Toroboni

The City of Dayton’s Public Works department is responsible for the maintenance of 3 outdoor ice rinks. To improve the surface of the ice, one of the employees of the department made some modifications to a Toro Workhouse and the Toroboni was born.

I had the chance to meet up with the guys to talk about and see the machine in action. Most of the materials were found or repurposed from around the shop. Some parts were purchased new, such as the solenoid for remote-controlling the flow from the cab, and some of tubing and related adapters.

One lesson learned along the way, was to always lift the rear drag (towel) before cutting off the flow of water or stopping the machine. Failure to do so tends to result in the towel freezing to the rink and ripping off the Toroboni.

Toroboni is what I heard Sparky the mechanic call this contraption (or was it “Torboni”?). It doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as I’d like, but it still seems quite fitting.