Continental Janitor Cart Refurbish and Mods

Though I refurbished this Continental Janitor Cart a couple months back there are some modifications I did to improve it I thought I'd share for those that may have the same janitor cart.

When retail stores go out of business, many times they toss out or sell things very cheap just to get rid of them. When our local Sears store closed it's doors what wasn't shipped to another location or had liquidation value, was tossed into those large 40 yard dumpsters to head off to the landfill. You've seen them before... they're huge.

In walking by one day I noticed the wheels of a couple carts sticking out of the top of the dumpster. I wasn't dressed for dumpster diving which is not something I often do at all, but out of curiosity I climbed the dumpster ladder to take a peek at what those wheels were attached to.

The two carts were included a Rubbermaid 4250-88 24 x 36 inch, 2 shelf Utility cart like the one below:

 and an older model Continental Janitor Cart which I don't know the model number of seen in the first image of this post.

I've always wanted both of these type carts and neither looked in that bad of condition. Sure, they were covered in paint and dirt but I felt they could be brought back to a respectable condition with some elbow grease possibly some parts.

After getting what I needed from the hardware store I was heading to in the first place I again passed by the dumpster and I just couldn't resist the temptation to see if I could get them out without too much trouble.

Did I mention I wasn't dressed for this? Yeah I had good clothes on, a really nice dress shirt, light off white colored cargo shorts, white sneakers... I like dressing nice. These were certainly not the kind of clothes to go dumpster diving in. But my thought was, if I don't get it now, someone else will. The famous last words going through my head, "I'll just be careful", as I climbed up and in and made the  trek back to where the carts had been tossed in.

Where they were, and how the dumpster was situated in the loading bay left a 12 foot drop on either side at that end of the dumpster. Okay maybe it was more like a 10 foot drop to the ground, but it felt like 12 getting the carts out. Another words, it wasn't going to be the easiest of tasks lowering them down to the ground out of this dumpster. It meant I had to uncover them of the stuff tossed on top of them wedging them in, and basically lay over the edge in my good clothes and try and lower them down with one arm while steadying myself with the other trying not to tear my clothes or skin on the other trash tossed in. Which included glass, metal and wood items with points on all where they broke or got smashed or bent into instruments of death and destruction just waiting like a Venus fly trap for some idiot like me to climb in and trigger some sort of avalanche around me as they grab and pull you down by your legs.

Yes, I've been stuck in one of those things before. Work related but I'm aware of the hazards and the risks are real. lol  I make light but really they are...

Did I mention they were covered in dirt as well as paint? Yeah well, that's an understatement. They weren't just covered in dirt, it was the fine clinging type black fine dirt I didn't know existed till then. The kind if you look twice at it, you're covered in it. The only reason I mention all this is I want you to truly appreciate my efforts at helping save the planet and these carts from the landfill. That's right I climbed into the dumpster with my good clothes on with the sole intent of trying to save the planet. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Okay that may not be the sole reason... but it sure helped in thinking so as I climbed out of the dumpster. By the time I got these two carts and a couple other janitor items out of the dumpster and safely to the ground I looked like I had rolled in whatever dirt was covering them. So much for my good clothes...

And after putting the janitor cart on the 24" x 36" inch cart and the couple other items on top of the two I realized just how completely covered in dirt I was from head to toe. I had to look worse than one of those homeless people covered in dirt pushing a shopping cart full of junk down the street in a city you see from time to time as I pushed these carts across the mall parking lot and proceeded to make the 30 minute trek back to my micro workshop up the road. A little embarrassing true enough, but I was not detoured. heh heh...

I changed into some work clothes and got to work on cleaning them up once I got back. It took a couple hours to scrub them down and scrape off most of the paint.

I don't have before pics of either cart but I will show you what I did to the Continental Janitor Cart which required the most attention. Besides, it's the only one I have pics of.

The condition of the Continental Janitor Cart wasn't too to bad. Some of the hardware had rusted, the axle had rust on it, casters had some rust, the janitor bad was torn and wired on due to it missing the hooks that hold the bag on.

I cut the bag off and tossed it.

I pulled all the wheels and axle and put them on the wire wheel to remove the rust or any corrosion, which was just surface rust. Greased all the bearings with a waterproof bearing grease.

I took the whole cart apart adding the shelf liners before reassembly with all new hardware.

 Then reassembled the cart with wheels.

Though it was clean, I opted to add the shelf liners to all the shelves. Bright yellow is what I had on hand and felt it would brighten the shelf areas so you could see what's on the shelf much better than letting them dark brown. It would also aid in clean up in case of spills. I originally added the yellow shelf liners to the mop bucket area as well but changed it later on to a much thicker chemical resistant vinyl type plastic diamond plate.

The reason for this change was I noticed that when they use the one here at the Facility where my micro shop is located, the mop bucket tends to wander back and forth and side to side as they push it from one area to the next. Diamond plate would help hold the wheels on the mop bucket in check to a much greater degree than a smooth surface I felt. And after testing it out, it proved to be the case.

Given it was a thicker liner for added protection and non slip, I added it  to the holds where the handles of brooms and what not go in the bottom shelf as well.

I used double sided carpet tape to secure it in place, yet allow it to be removed if needed. And it was indeed looking pretty good so far...

In looking around online, I found a deal for two new original vinyl double zipper bags on eBay. Ordered those in.

The original bag hooks which clip on and over the support to hold the vinyl trash bag I couldn't find anywhere. Apparently this being an older model they couldn't be had. The newer models have the hooks molded into the cart and support bracket. This left me with an issue to overcome; coming up with a means to hang the bag.

Now this was a lot harder than you might think, there were several things to consider. I gave all a lot of thought and came up with several ways to solve the problem. But only one solution proved to be the best solution to several  issues I noticed about this area as you see.

I do have a 3D printer, I could 3D Print out some hook clips like the ordinal hook clips. But then, the originals were lost and the same type could and probably would get lost so I didn't like the idea.

I could use some kind of modified S hook..  but again, they could fall out and get lost..  so no, I didn't like that idea either.

So I started looking at every small metal part i could find at the hardware store or find online. Figuring the best way to prevent loss was to mount whatever choice via nut and bolt. But it also had to be strong enough to hold the 25 gallons worth of weight the vinyl bag could hold and fit through the grommet hole. I looked at mirror clips, both metal and plastic. I looked at galvanized L supports, I looked at everything that has the shape and size I needed and possibly could be modified or bent to work. I found some options but nothing was really a solid solution. And to add to the complexity I noticed some issues others were having that owned janitor carts like this, even with the molded in hooks... I'll expound on that for a moment.

In walking through the mall one day after browsing through the hardware store for ideas on what I could use, in walking towards one of the people who clean up the outside mall area who happened to working with a janitor cart similar though not the same brand and I noticed a peculiar issue they were having emptying the trash bag.. As she pulled the inner bag up and out, it would snag on the molded hooks and tear the plastic liner bag. Further more, as she pulled the inner trash bag up, it in turn pulled the vinyl bag grommets off the molded in hooks. She was having a heck of a time trying to empty it via the top. Granted the vinyl bag does have zippers, but they are small toothed zippers and I'm sure a pain to open and close every time you want to empty the vinyl bag, nor will they last long doing so I suspect.

"Hmmh, very interesting.", I thought to myself.

To over come those two issues, whatever I used needed to be smooth enough not to catch or snag the inner bag, yet lock the outer vinyl bag grommets secure enough so they wouldn't pull off, yet still be easy enough to remove the vinyl bag if one so desired.

And I had an idea on what it needed to look like, and what I just might use, but it had to be the right size to fit the grommet.

With the arrival of the new vinyl zipper bags I started looking though my stash of hardware. I found these wire securing clips that, yes, fit into the hole of the grommet by way of clipping slipping the grommet over the front two teeth of the hook area. By cutting away the inner retainer for the wire the grommet not only fit correctly but actually locked on! And yet they were easily removed when desired by simply lifting and snapping it over the bottom edge.

They had a tapered smooth front bottom edge, so they would be less likely to snag and tear the inner plastic bag. They were perfect for this application and over came the issues found on this and other carts. All the issues. It was unbelievable how perfect for this application they turned out to be.

So I set about installing them. I used nylon locking nuts on all to prevent them from loosening over time. And if they ever break, their easily replaced. All issues concerning the trash bag solved!

So it was complete.

That is until I took the first picture of it and noticed the wheels, or tires on the wheels and how dirty they still were. These type carts usually come with some sort of anti scuff wheels and this cart was no exception to that. However, given this cart was used in either a paint or maintenance department, the wheels were covered in layers of paint and dirt and layers embedded with sand. The wheels were taking away from the finish line. So I set about the task of trying to bring them back. I ended up after much failure with cleaners using a Dremel with a wire wheel to remove the layers of paint as much as I safely could do without removing the rubber from the wheel. It actually worked out quite well though it took some time being it's a Dremel wire wheel which is rather small. But it's softer than the larger wire wheels one might use with say a drill or on a bench top grinder. They're not perfect but one heck of a lot cleaner than when I started.

After cleaning up the wheels.. Now it was not only completely restored to a much more respectable state but it was an improved version of the original janitor cart and other carts on the market.

As mentioned, I had always wanted one of these janitor carts. And had the thought filled away in my brain for years as to what for exactly but when all was said and done I couldn't for the life of me remember what exactly I was going to do with it. I do remember I distinctly had a purpose in mind and that I was going to modify it... but for what and how, I don't know.

Given that thought was lost and these are a fairly sizable carts and I just don't have the room to store it, I decided to post it for sale on Craigslist.

I added a starter pack of liner bags to go with the new vinyl bag.

...and after a couple weeks, it sold for $100 to a couple starting up a local cleaning business.

I didn't make much on it considering the amount of work and material costs, but I saved two carts  from the landfill, which helps save the planet just a tad. So I'm pretty happy with how this project turned out. I made some pocket change and got a spare cart to boot. I'm happy with how it turned out.

Speaking of  the other cart, the Rubbermaid 4250-88 2 shelf cart. After cleaning it up and greasing the bearings in the casters I put the same diamond plate on the bottom shelf and called it complete. It's rather big for my small shop. Too big in fact. But...

I think I have an idea for it. I'm considering turning it into a Downdraft Sanding Station of sorts. You might have seen them before...

A vacuum sucks all the dust away via holes under what your sanding. I think this cart upper shelf is the right depth and size for one. There would be plenty of room for a small vacuum underneath or at least some sort of vacuum system along with possibly storage space for my sanders. At least that's my thoughts on it at the moment and looking to the future when I can get a larger work area. it really depends on my need when the time comes. For now it serves as a couple shelves in my storage space area.

That's it for now, I hope you enjoyed reading about this project. Possibly seeing a couple mods you can do to your janitor cart to improve it and a possibly idea for a utility cart.

Thanks for stopping by,
Stay creative and as always, stay Happy people.
Cheers...