There are a number of Repair Cafes which do old electronics. Most repairers are septuagenarian engineers more used to HiFi or vacuum cleaners, but there are a few with a old farts from the PC world too. I can recommend the one in the Bonte Kraai (at metro Kraaiennest) every last Friday of the month - I volunteer there as the (forty-something 😜 ) youngster and the second youngest (in his late sixties) is also pretty computer-savvy.

That said, what sort of stuff are we talking about? I live out in the Bijlmer which gives me the space to have a little dedicated lab of my own. Not exactly professional-level yet, but enough for basic diagnosis and repairs. Drop me a PM if you want to drop by one day and see what we can do 😀

Sounds good! 😀

By the way, I just visited a hackerspace in the Slotervaart district called Technologia Incognita. Are you familiar with it? A friendly member gave me a tour of the place, and it looks pretty cool. Among other things, they have a desk with a soldering station, irons, heat gun, desoldering tool, and other stuff. I'm thinking about joining it.

I definitely like your Bonte Kraai suggestion to, but I guess I just missed the one last Friday, huh? I'm looking for some place that I can attend weekly, but I'd definitely like to visit that monthly repair cafe as well.

I'll send you a PM, as suggested. From one fortysomething retro computer enthusiast Amsterdammer to another: thanks. 😄

In the meantime, suggestions from others remain welcome, of course. 😃

You don't really need much space or expensive tools like you see on the videos. My work station is a 18" high folding tea table that sits on the floor. Enough room for the iron, tools, solder and random junk, plus the project at hand. The floor is the spillover space for a schematic, a bulky stereo chassis, whatever. I imagine that's how people would do this in Tokyo. Hand tools, a library of spare parts .etc fill a few shoeboxes and a small toolbox. Small enough it could be stored on a closet shelf. I guess you could set up on the dining room table if you don't want to sit on the floor.

You can get a precise temperature controllable iron for thirty dollars. You'll also need a good solder sucker, solder braid and solder, tweezers, a voltimeter, needle nose pliers, wire cutters and snip scissors, plus one of those Chinese "transistor testers" that automagically tests most components. Maybe an ESR meter for testing caps -- you can buy a Chinese one for $40. Plus an oscilloscope if you know how to use one.

People have crazy cluttered expansive work desks because they have lab-grade Textronix oscilloscopes, bench power supplies, desoldering stations, logic analyzers, professional transistor testers, signal generators, .etc.. Plus, the towers of dead stereo equipment kept for spare parts, spare boat anchor test equipment, ham radio junk, every project they made since their first Archer Kit in 1974.

I don't have any suggestions for a makerspace or something similar because I don't have any experience, but I would like to put in a similar offer as dionb, since I am near Amsterdam and also have an assortment of tools and parts available. And also a fortysomething 😉 From my own experience, dionb is a pleasure to work with and very helpful, so you might not need my offer 😀

In my experience, it really helps to have a large cache of spare parts to grab from, just to test something. A second person around to help analyse problems also helps.

So if you have a specific problem or tool needed, you can also contact me 😀

@radiounix, I agree with you in some ways, but for many people this is just a limited hobby. Financially or space-wise, getting even some tools and supplies might be too much for people. Also, if you just want one or two or three working machines, you might need some tools to get there which you might never need and use again.

You are all awesome! 🤗

Perhaps we can organize some kind of vintage/retro hardware repair event in the Amsterdam area (perhaps in one of the hackerspaces in the are, or at the Bonte Kraai, as dionb mentioned). If it's a success, we can then maybe even make it a regularly occuring event. There's so much old and increasingly precious hardware out there that is worth repairing and preserving. 😊