I have lots of supporters. To all of you, I say thank you!
Without you, I would be in a really tight spot and definitely not able to assist here in Ukraine as effectively as I am now.
Over the last few days, the volunteers at Hell's Kitchen have been able to complete a task that has been two years in the making.
Our dough mixer has seen better days. It was obtained from another bakery during the dark days at the start of the war when it was feared that Kharkiv would fall to the invaders. While being moved from the original bakery, a wheel was knocked off. As an expedient "field fix", it was replaced with a block of wood and has remained in that state for the last two years. During that time, the other three wheels deteriorated, and at least one was banged hard enough that it bent the shaft between it and the mixer.
Overall, a bad situation.
I was tasked with (if possible) replacing the missing wheel and getting the mixer movable again. We clean the Kitchen daily and not being able to easily move the mixer has made that cleaning more time intensive than it should have been. There's nothing like having the task at the end of the day made more difficult by something that can be fixed.
Having looked at the remaining wheels, it was determined that replacing them was not feasible as the mounting bolts holding two of them in place had been damaged beyond easy repair.
We had already made the "skateboard" for the bakery trolley, so we decided to do the same for the mixer.
Wheels, bolts, washers, and nuts were purchased; a pallet was sacrificed.
Measurements were taken (and retaken), wood cut and drilled and the result was what you see in the photograph. It's not great, and it's not what you would do anywhere but in a warzone, but it's what we did. It works great, is very stable, and allows us to clean the mixer and surrounding area without worrying about the entire mixer falling over.
Why am I telling you this?
Because you bought the wheels. You bought the nuts, bolts and washers. You bought the tools that were used to put the skateboard together, and you made everyone that has to do end-of-day cleanup much happier.
The tools that were purchased will be used for ongoing projects and the knowledge gained by building the simple yet functional skateboard will be used on future projects.
From everyone in the bakery at Hell's Kitchen, a heartfelt thank you.