Teri and I are working on a project that I'll bet is unique in all of volunteering. This park has four different disc golf courses, and the baskets are showing some wear and tear. When we got here the ranger in charge of the courses showed us paint that he had bought to "freshen" the baskets up, and we volunteered to do the work. I don't know what it is about us and painting...
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| Marked-up Basket |
For some reason, disc golfers like to put stickers and other graffiti on baskets. And when they get an ace, they either sign the basket with a permanent marker, or use a knife to "carve" their initials into the paint. And the original decals on the baskets are peeling as well. After giving some thought to prepping and painting the baskets in the field, we decided to remove them a few at a time and take them back to the shop.
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| Basket Removed |
In order to keep the courses playable during the work, we found some extra new baskets and put them up. We'll sort of hop-scotch through the courses, replacing six baskets at a time with the set we've just painted.
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| Brand New Top |
As is so often the case when painting, 95% of the work is in the prep. We scrape off the old decals, use "Goof-Off" to remove the adhesive, and then sand the old paint down.
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| Scraping Decals |
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| Removing Adhesive Residue |
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| Sanding |
Finally, we are ready to paint. The paint is a high quality enamel that takes about 12 hours to dry and takes three coats to cover all of spots. So it takes us a total of three days to pull baskets, prep and paint them, and return them to the course.
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| New Yellow Paint |
The top assemblies weigh about 35 pounds and have a set of chains that have to be fed over the top of the pole. We found that taking a small stool out there helped with this part. I hold the assembly while Teri installs the hardware.
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| Setting the Newly Painted Top |
We are about halfway through with this project, but with school groups coming and our programs starting, we'll be going slower on the rest.
I doubt that we'll ever find another volunteer job that includes cleaning and painting disc golf baskets!!
Mark
You two find the most interesting things to do! And how appropriate that you are doing this job
ReplyDeleteThat yellow paint sure stands out!!! That should help find the basket.
ReplyDeleteNow there's a job right up your alley, or should I say fairway.
ReplyDelete