarathi

January 21 2019, 03:36:13 UTC 2 years ago

Repair Cafe sounds like a fine idea, but 3D archery targets sound like a brilliant example of a luxury item that nobody needs in the first place. All the bow-hunters I know hone their skills on gunny sacks and straw, which are not too expensive to replace. Still, cool that the targets can be repaired at least; it's a step in the right direction.
ysabetwordsmith

Well ...

ysabetwordsmith

January 21 2019, 04:06:00 UTC 2 years ago

You can shoot all kinds of things, and people often make their own targets. However, the 3D targets have a number of advantages:

* The foam is designed to stop arrows without breaking them. Fuck up your homemade target and it might not work that well.

* For game hunters, 3D targets provide a much more realistic practice opportunity. You can stash your fake deer in the woods and try to hit the thing with the wind in your face and trees in the way.

* For hobbyists, 3D targets are more fun than paper. Come on, who doesn't want to shoot at a velociraptor? :D Fun adds up to more physical activity, which is good. Archery is hard enough that every motivational aid helps. This is why public ranges often buy an assortment of 3D targets for members to enjoy.

* Foam targets, 3D or otherwise, last a lot longer (several thousand shots) than paper (up to a few dozen if your aim is bad enough to spread out).

Just because something is expensive doesn't mean it isn't worth the price.
elenbarathi

Re: Well ...

elenbarathi

January 21 2019, 17:07:13 UTC 2 years ago Edited:  January 21 2019, 18:23:34 UTC

Oh, I know. I've been an archer myself for over half a century, and though I don't hunt, a lot of my friends do: the bow-hunting is very good here on the Olympic Peninsula. However, most of my bow-hunting friends are SCA members, seriously into sustainability, or both (as am I,) neither of which tends toward approval of sticking fake plastic animals out in the real forest. Our local archery range does have some, and boy do they ever look stupid - beat to shit, too; apparently those repair kits are not cheaper than doing nothing.

"Come on, who doesn't want to shoot at a velociraptor?

Me. My daughter, who was a regional champion at age 13, and loves velociraptors (though she did nail a plush Barney right in the balls at a shoot once when she was about 7.) Anybody who can tell the difference between a real velociraptor and a hunk of molded plastic (hint: if you can see it, it's not a real velociraptor.) If by 'hobbyists' you mean 'dilettantes who won't play if it's hard', I suppose infantilizing the sport of archery into something resembling miniature golf is one way to induce them to move their bodies before their arteries congeal, and that's fine. Don't expect any real archers to ever take that shit seriously, though - especially those who are actually hunting for the table.

BTW, you can stash a gunny sack out in the woods just as easily as you can stash a fake animal. My daughter's godfather, who's been an archery champion countless times over the past forty years, has 6 acres with trails where such gunny sacks lurk. He is more than rich enough to buy plastic if he wanted it, but somehow, the simple gunny sacks seem to suffice.

"Foam targets, 3D or otherwise, last a lot longer (several thousand shots) than paper (up to a few dozen if your aim is bad enough to spread out)."

Paper targets break down into the wood fibers they were made from. Foam targets break down into micro-plastics which become more destructive to the environment the farther they degrade.