Gear CLOTHES PEG MAKING
  A simple produce found in virtually every home is the ubitquitous clothes peg. Most countries import clothes pegs. The are made in a very high tech environment usually from the wood of the poplar tree.

Making the springs for the pegs does not look like a simple exercise but they can be made from ordinary 1,6mm lightly galvanized wire with a small jig and a pair of pliers. Frequently people have springs left over after the wooden ones rot away or are broken. They can be re-used.

Casting new clothes peg halves from scrap aluminum auto parts is one alternative to importing more product. The cost of producing then is about $0.04 each. They last for a very long time.

The purpose of the project shown in the photo was to introduce the Draw and Cope which together with a pattern on a board, allows the "fondeur" to make a large number of pins at once.

Other products that can use this old, yet frequently unknown, technology is the making the handles of knives, sicles and reaping hooks.
A simple rural foundry in eastern Niger (1989):
Foundry


The essential elements are:

- A drive wheel with vertical stand
- A small centrifugal fan with 20mm pulley
- A connecting rubber belt
- A pipe runs under the ground between the fan and the fire
- A steel (enamelled) bowl
- Scrap aluminum auto parts
- A simple sheet metal cover
- A mould prepared from termite-hill sand and water. The one in the photo is a Draw and Cope with a pattern board. Each hole feeds 12 clothes peg halves.
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