Repair Cafe Perth

Repair Cafe Perth Repair Cafe Perth is a monthly community event where visitors bring in broken items and learn to fix them with the help of a volunteer expert.
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We appreciate the ongoing support provided by the City of Vincent who award us with an Environmental Grant. Repair Cafe Perth is a community meeting place where visitors bring in broken items and learn to fix them with the help of a volunteer expert.

I thoroughly enjoy volunteering with Repair Café Perth each month and learning so much about each solution that the volu...
21/08/2026

I thoroughly enjoy volunteering with Repair Café Perth each month and learning so much about each solution that the volunteers share.

But today I have a couple of repairs to share, that have been managed by me, at home. One is an ongoing story about my daughter's Dyson V6 animal stick vacuum. You may remember a previous Facebook post shared here.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14oenVZLM3w/

The hair removal worked for a while but then the head roller stopped spinning again. So I took it in to Dyson outlet in Osborne Park. Naturally this machine is out of warranty, so I just wanted a quick check to see if they could suggest a solution. Nope, is broken and it isn't fixable. I understand that troubleshooting an obsolete vacuum cleaner is time consuming and therefore expensive. My daughter got a new machine.

I took her old machine home and decided to run a few tests. Checking whether it was the connection in the vacuum head, the pipe length or the dust collection bin. I did this by systematically swapping the parts from my own, functioning V6. I also checked online for any suggestions. The issue was definitely in the dust collection bin. I was ready to toss it out. But I just wondered . . . !
The metal connectors all looked okay but then I found an online suggestion to clean the metal connectors with a cotton bud to remove any dust or grime. I shall share an image of what I brushed clean.

And now . . . the vacuum head is working as intended. It is fixed. I'm not sure if this will be a lasting solution but I'm a little sad that that little suggestion wasn't shared with me when I took the V6 stick vacuum in to the Dyson outlet. 😛 I wouldn't expect them to spend a lot of time on this but advice costs nothing . . . except a potential sale of a new product for them.

And therefore I share this with our followers. In case you also just want your head roller to work a little longer. It is powered by the metal connection and each stage can get a little dirty. It wasn't obvious! So it's worth a try.

The other repair, mentioned above is a visible mending repair in a woollen thermal top that I just want to keep wearing because it's so comfortable. So I have used bright embroidery cotton to stitch up the wear holes. I love wearing this now.

More stories coming soon.

One of our return visitors, Frances, brought in her Dust Buster hand-held vacuum cleaner. It was over 15 years old and p...
15/08/2026

One of our return visitors, Frances, brought in her Dust Buster hand-held vacuum cleaner.
It was over 15 years old and probably needed a new battery.

Bruce, our general repairs' volunteer, did check if there was any obvious problem but nothing was amiss. So unfortunately not repairable.

Frances was keen to show Bruce the success of her previous repair with a lamp clamp. This story is shared here from our June event:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Edsf2bRrj/

She showed Bruce how she can now place it on her chair, and she can manage the spring's strength. See the last image below.

Please check out our website for ideas on what to bring along to our next event on Saturday 19th September 2026.

www.repaircafeperth.org.au/FAQ

We had a busy Repair Cafe Perth event this morning with lots of visitors, and volunteers, to keep the hall full of socia...
15/08/2026

We had a busy Repair Cafe Perth event this morning with lots of visitors, and volunteers, to keep the hall full of social activity this morning.

We were pleased to welcome our newest devices' volunteer, Hubert, who was put to work helping our visitor, Yuko, with her laptop.

This laptop was quite old and running the old version of Windows 10. Hubert started the Windows update but it was very slow. This probably needs an overnight wait and hopefully Yuko can still use it when it is completed. Thanks Hubert! 👍

Also welcome back to our Repair Café Perth event, one of the founding members, Angie. She, along with Elle and others. started this journey almost a decade ago. We all love to reconnect with the long, long list of volunteers who have been instrumental in starting this wonderful and ongoing success story.

It was a fun morning with the 'Fixed It' bell ringing out as each repair was signalled and the hall full of people sharing the success.

Repair Café Perth is on today! We start at 9:30am and we have a great number of volunteer repairers: 'sewing and textile...
14/08/2026

Repair Café Perth is on today!

We start at 9:30am and we have a great number of volunteer repairers: 'sewing and textiles', 'glue, tape and string', 'electronics', 'devices' and our 'general repairs'. Anything that you can carry in with two hands, and we can take a look, discuss the repair and see if our experts can fix it. More than 70% of our visitors each month walk away with their fixed item. And of the rest, many are given advice. We aim to keep the waste from landfill.

The address is at North Perth Town Hall, 26 View Street. From 9:30 to 11:30am.

Many thanks to for their continued support with the venue and Environmental Grant to assist with running this endeavour each month. 👍

This was a delightful request from our visitor, Lorenya. She had brought in a well-loved soft toy which was called Punch...
14/08/2026

This was a delightful request from our visitor, Lorenya. She had brought in a well-loved soft toy which was called Punch the monkey.

Lorenya was very keen to help the child owner of this toy to be comforted by a softly pulsing heart added inside the toy. Could our volunteers do this?

Trish & Helen, our textile volunteers were very keen to help but this task, to introduce heart, was strictly not a repair but a change of design.

We love helping our visitors with their requests but there is a difference that we try to maintain. Repairing items that would otherwise be thrown away is the basis of our culture. So we don't assist with clothing alterations or redesign. There are professional seamstresses and dressmakers who can help with this. We are always happy to give advice, though.

Have you put aside a piece of textile that needs a repair? Bring it along tomorrow at North Perth Town Hall, 26 View Street between 9:30 and 11:30am. We have a full complement of sewing volunteers, both machine and hand sewing, and they will be keen to help.

See you there!

In June at our Repair Café Perth event we had a visitor, Hollie, who supports the Mt Hawthorn Toy Library. She had a cou...
14/08/2026

In June at our Repair Café Perth event we had a visitor, Hollie, who supports the Mt Hawthorn Toy Library.

She had a couple of electronic children's toys that she wanted to donate to the toy library.

One was a toy train and the other was a toy dinosaur that had lost his RAWR.

Our electronics volunteer, Irv, tackled each task one at a time.
We often have visitors with more then one item for repair and the fairest way is for each repair to be seen to separately, so that every visitor gets to be seen.

The child's train toy wasn't lighting up on its chimney stack.
Irv opened up the bottom and found corrosion in the battery compartment. This is a common problem with battery operated toys. It is often an easy fix to thoroughly clear away the problem and with a new set of batteries the light worked again.

The next toy Hollie showed Irv was a very blue dinosaur. It didn't make the sounds and it didn't move its legs.

Hollie was part of the toy library committee and it is an amazing community resource for the area.
Irv managed to get into the dinosaur innards by removing some screws. Then with a selection of tools, which looked like a surgical operation in the belly of the dinosaur, Irv sorted out the issues.
In the end it doesn't walk but it rawrs.👍

Hollie will donate these two toys to the library and let more children enjoy them.

Our volunteers do the best repair for each of our visitors and save these toys from landfill.

We are open again tomorrow, Saturday 15th August at North Perth Town Hall, 26 View Street from 9:30 to 11:30am. We look forward to a busy, social and successful morning.

Shoes . . . every month at Repair Café Perth we have a slection of shoe repairs for our volunteers. And it was Nick, our...
08/08/2026

Shoes . . . every month at Repair Café Perth we have a slection of shoe repairs for our volunteers. And it was Nick, our electronics and general repairs' volunteer, who received the majority of visitors who found his expertise helpful. 😉

Ric, our regular, monthly visitor, brought in his trainers where the sole had completely detached. Then there was Wendy with a shoe where the toe had separated from the upper, and also Jim with his shoe.

All these repairs were tackled with careful explanations, about cleaning the surfaces, using the Shoe Fix glue and clamping to hold the surfaces together until the glue set. Teaching our visitor these simple repair jobs helps to spread the idea that we can make our shoes last without buying new ones as soon as a small detachment occurs.

Our volunteers are always ready to share their expertise and give tips and tricks with the repairs. A little glue and patience allows these shoes to 'hit the road' again. They become extra special when they are saved from landfill.

Toss it? No way!

Every month our Repair Café Perth textile volunteers are ready to tackle your sewing repairs. Mostly it is a small tear ...
06/08/2026

Every month our Repair Café Perth textile volunteers are ready to tackle your sewing repairs.

Mostly it is a small tear or rip in a favourite pair of pants.

The most common solution is using a small matching colour backing patch on the inside of the clothing, and then some careful machine stitching to secure the tear and the patch. The patch is often ironed on first, using a dry iron.

Frieda worked on a pair of pants brought in by Jim.
Jacqui helped by setting up the ironing station behind the sewing tables.
And Helen and Alison used their sewing machines to darn the tears closed.

You had to look closely to see the stitching and Jim was very pleased with the fixes.

We all clapped when he rang the 'Fixed It' bell, sharing in his pleasure.

The next Repair Café Perth is on Saturday 15th August, at our usual venue in North Perth Town Hall. Check out our Facebook events' tab for more information or visit our website at www.repaircafeperth.org au

One of our chaperone volunteers, Paula, brought in a charging cord that belonged to her daughter.Their cat has chewed th...
17/07/2026

One of our chaperone volunteers, Paula, brought in a charging cord that belonged to her daughter.

Their cat has chewed the wire and it no longer worked.
Our electronics volunteer, Irv, managed to open the area, then used the soldering iron to reconnect the internal wires. Each join was then covered with heat shrink, separately, after the soldering. And finally a protecting heat shrink cover was added over the wire. When tested the cable was charging. 👍

We are very grateful to for the regular venue and supporting our environmental endeavours. We were successful this year in our application for their Environmental Grant which helps fund our administrative and consumable costs.

Tomorrow Saturday 18th July our Repair Café Perth event is on once again; the third Saturday of every month. We are open...
17/07/2026

Tomorrow Saturday 18th July our Repair Café Perth event is on once again; the third Saturday of every month. We are open from 9:30 to 11:30am at North Perth Town Hall, 26 View Street.

Last month our visitor Frances brought in her reading lamp which can attach to any fixture. But the spring for the grip was too strong for her to open. Our general repairs volunteer, Bruce, had a selection of different springs but nothing that fitted well.

Bruce knew he probably had something suitable at home. He kindly offered to sort through his paraphernalia and fix it for her.

You can see in the image that he'd found a solution which he presented to Frances a week later. This is not a service we usually provide but Bruce occasionally goes above and beyond. The culture of 'Toss it? No way!' runs deep in our volunteers' veins.

Please bring your broken favourite items to us tomorrow and see what solutions our volunteers can offer. Textiles, electronics, devices, small pieces of furniture or bikes. Ornaments, clothing, and toys but we cannot work on anything with 240 volts. If it runs on a battery or has an AC to DC converter that's fine.

See our website at
www.repaircafeperth.org.au/FAQ

Address

North Perth Town Hall, 26 View Street, North Perth
Perth, WA
6006

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