I bring old beige home computers back to life in my garden shed
I’m Hazel. I restore old home computers in a shed in Yorkshire, and I sell checklists, guides and a course so you can do the same.
Width 40 cm
Height 33 cm
- A soldering iron
- A small screwdriver set
- Cotton buds and a brush
- A multimeter
- Isopropyl alcohol
- A cassette recorder
7 steps, in order
Download: Restoration Checklists
Look it over
Check the case, the cables and the board before you plug anything in.
- 6 printable sheets
Download: Keyboard Cleaning Guide
Clean it
Keycaps off, dust out, every key back where it came from.
- 22 pages
Download: The Recapping Guide
Recap the board
Replace the old capacitors one joint at a time.
- 38 pages
Video: Bringing a tube monitor back to life
Bring up the picture
Wake the tube monitor slowly and watch for the first stripes.
Video course: Restore Your First Computer
Do the whole job
Take one machine all the way, with me beside you.
- Video course
- 7 lessons
Free letter
Solder and Tea
A short letter from the shed every other Sunday: what is on the bench, what went wrong and what I learned.
Downloads and courses
Shop
Download as soon as you pay. Yours to keep.
Last panel
If you get stuck
How do the downloads arrive?
After checkout you receive an email with a download link, and the same link is shown on the confirmation page. Everything is a PDF.
Is there merch?
Yes: tees, hoodies, mugs, totes, prints and stickers with my own designs. Each is printed to order and shipped by Printful, and the cost and delivery time show at checkout.
How often do the letters come, and how do I leave?
One every other Sunday. Every email has an unsubscribe link at the bottom, and it works at once.
Do I need to know electronics to start?
No. I began with a screwdriver, a cheap soldering iron and a lot of patience. The first job in my guides is cleaning, and that needs no electronics at all.
Drawn by
Hazel Pickering
I worked in the council offices for thirty-one years, and then I retired to a garden shed full of old beige computers. The first one came from a car boot sale on a misty Sunday, in a box with a tangle of cables, and I have not really stopped since.
Now the shed has a heater, a kettle and a shelf of machines waiting their turn. I recap boards, clean keyboards, bring tube monitors back and load games from cassette, and I film all of it slowly, with the drizzle on the roof. Everything I sell is something I wish I had been given when I began.