Our September Tune Up Tuesday was held at the San Francisco Disability Cultural Center. We had a fairly low turn out this month, which meant we were able to do some more detailed work with the people who did show up!
Volunteers Dewi and Angello, with help from Olga, fixed up a brake on DCC neighbor Naya’s ebike. She can only operate the brakes with one hand, so it was important to have the rear brakes working – on the side she can use, and also the safer ones to do one-handed. We studied how to move the front brakes to that side, and it’s possible but would need a more in-depth follow up. To get it done, we’d have to cut off the handlebar grips and then replace them. But our customer was very happy just being able to safely use the brakes now on this beast of an e-bike!
Our new EZ-jack went to good use as we took off a squeaky wheel, lubricated its bearings and put it back on. Success! I got on the floor with Dewi for this one.
We worked on my chair too, taking off the wheels, studying and comparing its wheels with CriptasticHacker’s Whill Fi. Some interesting experiments are in the works – scanning and 3D printing a new wheel hub for the Fi so that it can use standard (cheaper) solid scooter tires rather than its annoyingly fragile pneumatic rear wheels. If this works it will be so useful for me and CH and probably many more people who use the Fi. We discussed maybe trying to fill the old wheel with some kind of hardening spray foam but settled on printing a new wheel hub from tough filament.
At GOAT Space, volunteers and staff fixed a ton of chairs including getting through some of our “backlog” of donated chairs to give away. New intern Reina showed up like a champ and spent a day figuring out how to get three different ultralight manual chairs rolling again. They are in our inventory as Moana, Lilo, and Elsa. Lilo, the white and purple Quickie, has already been adopted out!
You may not realize how exciting this is for me personally. My first wheelchair, in 1993 or so, was crushingly heavy. I couldn’t push myself very well in it and I had had recent shoulder surgery, but I needed to get to classes and do things like grocery shopping and so on. I would accost strangers in the campus parking lot to beg them to push me to class. When I got a (donated) Quickie ultralight chair everything about my life changed and I was able to be so much more independent! Riding a rigid frame, ultra light chair is basically gliding around like a graceful swan. You push just a little and sail across a room. Sidewalks aren’t as easy, but they become _possible_.
And, the kicker here is that they are going to cost you like 4 or 5 thousand bucks. It was never easy to get a decent chair covered by insurance and now it is even harder. So this independence and ease of movement is out of reach for most people.
The difference is not like having a Ferrari vs. a normal car. It is like having a normal car vs. having a child’s scooty toy with fake pedals and a push handle.
I am very happy that GOAT can help the other organizations in the Bay Area to fix up high quality donated chairs and get them to people who need them!
Tons of things happened at GOAT Space in the last few weeks and it’s hard to sum them up. Here’s a little glimpse though of me on the floor taking apart Mia’s wheelchair cushion to add new foam to it. Our electric box cutter does a great job of cutting through dense foam!
We fixed up some other stuff on her chair, taking apart a bunch of the seat back and extra supports. Mia hung out on the couch doing most of the sewing for this project, which was good becuase I immediately stabbed myself in the thumb. (Note to self, bring several thimbles and leatherworking tools to the space.) We added a lot of velcro, with advice from Olga, and now all the separate little pillows and straps and supports (ingeniously added over time by Mia and friends) are completely integrated into the seat back and cushion!
Wheelchair cushions are interesting. We are going to look into making our own silicone gel inserts, for older cushions where the gel cushion has leaked and potentially being able to carve out our own dense foam bases for the gel. It is important to understand how a person’s weight hits the cushion. Pressure sores or any sort of skin friction or breakdown are no joke.
Like with ultralight chairs, you have to fight for anything that isn’t a foam brick. If you are elderly you may not even get the dignity of a cushion on top of your hideously uncomfortable seat sling. If you remember sitting in the kind of playground swing that was made of flexible rubber, you will remember your ass squashed by rubber and chains which wasn’t a big deal when you’re 10 but if you are 50, or 80, it most definitely is. A folding x-frame hospital wheelchair with this kind of seat sling is like a torture device if it doesn’t have a cushion and you’re sitting in in for more than a few minutes.
My point is that a decent cushion costs something like 500 bucks. I’m pretty sure we can hold some classes in DIYing them for much cheaper!!!
Earlier this month — GOAT staff and volunteers joined the CIL Assistive Tech folks at the Wheelhouse in Oakland for a “Teardown Party” to take apart powerchairs for parts and scrap. It was a convivial atmosphere as we shared tools & music, and helped each other with stubborn, tight bolts!
It was a lot of fun! I was sore afterwards from sitting on the floor and wrestling with giant wrenches but it was just a pure rush in some ways and I learned a bunch about how a Quantum chassis is put together. It was also super fun to hang out with Anna from ReCares and gossip about our work! When this party happens again I will be sure to invite everyone !
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