On Sun, 02 May 2010 22:42:10 -0700, Winston wrote:

[...]

Yup. I don't know about others but I experience a disproportionate
'warm and fuzzy' feeling when I repair something like that.
It's the same deal in fixing flat tires or the odd garage door
opener for neighbors.

If I could find a way to bottle that feeling, I would be
very wealthy indeed.

--Winston

Since you're in such a good mood... grin

Do you have any suggestions for repairing an old-ish city-provided
"supercan"? This is one of those large green plastic cans with
wheels, a hinged black lid, and bolted-on tubing that is designed to
be lifted by the city trash collection trucks. I'm not certain what
kind of plastic it is, but it's thick-ish (1/8"?), flexible, and I'm
assuming it's some sort of polyethylene.

For the most part the can is in great shape, but through a couple of
decades of being dragged rather than rolled the bottom front has
worn through. Since the abrasion is pretty much limited to the
front and a bit on the sides it hasn't started letting bags and
stuff drop out as it's being rolled, but I assume that will
eventually happen.

My first thought was sheet aluminium (Metal Content!!) tacked on
with pop rivets, and the bottom portion doubled over to add a bit
more wear protection. However, I'm concerned with how aluminium
would react with garbage leakage -- it might get eaten through
faster by organics than pavement weares it away.

I also have to be careful not to obstruct the "pickup" path up the
front of the can.

A smarter person would have called the Richmond DPU months ago, but
I look at it and see how much of it is still in good shape, and I
put off calling. I haven't had any luck finding sheet poly at the
local Home Depot or Lowes.

Any ideas? Or is this a Complete Waste of Time?


Frank McKenney
--
Indeed, the first step in applying someone's "optimal" formulation
is deciding if their "optimal" comes within the bounds of your
"good enough". -- Tim Wescott, in a comp.dsp post
--
Frank McKenney, McKenney Associates
Richmond, Virginia / (804) 320-4887
Munged E-mail: frank uscore mckenney ayut mined spring dawt cahm (y'all)