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Fixing Tools and Tool Drive
by
Murari Ganesan
Troop
273
, Fremont
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The first Phase was the Tool Drive. The
process used to conduct the Tool Drive was emails to the troop, my
family and friends. I requested further circulation regarding tool
donations amongst their friends and neighbors. I also appealed via
forums like Fremont-Freecycle, ‘Nextdoor app’, Facebook Marketplace for
any contributions. Over a few weeks, I collected 15 shovels, 1
pitchfork, 1 pickaxe, 3 loppers, 5 brushes and long handled diggers and
26 other small implements for a total of more than 50 tools from the
tool drive.
The next phase was to make a list of the status of
the tools and wheelbarrows, to enable me to research the best practical
repairs to complete on the tools. This was done by finding the right
means to clean, de-rust, sharpen the blunt tools. I also made a list of
missing bolts, broken and misshapen parts of tools, status of the wheels
including how I can re-use tools from the recycle pile.
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The key was to be ready for anything, and to, as our motto says, be
prepared for any and every kind of repair that may be needed. Once all
the research was done and the supplies were bought, it was time to carry
out the project. We started off by removing the rust from all the old
tools from the tool drive, as well as any rusted tools that Tule ponds
had. This was done through water-based gel that had to be applied to the
tools. At the same time, other scouts were sharpening all the tools that
didn't have rust so that they may better serve Tule Ponds. Once all the
gel was applied, we worked on sanding off the rust from the
wheelbarrows. The wheelbarrows were too large to use the gel to remove
rust. So, we used sandpaper to get rid of the rust from the
wheelbarrows. Then, we moved to determine what repairs were needed. One
wheelbarrow needed a new wheel, so we worked to replace wheel. This
involved salvaging an axle from a different broken wheelbarrow, and
using it in the wheelbarrow in better condition. A different one needed
some screws and bolts to hold the wheel in place. We did similar repairs
to 4 wheelbarrows that now are in good condition and ready for use in
Tule ponds. We then worked to hose off the gel from the rusted tools, so
that we could then sharpen up the formerly rusted tools.
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Once all the tools were sharpened up, we gave the wheelbarrows a new
coat of rust resistant paint, finishing up the project. In total, we
repaired or sharpened: 22 loppers, 7 saws, 1 hoe, 1 pickaxe, 2 spades,
27 hand saws, 4 stampers, 31 spades and shovels, 11 short spades, 1
pitchfork, 1 brush, 6 hand diggers, 3 prog diggers, and 4 wheelbarrows
for a total 121 tools repaired or sharpened, surpassing my goal of 100
tools. The final part of my project was to find a metal recycler to take
away the metal waste. This had me looking around for a metal recycler or
scrap yard to take away the scrap metal from the tools we were unable to
repair. It took a while to find someone to take the metal, and so we
worked to organize the metal before the collection date
A big
thank you to Dr.Junutula, Mrs.Fry, Mr.Sidda and all the scout and adult
volunteers in both shifts – Varun Yelluru, Vedant Yelluru, Mr.Shisha
Yelluru, Atharva Nevasekar, Mr.Sandeep Nevasekar, Avni Madhu (Troop
220), Mr.Lokesh Madhu, Akshat Telkar, Anthony Pan, Aditya Vaswani,
Mr.Rashmi Bhindra, Srithan Devarashetty, my family and friends.
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