Repair Culture — Fixing Things Instead of Replacing Them

Robot vacuums, bike frames, helmets, laptops, vintage watches — a growing collection of hands-on repair guides.

These are the posts people find at 2 AM when something breaks. No theory, no philosophy — just photographs, steps, and the honest account of what happened when Willem opened something up and tried to fix it. Some of the most bookmarked pages on the site.

There's a moment in every repair where you're not sure it's going to work. The screw won't turn, the part doesn't fit, the replacement piece is slightly different from the original. Willem writes from inside that moment — with enough detail that you can follow along, and enough honesty to tell you when he nearly ruined it.

The Greatest Hits

A MacBook Air with an exploded battery — the kind of problem most people would take to a shop, or just replace the machine. Willem opened it up, photographed every step, and wrote one of the most-read repair guides on the site. The robot vacuum cleaner teardown is another classic: a complete service guide for a machine most people throw away when it stops working.

Servicing a robot vacuum cleaner

Servicing a robot vacuum cleaner

My iRobot Roomba is now running for 8 years and counting!

Back in 2011 I got myself an iRobot Roomba 555 robot vacuum cleaner to automatically clean my apartment. It's a little circle shaped robot that drives around sucking up dust bunnies. Over the years it has bravely fought the dangers of my apartment... shoes, cables, carpet and belts. It survived and it is still working perfectly! This week it was time for some maintenance.

Saving a MacBook Air with exploded battery

Saving a MacBook Air with exploded battery

Don’t try this at home - but I did

Last night I had a nasty surprise: my original MacBook Air was swollen due to an exploded battery. I immediately had to take action, for reasons of safety and to preserve this piece of modern computer history. Don’t try this at home, but if you do... read along for some practical tips.

Bikes and Gear

The cycling repair posts are the most practically useful: replacing a Shimano shift cable is a step-by-step guide that cyclists bookmark worldwide. Removing paint from a bike frame documents a full strip-and-repaint. And repairing a Giro Aeon helmet shows that even safety gear can sometimes be saved.
Replacing a Shimano shift cable

Replacing a Shimano shift cable

Fixing the cargo bike after hunting for bears

Last week my son and I where looking for bears in the local park... a child's fantasy is priceless! Unfortunately, during some off road riding with our cargo bike, one of the cables got tangled up with a sturdy branch! Our wounded carbo bike was in need for a repair!

Repairing a Giro AEON bicycle helmet

Repairing a Giro AEON bicycle helmet

How to replace the Roc Loc 5 system

This month my trustworthy Giro Aeon bicycle helmet broke down! Normally I wouldn't hesitate to invest in safety and thus buying a new one. But I like the Aeon helmet so much that I went through some extra trouble to fix it. Read along to see how I did it.

Removing paint from a bike frame

Removing paint from a bike frame

Uncover the aluminium with chemicals and sanding paper

There is beauty in raw, unfinished material that is often hidden with superfluous layers of paint. I like things to be true to the nature of the material. My bike was painted black - not bad - but I wondered what it really looked like from a material point of view.

Watches and Computers

Cleaning a vintage watch — found at a flea market, taken apart, cleaned by hand, brought back to life. It connects to the watch posts but stands alone as a pure repair story. And upgrading a 27-inch iMac to 14 terabytes proves that even Apple hardware can be modified if you're willing to void the warranty.

Cleaning a vintage watch

Cleaning a vintage watch

Rediscovering old beauty under layers of dirt

This week I was cleaning my closet when I found an old watch. It came from my grandfather’s house. It looked like it had an adventurous live, full of wear and tear. I recognised that it had an automatic mechanical movement. Upon picking it up it almost instantly started running again. I wondered how cool it would be if I would gently clean it.

Upgrading a 27-inch iMac 5K to 14 terabytes

Upgrading a 27-inch iMac 5K to 14 terabytes

Replacing the Fusion Drive with both a SSD and an harddisk

This month I did an attempt to upgrade my 27-inch iMac 5K. I wanted to replace the fusion drive with a SSD and a large hardisk. In addition I decided this was a good time to upgrade the RAM memory as well, maxing it out at 64GB. I was on a mission to create the ultimate iMac, but things didn't go to plan!

Escaping the Throwaway Cycle

The flat tires post — on escaping punctures with tubeless — is repair as prevention. It's part of a broader philosophy that runs through Willem's blog: things should be built to last, and when they break, they should be fixable. The durable smartphone and durable tagged posts make this case explicitly.

Durable Smartphone

Durable Smartphone

Fairphone with Google Free /e/OS

While sitting in the train the guy in front of me surprised me, out of his fancy pants he pulled this well worn, patina rich, piece of tech. We're travelling first class and judging by his classy attire, this man is not of limited means. Like a well-raced Porsche, this thing has seen some action. Sunlight hitting the metal frame reveals a green hue, I recognise it to be an earlier generation Fairphone still going strong. This changed my view on smartphones, please read along.

Escaping the flat tires

Escaping the flat tires

Are puncture-proof tires really puncture proof?

You might wonder how puncture proof a "puncture-proof" bicycle tire really is. I set out to find the answer when I installed Schwalbe Durano Plus tires on my bike. It was inevitable for me to find the answer to the question: How many kilometers can you ride without flats using puncture-proof tires?

Also explore

cycling · designing and making · built to last · retro computing

All Repair and How-To Posts

Every practical guide, teardown, fix, and hands-on tutorial.

Go Viral on X

Go Viral on X

32K views in two days

Earlier this week one of my posts on the social network X went viral and attracted 32K views in two days. With no major presence on Elon Musk's platform, and no paid advertising, gaining that kind of attention is something special. Let me explain how this happened.

Offline Music

Offline Music

Streaming Music Alternative

Music has the universal power to move people. Different rhythms, emotions and vocals enable us to enjoy music very personally. Music is very close to my heart and I don't like anything to get in between. Therefore I don't rely on streaming music services, but manage my own offline music library.

Replacing a Shimano shift cable

Replacing a Shimano shift cable

Fixing the cargo bike after hunting for bears

Last week my son and I where looking for bears in the local park... a child's fantasy is priceless! Unfortunately, during some off road riding with our cargo bike, one of the cables got tangled up with a sturdy branch! Our wounded carbo bike was in need for a repair!

Increase traffic to your blog with a RSS feed

Increase traffic to your blog with a RSS feed

How to setup RSS/Atom using NodeJS

Writing for my blog has been a lot of fun, I receive messages from all of the world about the things I like. Traffic is growing, every month more readers are finding their way to my blog. This week I received a request to support RSS feeds on my blog. I wondered, are RSS feeds still relevant today?

How to use rsync to make backups

How to use rsync to make backups

Explaining a powerful file transfer tool

It is very important to make backups of your data, as you never know when disaster strikes! One powerful, cross platform, tool to help you achieve this is 'rsync'. In this post I'll explain why rsync is useful and how you can use it to set up your own backups.

Refining my tablet OS experience

Refining my tablet OS experience

Using Surface Go 2 with 4G/LTE, Debian GNU/Linux and i3wm

Earlier this year I tried to create my own tablet operating system by installing Debian GNU/Linux on a Microsoft Surface Go tablet. I learned a great deal about what I like about tablets. But I still preferred my iPad Pro, mainly because of its polished user experience. This time I set out to refine my tablet software to replace my iPad.

Syncing files seamlessly between smartphone and tablet

Syncing files seamlessly between smartphone and tablet

Using unison to automatically sync between GNU/Linux and the iPhone

In order to optimise my workflow, I was looking for a way to seamlessly access the same files on both my computer and smartphone. This is useful to when you want to quickly send files from your computer using your smartphone through various messaging apps and vice versa. Read along to find out how I did it.

Free from the iCloud: Escaping Apple Photos

Free from the iCloud: Escaping Apple Photos

Using offline photo library management software

After encountering the umpteenth ‘magic’ bug while managing my iPhone’s photos, I was done with it. Apple came a long way since it launched iPhoto (the predecessor of iCloud Photos). But for something as valuable as my personal memories, I want to be in full control. Read along to learn how I migrated my photo library away from the iCloud, using free, open source software.

Cleaning a vintage watch

Cleaning a vintage watch

Rediscovering old beauty under layers of dirt

This week I was cleaning my closet when I found an old watch. It came from my grandfather’s house. It looked like it had an adventurous live, full of wear and tear. I recognised that it had an automatic mechanical movement. Upon picking it up it almost instantly started running again. I wondered how cool it would be if I would gently clean it.

Upgrading a 27-inch iMac 5K to 14 terabytes

Upgrading a 27-inch iMac 5K to 14 terabytes

Replacing the Fusion Drive with both a SSD and an harddisk

This month I did an attempt to upgrade my 27-inch iMac 5K. I wanted to replace the fusion drive with a SSD and a large hardisk. In addition I decided this was a good time to upgrade the RAM memory as well, maxing it out at 64GB. I was on a mission to create the ultimate iMac, but things didn't go to plan!

Repairing a Giro AEON bicycle helmet

Repairing a Giro AEON bicycle helmet

How to replace the Roc Loc 5 system

This month my trustworthy Giro Aeon bicycle helmet broke down! Normally I wouldn't hesitate to invest in safety and thus buying a new one. But I like the Aeon helmet so much that I went through some extra trouble to fix it. Read along to see how I did it.

Some thoughts on touch screen user interface design

Some thoughts on touch screen user interface design

Creating intuitive natural interfaces

Past weeks I have been working on a new app involving personal health. The main challenge is to come up with an intuitive, natural interface that works well on small touch screen devices. But what is it that makes an touch screen interface any good? Read along for some best practices.

Scalable application design without magic

Scalable application design without magic

Leveraging client computing power for high performance with many users

As part of the online food ordering app I'm building, I needed to design a scalable backend infrastructure that could handle lots of concurrent users. Scalability is considered a hard problem to tackle. Often it's presented like it's something magical, done by million dollar companies using secret tools. But, there is no such thing as magic, or is there?

Building a professional 72TB NAS

Building a professional 72TB NAS

Configuration and installation of an HPE ProLiant DL380 server

Over the past few years I have been moving my data and work from local computers (mostly laptops) into the cloud. Cloud computing is done by servers in a datacenter, powerful computers that do the hard work. As my company grew, I needed more capacity. It was time to add some power to my cloud!

Fighting backscatter spam at server level

Fighting backscatter spam at server level

Configure Postfix to block spam before it enters the server

This month I had to deal with backscatter spam, affecting one of the mail servers I manage. As server engineer I make sure that servers don't send spam and that incoming email gets filtered. Despite all good efforts, this server kept being blacklisted for sending spam to iCloud, Office 365 and Google Gmail for Business (G Suite). Read along to find out how what caused this and how to fix this.

Creating a minimal road bike

Creating a minimal road bike

Recombining and refinishing old parts into a new bike

Over the past months I have worked on different bikes, leading to an accumulation of spare parts in my garage. I wondered how hard it would be to make a new bike using these spare parts. I decided to take advantage of this moment to refinish some parts, removing excessive decals in order to create a minimal looking road bike.

Assembling a cargo bike

Assembling a cargo bike

Setting up the Babboe Big cargo bike

This month our Babboe Big cargo bike arrived, in boxes. The engineer in me thought it was a good idea to assemble the bike by hand. This way I would know exactly about all its parts and fittings, handy knowledge for maintenance. Read along for my experience and some practical tips.

WordPress: 10 tips to secure your website

WordPress: 10 tips to secure your website

Keep hackers out of the world's most popular content management system

A lot of people use WordPress to manage their website, therefore it's no surprise people ask me to have a look at their site's security. As ethical hacker, I encounter WordPress in different shapes, sizes and states. Some of them are really badly protected against hacks. Prevent your site from being hacked using these 10 practical tips.

Servicing a robot vacuum cleaner

Servicing a robot vacuum cleaner

My iRobot Roomba is now running for 8 years and counting!

Back in 2011 I got myself an iRobot Roomba 555 robot vacuum cleaner to automatically clean my apartment. It's a little circle shaped robot that drives around sucking up dust bunnies. Over the years it has bravely fought the dangers of my apartment... shoes, cables, carpet and belts. It survived and it is still working perfectly! This week it was time for some maintenance.

My first weeks as dad

My first weeks as dad

On the challenges and rewards of being a father

Last Christmas my wife gave birth to our son, a little boy that would change everything! It's an incredible experience to become a parent, especially if it is your first kid. It introduces a whole new way of living, having to deal with regular feeding, caring and sleepless nights. Read along for my (biometric) findings and some practical tips!

Do amazing things with a focused mind

Do amazing things with a focused mind

Taking an ice bath and swimming in the Amstel river

Just when the temperature was a low 2° Celsius, I jumped in the Amstel river! While it was nearly freezing outside I went for a swim, just moments after I've taken an ice bath! This post is about the incredible birthday present I got, a workshop involving the Wim Hof Method.

Rescuing files from a broken harddisk

Rescuing files from a broken harddisk

Make backups to be safe rather than sorry!

Yesterday a young woman brought me her laptop, it didn't start anymore and it only showed an error message. It turned out to be a broken harddisk. It startled her when I told her that all data on the disk was lost. She told me it contained precious photos of her pregnancy and young child. What could I do?

Optimising images for the web and performance

Optimising images for the web and performance

Reduce filesize with jpegoptim, optipng, pngcrush and pngquant

One way to make your website faster is to make it smaller. Not with tiny fonts, but with less bytes! More than half the weight of an average website is because of images. Yet very few people optimise their images for the web and performance, time to find out how much bytes you can safe!

Helping people with free software

Helping people with free software

Installing Debian GNU/Linux on an old laptop

This week a man brought his laptop to the community centre where I help people with computer problems as volunteer. The old laptop wouldn't start anymore and had to be reinstalled. Instead of Windows, I installed a free operating system. I think it is important to tell you how and why I did it.

Removing paint from a bike frame

Removing paint from a bike frame

Uncover the aluminium with chemicals and sanding paper

There is beauty in raw, unfinished material that is often hidden with superfluous layers of paint. I like things to be true to the nature of the material. My bike was painted black - not bad - but I wondered what it really looked like from a material point of view.

Creating a minimal iPhone stand

Creating a minimal iPhone stand

Routing oak wood for a custom fit

Today I created a minimal iPhone stand from oak wood. While it's much faster to buy one online, I wanted one to fit my phone horizontally, with its case on. I like minimal design, so I opted to machine a single piece of wood to get it done.

Off the grid: Working on 100% renewable energy

Off the grid: Working on 100% renewable energy

Collecting, storing and using solar electricity to power my phone, computer and wearables

For the past 10 days I have powered my personal electronic devices (phone, computer, wearables) using nothing but energy collected using a small solar panel. I disconnected all grid-connected chargers. I hoped that by going off the grid, even in such a small way, I would gain insights that enable me to save energy (and money).

Cyber security: 5 easy tips to protect your server against hackers

Cyber security: 5 easy tips to protect your server against hackers

Server hardening best practices for Windows and Linux

This week one of my clients was hacked and asked me for emergency assistance to help secure their server infrastructure. It was a web server that ran WordPress websites on Apache (with PHP/MySQL), including a few webshops with customer data. This hack could easily have been prevented with the following best practices, is your server secure?

From tree to table

From tree to table

Designing and creating a night stand

Right next to the house were I was born there was this chestnut tree, sadly it died one and a half year ago. When it was taken down, my brother saved me a slab of wood. I intended to create something from it, a nice "do it yourself" adventure, worthy of a blog post!

Clouds below my floor

Clouds below my floor

Building a little datacenter in my basement

At my home I have this crazy fast optical internet connection. It is a 600MB up and down fibre connection which directly arrives in my home (no copper cables involved). It's like a private internet highway. Reason enough to find out if I could do something to make better use of all this speedy fiber galore...

Repairing a Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP

Repairing a Nintendo Gameboy Advance SP

Chip surgery to play classic Zelda

This month Nintendo released the Switch with Zelda "Breath of the Wild". The new console received positive reviews. The new Zelda game is amazing and can be played on-the-go, thanks to the portability of the Nintendo Switch. But it its hardly the first Nintendo device that features the mythical kingdom of Hyrule with Link and princess Zelda. I found an old Gameboy Advance, perfect for playing classic Zelda games... but it was in need for repair!
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