Hi Geoff,
Simple Tasks: Disassemble damaged wheels, save good tires, freewheels & cassettes, spokes, rims, rim strips and hubs. Sort spokes, etc. Check used chains.
To harvest old wheel parts they have to be taken apart. First - freewheels and cassettes are easiest to remove from built wheels. Put the wheel in a stand, slowly spin and put a drop of light oil at each spoke/nipple and nipple/rim junction. Remove tire/tube/rim strip. Loosen enough spokes to take tension off wheel, then a cordless drill and nipple driver can remove nipples. Bent aluminum rims and hub shells will bring a better price/kilogram than steel.
One of the tasks that most anybody can do is sort spokes. Having a spoke ruler is almost a must. One Co-op has a tray of 18 tennis ball containers, all with different spoke lengths. One is an odd-ball container, with bladed, straight and others that aren’t standard J-bend spokes. The Hozan spoke threader is handy for all the in-between spoke lengths.
Nipples are recycled as well, keeping only ones that look excellent. Of course these come in different internal diameters, dimensions across flats, and lengths, so some sorting needed. Some hubs and rims are worth saving, some aren’t.
Chains: Measure chains taken off bikes. Save only ones with less than .5% wear. Hammer a nail in a wall. Hang a new chain on wall. Clearly mark with a thin line the 2’ mark or about 610mm. Make a second mark at 640mm. Only save chains shorter than 640mm. (Measurements are between pin centers.) Clean chains, sort by size. Hang on nails or otherwise store.
Taking apart bikes in general is a good education in to how they go together. Keep all the parts together for hubs, headsets, etc. Review other parts and write parameters for keep, recycle.
As soon as someone gets good at repairing flat tires, delegate flats to them.
Thanks and good health, Weogo