Help Faith Start Her Freelance Repair Company!
Donation protected
Hey everyone!
My name is Faith, I'm a 23 year old physically disabled trans woman who lives in Toronto. I'm starting this fundraiser to acquire gear to begin my freelance computer and cellphone (and possibly video game console) repair business, Raven Repair Co.
It's been a dream of mine to work in computer repair since I was a child, as I've always had an obsession with technology and how rapidly it's changed and helped our lives, and figuring out the ins and outs has always been incredibly fascinating to me.
"But Faith," you might ask, "there are already so many businesses like this, how is yours different?"
I have a very specific goal in mind. To reduce the amount of e-waste in the world, and to repair as many cellphones and laptops as I possibly can, and to refurbish and resell various devices at low-cost (I'm only charging parts + a small labor fee) to people with low income. I believe that it's important in today's society to stay connected to the internet, as we communicate so much through it daily. We find our news on the internet, we talk to our loved ones on the internet, we read our emails on the internet, we do our work on the internet, it's important that everyone can access these things regardless of income bracket.
I also aim to use this business to create tutorials on certain types of device repair/modification/etc., to make sure that this kind of knowledge can be used by anyone with the resources available to them, because nobody should have to shell out hundreds of dollars on a repair that they can do (sometimes really easily!) themselves for much cheaper. You can find my existing videos on YouTube, under the channel "Raven Repair Co."
My goal is set at $500, which will cover the cost of the following items, and additional parts for the devices being repaired.
1) A soldering station. I've found some on eBay for around $50. The reason I list a station instead of a gun, is that temperature control is very important to do a reliable solder job. It's better to get the job done properly the first time than to have to re-do it! They also come with wire strippers, solder suckers, all essential things to do a clean, proper solder job. EDIT: Paid for by various donations! Thank you so much!
2) An all-in-one screwdriver toolkit. I only have a handful of screwdrivers that are of incredibly cheap quality, and half of them are already starting to chip and break. I've found decent quality all-in-one kits between $30-$50, and with them I'll probably never have to replace these kits again. - EDIT: Paid for by Becca H's donation! Thank you so much!
3) A heat gun and LOCA glue. A lot of cellphones nowadays have their screens glued directly to the LCD (and sometimes the entire unit glued to the case), and the only way to safely get around these to repair a screen is use a heat gun to soften the glue, then use LOCA glue to adhere the new screen. I've found good quality heat guns on eBay for around $35, and LOCA glue for $5.
4) An external hard drive. I offer backup services for computers and cellphones, but as of the last few months, most of my hard drives have died (as they're very old) and I have maybe 256GB to work with on drives with my own personal files, reducing that number to something closer to 100GB or so. I'd prefer to have a hard drive exclusively for my work, and I definitely need more space, as hard drives are only getting larger and larger. Ideally I'd be looking somewhere between a 2TB or 4TB, which would range between $80-$110 respectively.
5) A hard drive docking station. I'll need one with both 2.5" and 3.5" drive support, and they're generally around $30.
6) Capacitors, resistors and EEPROMs. A lot of issues that would require soldering (ie; no power, dead motherboard, etc.) require capacitor/resistor/EEPROM replacement. Luckily, these are relatively cheap, and would cost maybe $15 total for 60+ pieces of all of these. EDIT: Paid for by various donations, thank you so much!
7) USB drives. As I offer a variety of software-related services (operating system installation/fixing, virus removal, secure hard drive wiping), I need USB drives that can permanently hold software tools that I use, instead of having to wipe one USB every time I want to do a different task. I'll need at most 5 USB sticks, which should come up to around $50. EDIT: Donated by a kind soul on Facebook! Thank you so much!
Any excess proceeds past what's listed here will go to buying spare common replacement parts (ie; RAM, hard drives, CPUs) to have on hand for quick and easy replacement of components.
I also accept physical donations of broken computers, laptops, cellphones, and their respective parts. Contact me if you're interested!
Anyone who donates to this cause can request a free device repair from me once I have the parts to do so!
Thank you so much for reading and have a great day, your support means the world to me!
Faith
My name is Faith, I'm a 23 year old physically disabled trans woman who lives in Toronto. I'm starting this fundraiser to acquire gear to begin my freelance computer and cellphone (and possibly video game console) repair business, Raven Repair Co.
It's been a dream of mine to work in computer repair since I was a child, as I've always had an obsession with technology and how rapidly it's changed and helped our lives, and figuring out the ins and outs has always been incredibly fascinating to me.
"But Faith," you might ask, "there are already so many businesses like this, how is yours different?"
I have a very specific goal in mind. To reduce the amount of e-waste in the world, and to repair as many cellphones and laptops as I possibly can, and to refurbish and resell various devices at low-cost (I'm only charging parts + a small labor fee) to people with low income. I believe that it's important in today's society to stay connected to the internet, as we communicate so much through it daily. We find our news on the internet, we talk to our loved ones on the internet, we read our emails on the internet, we do our work on the internet, it's important that everyone can access these things regardless of income bracket.
I also aim to use this business to create tutorials on certain types of device repair/modification/etc., to make sure that this kind of knowledge can be used by anyone with the resources available to them, because nobody should have to shell out hundreds of dollars on a repair that they can do (sometimes really easily!) themselves for much cheaper. You can find my existing videos on YouTube, under the channel "Raven Repair Co."
My goal is set at $500, which will cover the cost of the following items, and additional parts for the devices being repaired.
1) A soldering station. I've found some on eBay for around $50. The reason I list a station instead of a gun, is that temperature control is very important to do a reliable solder job. It's better to get the job done properly the first time than to have to re-do it! They also come with wire strippers, solder suckers, all essential things to do a clean, proper solder job. EDIT: Paid for by various donations! Thank you so much!
2) An all-in-one screwdriver toolkit. I only have a handful of screwdrivers that are of incredibly cheap quality, and half of them are already starting to chip and break. I've found decent quality all-in-one kits between $30-$50, and with them I'll probably never have to replace these kits again. - EDIT: Paid for by Becca H's donation! Thank you so much!
3) A heat gun and LOCA glue. A lot of cellphones nowadays have their screens glued directly to the LCD (and sometimes the entire unit glued to the case), and the only way to safely get around these to repair a screen is use a heat gun to soften the glue, then use LOCA glue to adhere the new screen. I've found good quality heat guns on eBay for around $35, and LOCA glue for $5.
4) An external hard drive. I offer backup services for computers and cellphones, but as of the last few months, most of my hard drives have died (as they're very old) and I have maybe 256GB to work with on drives with my own personal files, reducing that number to something closer to 100GB or so. I'd prefer to have a hard drive exclusively for my work, and I definitely need more space, as hard drives are only getting larger and larger. Ideally I'd be looking somewhere between a 2TB or 4TB, which would range between $80-$110 respectively.
5) A hard drive docking station. I'll need one with both 2.5" and 3.5" drive support, and they're generally around $30.
6) Capacitors, resistors and EEPROMs. A lot of issues that would require soldering (ie; no power, dead motherboard, etc.) require capacitor/resistor/EEPROM replacement. Luckily, these are relatively cheap, and would cost maybe $15 total for 60+ pieces of all of these. EDIT: Paid for by various donations, thank you so much!
7) USB drives. As I offer a variety of software-related services (operating system installation/fixing, virus removal, secure hard drive wiping), I need USB drives that can permanently hold software tools that I use, instead of having to wipe one USB every time I want to do a different task. I'll need at most 5 USB sticks, which should come up to around $50. EDIT: Donated by a kind soul on Facebook! Thank you so much!
Any excess proceeds past what's listed here will go to buying spare common replacement parts (ie; RAM, hard drives, CPUs) to have on hand for quick and easy replacement of components.
I also accept physical donations of broken computers, laptops, cellphones, and their respective parts. Contact me if you're interested!
Anyone who donates to this cause can request a free device repair from me once I have the parts to do so!
Thank you so much for reading and have a great day, your support means the world to me!
Faith
Organizer
Faith Raven
Organizer
West Toronto , ON
