The timing of this thread is uncanny.

We had a guy in today asking to "check out" a pair of bolt cutters, as he had lost the key to his lock, and needed to get to work. He wanted to leave his wallet or something in exchange for the borrowing of our bolt cutters.

When he first asked, my response was a deadpan "No, we will not lend you our bike theft tools." Which sort of irked him, and he kept trying to come up with ways to prove that the bike was his.

"It's a bike I got here. I'll bring it in once I get the lock cut, and your employee will recognize it."
"Just because you show me your bike does not mean you haven't stolen another one."

Eventually he realized I wasn't going to budge, and left. He came back in with his bike an hour or so later, having borrowed some bolt cutters from a friend, he said.

As for the original question, I've got nothing to add to what others have said. I'll usually pick up a few cutting discs at the hardware store whenever I'm there. We tend to go through those alot.

The angle grinder is a staff-only tool, to be sure.




On Tue, Jun 23, 2009 at 10:04 PM, Mark Rehder <mark@re-cycles.ca> wrote:
We finally bought an angle grinder last year.  It gets used on u-locks, but is also good for other things.  That said, it can be a nasty tool, with sparks flying and potential for injury, so only staff get to use it.

Bolt-cutters are wonderful - I would suggest a small one for quickly de-spoking wheels, and a large one for the really big tasks.

Mark Rehder - General Manager
re-Cycles Bicycle Co-op
http://re-cycles.ca


On 23-Jun-09, at 6:25 PM, Scott Beardsley wrote:

I'm involved with the Sacramento Bicycle Kitchen in California. We
recently sealed a deal with the local Police to take 30-40 bikes/month
off of their hands in return for working with troubled (meaning
law-breaking) teens (something we're doing already anyways). I'm
really excited about this and it'll bring even more exposure to our
quickly growing shop/org along with giving us a ton of extra used
parts. I have a question about breaking/cutting locks. Most of the
bikes we will get still have locks (U-locks, chains, cables locks,
etc) on them. What is the best way to remove these? Right now we are
passing it on to the customer, but it'd be nice to at least have the
proper tools if they wanted to DIY it. So far we have zero power tools
in the shop. This might end up being the exception. What do we need to
consider? Eye protection for everyone? Tell me how you handle these
issues in your shop.

Thanks!
Scott
_______________________________________________
Thethinktank mailing list
Thethinktank@bikecollectives.org
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to TheThinkTank-leave@bikecollectives.org
To manage your subscription, plase visit:
http://lists.bikecollectives.org/listinfo.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.org