Reel pickup in Franklin Park

A plant town on the rail lines

Franklin Park is one of the older manufacturing suburbs near O'Hare, with plants and warehouses along its rail lines and the roads that cross them. Metal shops, plastics plants and food producers here run heavy equipment, and every machine move or line change pulls new power and control cable. Those jobs empty 36 to 60-inch nailed reels and a share of plywood control-cable reels.

Plants also receive material on reels: wire for their own products, banding, rope. If your dock collects reels that arrive full and leave empty every week, a standing pickup keeps them off the floor. Next step: tell us roughly how many reels you empty in a month.

Grand Avenue and Mannheim Road carry heavy trucking, and some Franklin Park plants have narrow driveways that open straight onto them. Tell us if a trailer must back in from a busy road; we plan a quieter hour.

Silver Creek and the rail yards break up the street grid, so give the cross street nearest your gate.

Reels that come in full

A plant that buys wire or strapping on reels sees the same reels every month. Some are the supplier's returnables and should go back to the supplier; the rest are one-way and become the plant's problem. We read the tags at the first visit, write down which suppliers take reels back, and from then on the driver leaves those for the supplier and loads the rest.

If you would rather the supplier's reels went out on our truck to the supplier's program, ask. Where the program allows a third party to deliver, we can handle it; where it does not, we leave them for the maker.

Sorting supplier reels at the dock

Franklin Park plants that receive wire, rod or rope on reels often have three kinds in one pile: reels the supplier wants back, reels nobody wants back, and reels that are done. Sorting by hand takes time a dock crew doesn't have. On the first visit we read every tag and stencil, mark each reel, and leave a list.

After that, the plant can sort as reels empty: tagged returnables to one side for the supplier, the rest for our truck.

Pickup notes for Franklin Park

• Grade crossings on Grand Avenue and Franklin Avenue can slow a truck; give a two-hour window.
• Plants on the tollway side of Mannheim Road are reached fastest from I-294.
• Steel and plastic supplier reels are sorted out at the dock before loading.

Before the truck comes

1. Count the reels by flange size, outside edge to outside edge.
2. Photograph the stack, plus one tag or stencil up close.
3. Stand each reel on edge and chock it; never stack them flat.
4. Leave an aisle wide enough for forklift tines, or a clear path to roll.
5. Keep maker-tagged returnables in their own row.

What the driver checks on each reel

Flanges

Boards whole and flat, not warped, split or cupped.

Staves

Lagging mostly intact on the drum, without rot or gaps.

Arbor hole

Round and solid, so a spindle or payoff bar fits.

Drive holes

Not torn out or elongated by a payoff stand.

Markings

Any maker's stencil, returnable tag or reel number.

Leftovers

Cable ends, staples and banding removed or noted.

The rest of the O'Hare corridor day

Franklin Park shares a run with these stops:

• Elk Grove VillageElk Grove Village Business Park and the data-centre cluster
• Wood DaleI-390 industrial corridor, DuPage County side of O'Hare
• BensenvilleO'Hare west side, freight and rail
• Des PlainesO'Hare north side, River Road and Touhy Avenue
• ItascaI-390 and I-290 business parks
• SchaumburgI-90 and I-290 interchange, Woodfield area and business parks

Where Franklin Park reels go

• Buyback: one-way wooden reels with sound flanges and staves are paid for at the stop, priced by size and condition.
• Maker take-back: anything tagged or stencilled as returnable is listed for its owner's own collection.
• Recycling: split, rotted or warped reels are broken down, the wood recovered and the hardware separated.
• Resupply: checked reels go on to buyers who need them for rewinding, storage or projects.

Questions from Franklin Park

Can you take the empty reels our wire arrives on every month?

Yes. We sort them by supplier on the first visit. Returnables are left for their supplier or routed to its program, and the one-way reels go on our truck on a set day.

How soon can a Franklin Park pickup happen?

On the next O'Hare corridor day with room, after we have the count, sizes and photos.

Will you sort a mixed pile of supplier reels in Franklin Park?

Yes. We read tags and stencils on the first visit, mark each reel and leave a list, so later sorting is quick.

What if a Franklin Park supplier stops taking its reels back?

Then those reels become one-way, and we can buy or recycle them. Ask the supplier to confirm in writing first, so nobody later claims a reel that was sold.