The Repair Cafe at Maesteg ShedQuarters
Just over a year ago when our Shed was approached by Jackie Prosser, Community Networks Officer of the Bridgend Association of Voluntary Organisations about setting up a Repair Cafe, we thought that it was a marvellous idea for three reasons. For the government it reduces the amount of material going into landfill. For our customers it saves them money. For our Shed members it gives a chance to use our experience,
We cannot repair everything but I would say that we do repair just over half of what is brought in. The beauty of a Repair Cafe day, is that you never know what is going to be brought in through the door. Yes the majority of what is brought in is electrical. Some are very expansive pieces of kit. Luckily we have an electrician who is a willing to give up his Saturday morning once a month (the fourth Saturday of the month) to attend.
But not everything that comes in is of great monetary value. We have had clocks brought in from deceased family members some that have not worked for years’ even decades. We have had a few Chapel clocks, the word soon gets around). Recently John brought in a broken ladies automatic opening umbrella. John found us online and drove for 30 minutes to reach us. The umbrella belonged to his late wife. Not of great monetary vale but of great sentimental value. The umbrella was plain black on the outside but there was a very pretty scene on the inside of blue skies and white clouds The spring that opened the umbrella must have been too strong, as it blew the canopy straight off. We were unable to repair the mechanism. John was given three choices. Bin it, which he obviously did not want to do. Transfer the canopy to a new mechanism, which was difficult as you would have to buy an identical umbrella for it to fit. Or turn it into a cushion. John chose to have it turned into a cushion.
It was decided to turn the canopy inside out so that the black material was used for the bottom and had the cloud scene put on the top. Black piping was used in the triangle seams on the top to represent the ribs of the umbrella. The seams on the top were curved to increase the height of the dome.
During a conversation when John came to collect the cushion at the January 2023 Repair Cafe. He said that if it had been repaired it would have put in a drawer maybe only used only occasionally when it rained. As a cushion it would be on show and a constant reminder. He said that he had the very place to put the cushion. John spends a great deal of time reading and has a favourite chair for reading in. That is where the cushion will be found giving him comfort while he reads.
waste of resources. They take up space in landfill sites and to make a replacement has a monetary cost, to the individual, uses up additional resources and adds the production of gasses that harm the environment. The Welsh Government is encouraging the setting up of “Repair Cafes” across Wales. An organization called “Repair Café Wales” has been set up. Their website is: 
up. As did an Iron, that needed its cable changing and a printer that the paper kept jamming. As it was explained to us some things cannot be repaired sometimes because of the way the object was manufactured. They were telling us about an electric bike that developed a fault with its battery. The battery was inside the frame of the bike and then the space filled with a glue like substance that set hard, so the battery could not be changed. Or there may be difficulty in obtaining spare parts. 
Space” groups across Bridgend County and are based in Bettws. The “Breathing Space” sessions are a free, weekly, drop in sessions. The aims of the groups are to encourage the development of confidence and communication through creativity.
weeks, we already have a couple of budding artists.
Mike gave us a short talk about his new acquisition and I asked him to repeat it for the video below where he demonstrates the sound using finger picking and a bottleneck for old country slide effect.
callsign is MW7CCS. Over the past couple of months, the local Ragchew Net group have been contemplating creating a digital club, they have already been on an outing (field trip) and are booked to go to Llansteffan in August.
our laser engraver, to enable cutting or engraving next week. We are due to have a film crew visit us in August and they are very interested in the music, unfortunately two members of the group were away today.
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names the Gin Pit because they produced gin. It did produce coal and also iron ore to be used in the iron works. Which was where the Tesco’s store is situated today, just below the Gin Pit. It is believed it was named the Gin Pit after the horse driven machinery that wound the coal and iron ore up the shaft. The depth of the shaft was only 345 feet deep. Maesteg town centre is built where the coal seams come very close to the surface. The coal was worked on an incline, so the actual workings would have been lower than that.
The coal part of the pit was worked using the “Pillar and stall” method. The stall was a narrow road way driven into the coal in a grid fashion. Leaving the pillar squares to help hold up the roof. The stalls are worked to the boundary and then worked in retreat. It is then that the coal within the pillars is removed and the roof allowed to fall in. This method of working was notorious for the difficulty of ensuring good ventilation for clearing any gas(methane) out of the workings. 