so I was following a street sweeper...

[Squelchtone]

I was on my way to work yesterday and saw a team of 3 street sweepers, so I decided to go back today to where they were driving around. A five minute walk down the sidewalk yielded this laying on the side of the street:



here's a view of the width:



It is 1/8 inch wide and it is just under 1/32 inch thick (it fits between the smallest lines on my ruler and you can still see the lines), and my question is..

A. is this really a street sweeper bristle
B. is 8.5 inches long enough to make 2 Bogota rakes with straight handles?

the 8.5 inches is flexible; when I grab the ends I can bend an nice arc, but bending just an inch from the end is suprisingly difficult.

Is this size (1/8 inch wide by 1/32 thick) the standard size Bogota Rakes are usually made with?

Thank you,

Squelchtone

[MacGyver101]

. . . is this really a street sweeper bristle?

That is a street sweeper bristle, and looks to be the usual width and thickness. Unfortunately, I can't answer the second part of your question: I'm not sure of the exact length required to make a pair of "standard" Bogotas... but I'm sure there's some considerable leeway, depending on how long you'd like the handles to be.

[Krypos]

and heres MY problem...i have never even seen a street cleaner where i live. seriously, i dont, i hear about them all the time and when i go down to san francisco (in california for anyone that might not know) i see them, but i cant fly on an airplane home with an 8 inch piece of steel these days.

[zeke79]

Looks like it could polish up nicely up to atleastly to a couple of nice tension tools. Raimundo can say if they can make a couple nice bagota picks or not as he is the expert on the fact, they look a bit rusted for that to me but we we will leave that to the expert (raimundo) ;o).

[jimb]

A. is this really a street sweeper bristle
B. is 8.5 inches long enough to make 2 Bogota rakes with straight handles?

A. Yes
B. This is about the same length as the one I found. I cut it to 5 inches and made a double-ended pick out of it. A Bogota rake on one end and a short hook on the other. The only thing I don't like about it is it's difficult to hold on to while using.

[raimundo]

Yes that is a sweeper bristle, but I don't think it came from those sweepers you saw, it seems to have lain in the gutter for a while and developed rust pits. Rust is not uncommon on bristle, but pits can be weakening the metal, so that would not be the first bristle i would reach for unless its the only one around, but in fact, those sweepers did shed bristles if the curb brush was in use, and you can find them by bicycleing along the route, looking for exactly the shape you found, but they will be grey if the were just dropped, that is a color that is closer to the pavement color, and perhaps a bit harder to spot, while rust is dark and easily shows up. I suggest that you go back and bike a few blocks with an eye on the ground where the gutters are really clean from the sweepers, you should find some newer stuff that hasn't been laying around rusting as long. neverthe less, you can make a pick from the piece you found, strip off as much rust as you can with scotchbrite material of the hardest kind, you may find some of the industrial grade scotchbrite at an auto body shop. they will throw out pieces still very good for this job.

[unbreakable]

and heres MY problem...i have never even seen a street cleaner where i live. seriously, i dont, i hear about them all the time and when i go down to san francisco (in california for anyone that might not know) i see them, but i cant fly on an airplane home with an 8 inch piece of steel these days.

To Krypos- THrow it in your suitcase. As long as it isn't in your carry on, you shouldn't have a problem. I flew from Toronto to Nova Scotia with a few of these in my suitcase without any trouble......

*Loud Knocking* Open the door, this is the CIA. We have a warrent for your arrest. YOu're wanted for illegal street sweeper bristle smuggling!! OPEN THE DOOR NOW!

On a related note, when I was in Toronto, I seemed to be in competition with the homeless folk for collecting these. No kidding. Is there somewhere you can sell these


Unbreakable

[Kaotik]

unbreakable, I there were a recycling center around that accepts Aluminum and other types of scrap steel, then yes.

Here in TX, there are atleast three of those centers around town that accept any type of metal scrap by weight.

Heck, the even accept automotive batteries that are dead or used up, $5 a piece for those i think.

[trevor1189]

and heres MY problem...i have never even seen a street cleaner where i live. seriously, i dont, i hear about them all the time and when i go down to san francisco (in california for anyone that might not know) i see them, but i cant fly on an airplane home with an 8 inch piece of steel these days.

You could also pick them up and mail them back to your house. This way you don't have to risk being stopped by airport security and say "oh those are harmless I use them to make lockpicks"

[cL4y]

for your second question,just look in the bogota "how to" documents by raimundo.

[Squelchtone]

Just wanted to share some of my progress with the rusty pitted sweeper bristle.

Here's how I found her



Here's after about 3 minutes each with 320,400,600,800, and 1000 grit wet sanding:



That pitting at the end is where I held with my finger while moving the sand paper back and fourth, it was just as bad on the shiny part, so it will come off. I also noticed the tang is rounding on the edges which looks really slick

Here's a slightly different angle:




Looks nice so far, in the morning I'll do the entire bristle, tonight was just a test of the papers I bought. Maybe I'll get some 1200 and 2000 tomorrow.

=)

Squelchtone

[cL4y]

kickass.

its amazing with a bit of work,you can make it shine in the mornin' light.

Hope it goes well

[darrel.h]

Here in toronto, the street sweepers use nylon bristles. I think that they finally thought of that after people started complaining about punctured tires due to the metal bristles being left behind.....

[MacGyver101]

Here in toronto, the street sweepers use nylon bristles.

Fortunately, they haven't switched over on the downtown sweepers: I picked up 8 or 10 on University and Queen last week, and several from a sweeper that passed me on Jarvis last night.

[Hardliner]

Here in toronto, the street sweepers use nylon bristles. I think that they finally thought of that after people started complaining about punctured tires due to the metal bristles being left behind.....

This is news to me, although I heard Mayor Miller on TV talking about new streetsweepers awhile back.

That said, I live and work right near the depot on King St. in Toronto where they park/repair the sweepers and garbage trucks, and I've yet to see one come out of there with nylon bristles on it. It has been awhile since I've seen a worthy steel bristle lying on the street on my walk to/from work though. They are pretty old and crusty looking lately. Maybe the homeless guys got the good ones.

Luckily I've got a couple dozen in my private stash that aren't too pitted. Since buying a few picksets I haven't made any lately, but it's good to have them for tension wrenches, etc.