On Mon, 03 May 2010 12:56:26 -0500, Frnak McKenney
wrote the following:

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.

After the garbadj truck squoze mine too much and I detected vertical
cracks in it, I called the company and they replaced it a few days
later, free of charge. Won't your city do that?


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 rather doubt it, but that possibility exists. How often does your
garbage leak caustic fluids, Fwanky?


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?

CWOT, so I'll have Winston call you.

--
Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.
-- Raymond Lindquist