Navigating Printer Island

There are number signs all over Printer Island. They correspond to the numbers below and you can learn all about this area with them.

1. The HEPA Vacuum. This is very important. Toner is the magnetized metal powder pigment they use in the 8-inch long black cartridges in laser jets. When this stuff spills DO NOT vacuum it with a normal vacuum. Use the weird looking shoe-box sized vacuum below #1 or you will spread it into the air or cause an explosion.
2. Tools. There should be at least 8 tool kits, each with 4 different screwdrivers (one large flathead, one regular Philips, one T-10 and one T-15), magnetized to the shelves. Then there should be 3 wirecutters, too. Up above, we keep gloves, goggles, rubber-bands and proprietary HP AC adapters. Often volunteers will need to remove hex-head nuts from circuit boards. There is a 5 mm socket driver in Printer Island that serves this purpose.
3. The boxes along the plywood wall.

   a) Everything in the Recycle box on the left is safe for volunteers to recycle. If the box runs out, see if there's a box to the right of the Scrap box of printers from the street. These are good to take apart. If there's nothing there we can get more ready by processing ANYTHING in the incoming pile according to Recycling Prep.

   b) The Skip pallet is not to be touched by volunteers. It's for messy or heavy stuff we want to sent to Bear.

   c) Scrap box. See white board above it.

4. Sorting on table and sorting scrap below.

   a) Bad scanners or scanner sections go into the one or two bins in the bottom right. No cables. No simple plastic covers. If a cover has a slide scanners or paper-feed mechanism it stays in the bin, otherwise it goes to the plastic bin. When these bins are full they get wheeled out to the scanner gaylord out in front.

   b) Toner. I get boxes from the hallway near receiving and stack toner cartridges inside them on the bottom shelf. Examine the toner carefully. Ones with small green circuit chips go in a Chipped toner cardboard box. The ones that don't go in a Clean toner cardboard box.

   c) Ink cartridges. I get boxes in the same place and put them on the bottom shelf left.

   d) AC adapters get clipped clean, the go on the bench in a box on the left. Volunteers clipping AC adapters should wear gloves because they spark. When the box gets full, dump them in C.B.M. gaylord.

   3) Clean cables, either data or power cables get their ends clipped. There is a box of cable ends there on the bench. There is a cardboard box for the clean cables there as well. When those boxes get full, check them over for errors. Clean cables go in the leftmost gaylord by the warehouse garage door. Cable ends go over by the circuit boards in Advanced Recyling.

   e) Big batteries can go in the yellow tub.

   f) Nice network cards to in the cardboard box on the bench.

5. Incoming shelves

   a) It's up to you to recycle or test everything and anything. Check the Requests white board. If you have someone who seems capable and wants to test, go for it. But remember that training him/her will increase your work. Priority is to have work for recyclers. Don't worry about processing everything as per Recycling Prep. If things are slow and you want to test things follow the instructions, depending on what it is on the Printers page.

   b) Good paper has a labeled bin on the bottom shelf. So does recyclable paper and stuff that needs to go back to Receiving

6. Work bench There are 8 work places. They're labeled A-H. Below A and B we keep aluminum tubes from Toner cartridges, and various other sorted goodies.
7. Plastic half-gaylord This is where we toss big pieces of clean plastic. It gets looked over once before going into the bigger Plastic gaylord over in Recycling.
8. Toner pallet This is where the boxes of toner get stacked when they're full. Chips should come off the chipped boxes. They should not go on the pallet.

These things constantly need doing:

1. Sort the plastic in the big box at the end of the table. If you find metal or rubber, ask volunteers if they wouldn't mind removing it. Toss the clean plastic into the e-plastic gaylord.
2. Make sure that printer disassembly is going well, and that volunteers aren't taking the printers too far apart.
3. Sign tools in and out to volunteers.
4. Check over the cart of keeper machines. If they are taken to the store or grant shelves, be sure to record the number and type of keepers on the sheet on the whiteboard.
5. If any boxes or gaylords get full (with the exception of ink and toner), ask someone in Reycling what normally happens to them.

End of shift tasks

1. 10 minutes before the end of the shift, sweep odds & ends off the recycling table and into the purple bin. These bits will get boxed and put in a Printer Scrap gaylord. Sweep odds & ends off the floor and deposit likewise.
2. Check the tools back in.
3. You can borrow a big broom and dustpan from Recycling. It's to the left of the pull-down door. Make sure you return it.