Meet the engineer at Bassett Repair Shop in Southampton

While his speciality lies in electronics, Neville Thannhauser, is determined to try to fix anything in his garage at the Bassett Repair Shop, whether it be coffee machines, computers or even old sandals.

“When I was a child, if my parents gave me a toy, I was more interested with what was inside it than what was happening on the outside of it,” the Southampton native said.

After having his appendix out in the early 1980s, Neville randomly fell in love with the electronics used in hospital.

He worked as an operating department practitioner and then for a company that developed ECG equipment for decades.

Neville standing in front of a poster for his Bassett Repair Shop. (Image: Newsquest) But now the Shirley-born man operates a repair shop from his garage, attempting to repair whatever turns up in his front garden.

“I thought well I really enjoy pulling things apart and finding how they work, so let’s try and repair some things,” he said.

His confidence grew once joining a ‘repair café’ at a local church, where a group of engineers would try to fix things brought in for free.

“The central thing is the amount of waste, and the fact a lot of things fail for the simplest of reasons,” Neville explained.

“Some companies will support you and they’ll give you information on how it’s made, how to fix it, you’ll be able to get spare parts from them.

Neville says electronics are his speciality, though he will try to fix anything. (Image: Neville Thannhauser) “Other companies, you know this term design obsolescence? It’s a very real thing. These companies do design things to fail.”

Neville explained how he has been left speechless at how companies use components working at the ‘very, very edge’ of its capabilities, meaning that they often ‘give up’ after a couple of years.

Sometimes products are made in a way that makes them impossible to open up too, in hopes that users just throw them away and buy a new one once they break.

“A lot of people ask if I can do their coffee pod machine,” Neville explained.

“In most cases, the answer is no, and it's because you just can't get inside them.

Neville loves the challenge of barista-style coffee machines but says pod machines are deliberately made hard to get into. (Image: Neville Thannhauser) “These things are clipped together and it's like getting into an oyster with a broken spoon. “

Regardless, Neville says he will also try and give things a go, explaining that he is always excited by the challenge of something entirely new showing up in his front garden.

He said: “I still have that that silly Christmas morning feel of opening something up and peering inside the box and you never quite know what you'll find.”

‘They’re going to look like Frankenstein’s monster’ - Neville’s weirdest repairs

A longhorn cattle skull, which Neville reinforced with glass fibres. (Image: Neville Thannhauser) When asked about his weirdest repair, Neville did not have to think twice, and already had prepared a photo of a longhorn cattle skull that appeared in his garden one day.

“It was about five foot, and this lady brought it back from Texas and of course it had broke,” Neville said.

“It was a case of reinforcing it and getting it back together, getting some glass fibre to reinforce it.”

A repaired Birkenstock, which Neville repaired when everyone else refused to. (Image: Neville Thannhauser) Neville said that as long he gets a ‘heads up,’ he is happy to look at anything, and one time a woman surprised him by bringing in some expensive Birkenstock sandals.

“Her dog had chewed through these very expensive shoes,” Neville laughed.

“I said that I could repair them, but they’re going to look like Frankenstein’s monster type shoes, with big old stitches of black linen and thread.”

Neville said that the woman was very grateful as nobody else had said yes, and he was happy to venture away from his electronic speciality to give it a go.