We can stiil get sewing machines(industrial) repaired but there are now so few mechanics that it can now take 2 days for them to attend our works

I have a great backpack (very well made, big, nice padding) that I bought 25 years ago in Hong Kong, that had started ripping at the seam at the top where the straps attach. I was going to get a new one, until my wife said 'let me take it to Mr. Lee (local shoe repair shop). For $19 he made it look like new! - so apparently shoe repair is alive and well at least here in Cincinnati....my wife takes stuff to him, and she has enough shoes to keep him in business for the next decade :).

B-52's - they've been flying forever. I heard there are pilots that are flying the same exact airframe that their grandfathers flew.

Entropy will destroy the universe in a several billion years. We really don't need to worry about things past 1,000 years.

One thing that is the opposite of the OP question is airplanes. Every pilot in the Air Force is younger than the B-52. It started service in the mid 1950s and is expected to be in service in the middle 2040s. 90 years of service is beyond the wildest dreams of the designers.

Some products are built to discourage servicing. Maybe it is a liability issue? What bugs me is the special screw heads that make it near impossible to take some things apart. I was trying to get a shop vac (mostly plastic of course) apart to clean the accumulated dust out of the motor and lubricate the bearings. A star bit would not go into the screw heads because there was a pin in the middle of the hole. I guess there is a hollow star bit somewhere. I was able to break the pins out with a sharp punch to allow my star bit to sit down in the screw head.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1415628755.jpg

Yep, I had to buy a set with a hole in the middle (to accommodate the pin) a while back just so I could spray some cleaner on a MAF sensor. Things like this prove they're just trying to make our lives miserable.

My wife works in IT and has a whole set of all kinds of assorted bits for different types of security screws. The bits are so readily available it seems pointless for odd shaped screws to even exist.

The 1911 is still going strong, and Canada is just about to phase out the last of their Lee Enfield rifles...

I saw an interview with Jay Leno and he was talking about one of his old cars and he said:
"These cars were built back when technology was expensive and labor cheap. Now, it's the other way around--labor's the killer."

I think this ties in with this thread.

We can fix a Typewriters, Mechanical Clocks, Sewing Machines but why! You can replace them for much less than what it would cost to just get an estimate on fixing the item.

Back to the original question.

Alternator / Starter repairmen.
Was in Baja two years ago and one of the vehicles in the group had the alt light come on.

Baja is full of alternator repair shops. We stopped at one and in less than an hour, the guy had removed the alternate, diagnosed the problem, fixed the problem and reinstalled the now working alternator on the Jeep. (I think all this cost us less than $40us). It was amazing to watch.

Old cameras.

iPod Classic

Agree about products now but there is something about the old stuff. while they may not be as reliable as the new disposable stuff, the style and materials is still cool. I really dig retro appliances and what have you but I would shy away from getting any to actually use because if they did break, parts would be a bear to find, if you could find them.

If rapid prototyping and 3D printing took off and making metal parts became mush cheaper I could get into it...

I took mine apart and put in a new screen, lockout switch and earphone jack for about $20. The hardest part was putting those tiny screws back in. I used a set of jeweler's magnifying glasses.

Yesterday my Sharper Image Humidifier started making rumbling noises, I pulled out the squirrel cage fan and sprayed it with CLR to get the calcium deposits off the vanes, put a few drops of gun oil and what looked like the bearing and now it runs dead silent. For kicks I googled the model number of the fan and found I could buy a replacement for $12.99 from ebay. It was about a $50 humidifier a few years ago.

or ripping off people for a service call.

The drive belt came off on a Lawn-boy. To access the belt there was 3 screws on plate that needed to be removed. 3 different sizes Torx!!!

All the guys that know what they are doing are dead or retired.

Remember teletypes?
I went to teletype repair school a long time ago (1970)
I loved working on those machines.
A zillion small levers, clutches, pawls, cams and a bunch of horizontal to
vertical movements.
Feeler gauges and small ignition wrenches were my friend.
Totally obsolete for the past couple decades.

Later I became an Electrical Technician, providing protection for transmission and
distribution of high voltage power circuits.
All the relaying was electro/mechanical so you used wrenches to set the
relays up. Then around 1980, solid state protection started being integrated
into the systems.
The old guys didn't want to have to learn the new electronic age stuff but it came and now, no more little wrenches.
Software and laptops.
Interesting how everything has become this way today.

I had a pair of shoes resoled a few years ago. I asked the cobbler about his business. He said most of his customers were Asian and most of them recent migrants. I guess they have not been fully indoctrinated into the disposable culture yet.

yup...would suspect small savings separated survival and perishing for these folks.

My grandfather survived the depression in the same way. Fixing things became a big portion of the fabric of his being. He had lots of company. Almost all of those sorts are gone now and replaced by too many people in an iCrisis.:(

Repaircafe.org

My problem is finding a shoe repair shop that I'm happy with. Either the work looks off, falls apart too quickly, or costs almost as much as the shoes.