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Appliances, Case histories, Safety

Solar electric fence unit

I had to admit defeat with this electric-fence unit, which was showing no signs of life in spite of having had a new battery fitted. Having tested the battery and the solar panel which is meant to charge it, I was forced to conclude that the electronic control board was faulty – way beyond my capabilities!

Incidentally, as a battery-powered unit this item cannot be given a PAT test. PAT tests only apply to mains-powered devices. However, when working it would generate 10,000 volts, so there was a danger of it coming to life while I was tinkering and delivering a nasty shock. I therefore took  a couple of simple precautions:

  1. Removing the trailing leads from the output terminals; and
  2. Disconnecting the primary supply to the output transformer (on the bottom circuit board in the photo)

It is a general rule that repairers must assess such risks before attempting repairs.

Case histories

Bridle

Our sewing team are always up to a challenge, and volunteer Anne came up with the goods on 20 June when presented with this horse’s bridle with a dodgy strap, brought in by a travelling caravan dweller.  She concluded that although badly cracked, the leather was basically sound and just needed restitching, which she was able to do on the day.

Management

Chairman’s report for 2025

This is the report presented to the AGM on 20 June 2026

I would like to start by thanking our fantastic volunteer repairers, along with our catering and front-desk team, for their dedication during the course of the year, and in particular to acknowledge Martin Roper whom we lost this year and who was a stalwart of the project since its inception. Can I also record my thanks to Viv Price who although still with us is no longer able to be actively engaged with our sessions. We miss the contributions both made over the years.

This report covers the year to December 2025 and is the first chairman’s report since we put ourselves on a formal footing by agreeing a constitution, appointing a committee, and opening a bank account. Having a bank account and appointing a treasurer are important given that we are custodians of public donations.

Our formal constitution dates from 9 July when we appointed Howard Atkins, Catherine Mason, Martin Roper and me as our management committee. Among the first actions taken by the committee were to deposit our accumulated takings at the bank and to improve the front-desk procedures and record-keeping, including attendance at sessions as well as repairs undertaken. Because records prior to this are incomplete, I am only able to state the results from September onwards, during which period we attended to 52 items, of which 45 were successfully completed.

As a footnote I can report that since the end of 2025 we have also sharpened up our public-relations act with a small web site (NewentRepairCafe.org) where people can see our session dates, enquire about possible repairs, book session reminders and read illustrated case histories all in one place. We have stopped relying on a Facebook page, which had become cluttered with out-of-date material and made it too easy for readers to be lured away. We still use Facebook, but only to send people to the web site, where we can retain their attention. The web site has generally made it feasible to advertise our activities effectively. We have a standing small advertisement in the local free paper the NewAd, articles have been placed in parish magazines to good effect, and we have an entry in Newent Compass (a directory of voluntary groups) to name just some of the channels through which we are promoting ourselves. The impact has been marked and we have gone from having a session where we lost money to a situation where our repairers are kept busy, with donations and refreshment sales bringing in £100 per session (and even in April when we had to cancel for want to volunteers, we made £35 from customers who turned up anyway).

Once again my thanks to everyone involved.

Vilnis Vesma

Chairman, Newent Mend and Repair Café
19 June 2026
Version 3

Case histories, Safety

Where on earth?… car-boot perils

One of our repairers asked me to test an extension lead he had acquired at a car boot sale. Our portable appliance tester can test extension leads: in the photo you can see the lead (orange) is plugged into the tester and then connected back at the other end (via the short black lead). The point of this is to check whether the earth wire is connected at both ends; and in this case, we see that the earth continuity test has failed.

How could this be?

The simple answer is that there was no earth lead in the cable, as this photo inside the socket shows. The manufacturers have used two-core flex, and also there’s no clamp on the cable, meaning it could easily be pulled out in use.

Not good. Lesson: get the car registration number when you buy anything potentially risky.

 

Case histories

Child’s electric car

This child’s electric jeep had come in last month when our normal session had been cancelled, but I took it on as a job to do at home.

The problem was simply that it would not go.
Checking the battery voltage showed it to be dead, but with a temporary supply there were signs of life with the lights and sound effects so it seemed possible that the electronic controller (top of photo) was still working. The customer agreed to risk investing in a new battery which would either cure the problem or enable me to diagnose whatever else might be amiss.
With a new battery, fully charged, there was still no response to the accelerator but crucially everything worked when the jeep was driven by means of its remote control.

That meant that we could eliminate the onboard electronics and the motors: the next most likely culprit was the accelerator.

From the way it clicked I could tell it was just an on-off switch.
Having figured out how to remove the pedal assembly I could get access to the switch connections. Notice how they have used a twin switch, meaning that there are spare normally-open connections on the right.
Shorting across the connections on the switch brought the beast to life, proving that the switch contact was the culprit…
…so I just had to move the wires over to the spare pair of on-off terminals.

Put everything else back as I found it and job done.
The key here was to start with methodical diagnosis. And although the owner had helpfully brought the instruction booklet (never throw those away!) on the first visit, I didn’t learn until later that there was a remote control. It was the fact that it worked under remote control which enabled me to pinpoint the fault.

Lesson: bring all its accessories and ancillaries with the item you want fixing.
Furniture

Stick-back chair stuck back

On 18th April we had to cancel at short notice as nearly all our repairers were away, and our refreshment person was uncertain about her availability. I was at home (dealing with a pre-booked repair) and as I live just across from the hall I was also intercepting anyone who had not seen the cancellation notices. This was my first extra patient: a dining chair with a broken back, where a previous attempted repair had failed.
Normally we can’t do proper repairs on furniture because there isn’t the time, but as I was at home with all my materials and gear, I was able to take this one on. After cleaning our the glue residue from the last repair I glued and clamped the joint and left it to cure overnight.
Next, by way of an unexpected bonus, I thought I would tidy up the missing wood at the back of the broken repair. Again, another overnight stage with wood filler (in two stages, because you can’t build it up in one thick layer).
Sanded, stained and with a light touch of varnish, it looks reasonably tidy.
Now the trickiest stage. The repaired joint was at risk of breaking a second time because it won’t be strong enough to withstand the bending force when someone leans back. So with the aid of an extra-long 4mm drill and a specially-made jig to ensure true alignment, I carefully drilled a deep hole from underneath up into the side member of the chair-back…
…popped a tiny bit of expanding adhesive down the hole, and tapped in a steel reinforcing pin.

I knew my old Meccano would come in! Job done.
Uncategorized

Record-breaking session

Our session today (21 March) was our busiest ever, with record donations and cafe takings, so thanks to all concerned. Our eight repairers dealt with dozens of items.

The sewing team repaired a pair of shorts, shortened trousers for two customers, shortened the sleeves on a cashmere sweater, adapted a dog coat and replaced the elastic straps on a car cover.

 

Our mechanical and electrical team were kept busy too, cleaning and sharpening numerous secateurs, shears and loppers. They repaired two electric clocks, removed rust from a tin opener, and repaired:

  1. an electric heater;
  2. a metal detector;
  3. a paper shredder;
  4. a loudspeaker amplifier unit;
  5. a desk lamp with a faulty switch;
  6. a vacuum cleaner;
  7. solar fairy lights amputated in a hedge-trimmer accident;
  8. a stool with a wobbly leg; and
  9. a child’s electric ride-on car

The only things beyond repair were a soup maker and a cuckoo clock.

Our thanks to today’s patrons for their generous donations.

 

Dates, Policies and procedures

Ask for a reminder

You can now ask us to send you a reminder the day before our sessions by providing either a mobile phone number (for a text message) or your email address.

We don’t ask for your name, and you can have a reminder either for just the next sesssion, or all until further notice (if you want to cancel, just reply to the reminder to say so):

    When do you want reminders for?
    Just this sessionAll sessions until further notice

     

    Safety

    Knife sharpening

    Leave a comment

    Our insurance does not cover knife sharpening at the moment because insurance companies are generally refusing to provide cover thanks to fears of knife crime. However, we can sharpen shears, secateurs, mower blades, scissors and the like, and expect to be able to do so until there is a rash of mower-blade attacks.