Recycling Tools on Saturday 12th May, 2pm - 4pm

Epsom & Ewell's Energy Forum has arranged to collect unwanted tools on 12th May, between 2pm and 4pm, in the Town Hall car park. If you have any unwanted tools (saws, screwdrivers, planes, hammers, wrenches etc but not gardening or electric tools), now is the chance to look them out and give them a new lease of life for this very good cause.

If you have such tools languishing in the shed or garage, and want them to go to a new home, please bring them down to us.

The tools will be used to help people earn a living, so they need to be of good quality and in good working order though a few minor imperfections or a bit of surface rust are OK.

Manual sewing machines are also needed.

The tools will be collected from Epsom by the local Tools For Self-Reliance group at Carshalton and then refurbished in their workshops. Tools are packed into boxes in kits suitable for plumbers, carpenters, shoe makers, blacksmiths, tailors etc, and shipped abroad. People in remote villages can then set up in a trade, even if there is no electricity available.

Any tools collected that are not suitable to be sent abroad can be sold by the charity, to raise funds for the shipments.

The tools they are looking for are:

• plumbing tools – especially heavy duty floor-standing pipe benders

• arc welders (240V, stick type) plus accessories

• carpentry tools – especially large carpenters vices, metal jack planes, tri-planes and drawknives

• building tools, especially builders squares and corner trowels

• engineering and metalworking tools – especially HSS twist drills, metric taps & dies and hand-operated bench grinders

• bicycle repair tools – especially spoke spanners

• shoe repair tools – especially skiving knives

• auto-mechanics tools – especially heavy duty foot-pumps, tyre pressure gauges and piston ring compressors

• electrical repair tools – especially multi-meters and desoldering equipment

• industrial/professional quality power tools – especially heavy duty drills and bench grinders

• blacksmiths tools – especially anvils, leg vices and hand-operated pillar drills

• good quality Singer round-bobbin hand machines because spare parts are easily available in the UK and all over Africa for these old but solidly-built machines

• electric sewing machines. These need to be in good working order and be capable of zig-zag stitching and embroidery. A foot controller and instruction manual, though preferable, are not essential

• overlockers.

• haberdashery and dressmaking fabric

The tools they don't need!

Sorry, not any of the following:

imperial spanners, hydraulic car jacks, broken or poor quality or disposable tools, typewriters, computers, books, lawnmowers, cooking pots, knitting machines, domestic quality power tools, gardening tools, bicycles

For further information contact Sarah Clayton on 01372 722341.