I’m wondering if any of you have a good idea for a portable cleaning setup for DMS. I’m thinking of something around the idea of a portable car wash setup.
What is the problem?
It is hard to clean larger messy things at DMS. For example, cleaning a log in order to work on it in the wood shop, cleaning large items to prep for painting, cleaning the tempora paint off of the parking lot, cleaning the slop trays for the ceramics wheels, and even cleaning a car.
Something like THIS would be awesome…Uses a garden hose I think. If you are going to buy a pressure washer, spend a little more and get HEAT…makes a BIG difference in the cleaning power and doesn’t require harsh chemicals to degrease stuff:
Interesting idea, but we would also need drains. Using these in the back lot sounds good, except that the only drains in the back parking are storm drains and the two closest ones aren’t very close.
We would also need to be concerned with what material was going down the drains. I would suspect that at least some of the objects would have substances on them that shouldn’t be washed into our surface water.
But having a good water source, and drainage (likely expensive) in the back of the space would be awesome!
@wandrson, currently the understanding I have from being at the board meetings is that putting in a water source and drainage is a No Go, probably because it is cost prohibitive. I was hoping using the storm drains in the back would allow for less cost and possibly make it doable to add a water tap. If adding the water to the back of the building is still to cost prohibitive, a portable tank and pump solution might work. Filling a 10 to 15 gallon tank mounted to a cart and rolling it out back seems doable and gives us a much nicer option than the bucket brigade we currently have to do.
But, I’m only one maker and if I would be the only person interested in using the system, then I feel it is better that I just deal for now. If we have multiple members that would make use of this, I would be willing to take on the leg work of figuring a budget and working with the board.
Yes, I can believe that adding drainage would be cost prohibitive. The only possible concern I forsee, beyond what is getting washed down the drain, is a potential concern for flooding the other tenants areas if the water leaks or if the system was already near capacity (as it was recently).
I for one, would like to see a water tap (not sure how useful a tank would be, nor how safe if large enough to not need frequent filling). I can think of a number of uses beyond washing the wood that you talked about. I prefer water stones for sharpening, and we really don’t have any effective way to use them at the space as it is (I have my own). It would be nice to be able to wash a vehicle after servicing it. Water is a useful substance for a number of non-toxic processes that are currently infeasible or difficult to do at the space do to limited water access.
All that said, given the potential expenses already incurred this month (and in the near future) for all of the code updates, perhaps this would be a better item in a month or two, when we are all worrying about a drought again?
https://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/grd/5025163536.html
This is pretty cool and only $400. Think we could modify it to allow us to roll inside and fill up?( just kidding ) 45 gallons should be plenty of water and a flow rate of 3.8 gallons a minute at 45 PSI seems acceptable. Should be large enough to leave full and ready to go most of the time.
Sorry, left out the smiley, was joking about wheeling it inside, more likely need to find away to fill it up. We have sprinklers upfront of the building, so getting a tap out there may be a possibility, and pulling it around back to use was what I was thinking.
@Robert_Davidson Thanks for responding. As a board member I wish your post was a bit more optimistic or cited your information. I know this makes it more work, but you are a board member. Your words carry weight and you can use that. That being said I get you are saying No to this.
I found what you are talking about in the lease, 17. Tenant shall not permit any motor vehicles to be washed or mechanical work or maintenance of motor vehicles to be performed on any portion of the Premises or parking lot. This is on page D-2 of our Lease. We could reach out to the land lord and explain what we are wanting to do and get permission.
As for your second point of washing anything down the storm sewer is a bad idea, As long as we are considerate, I feel we could use the storm sewer as a drain. For example, using only eco-friendly detergents, keeping any sediment we wash off small. I don’t want to pollute the water table, and I would like to have a low enough cost solution to allow for water in the back of the building. If members would like to see some more information on storm sewer management the city of Carrollton has a little section on it. If you don’t want to read the articles, here are a few videos that hit some of the high points for the homeowners and students.
I’m going to step away from this idea now. It just isn’t exciting and thus not going to rally enough support to get done the right way. Also, the creative low cost alternatives seem to just get cut down rather than suggested alterations. So the fit may just not be there.
Thanks to everyone that took the time to talk this over with me, I appreciate all your opinions and I learned more than I would of expected.
