Mechanical Beach Cleaners ...

[Ammonhotep]

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[Tom_in_CA]

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I'm not a detectorist, but I've decided to get into it as a week-ender. I've decided on a machine (XP Deus), and want to make a pre-Christmas purchase. As I was doing my research I inevitably came across industrial-sized beach-combers.

So, my questions--for all experienced detectorists:

• What kind of damage is an an industrial beach cleaner going to do to your finds?
• Does anyone hit any beaches where cleaners of this sort are used?
• If you could, would you use a machine like this to comb the beaches yourself?
• What other implications can you think of?

There are a few different models/brands/units of beach-cleaner machines. Only one of them is capable of catching coin-sized targets (and even then-so, if you set it to do that, for that level of refinement, I think). Most of them, in actual practice (or setting) are only catching the garbage sized objects. Bags, cans, towels, cardboard, etc... Because if they made them (or used them) to find objects as small as coins and rings, it would also then get all the pebbles, sea-shells, etc... And the amount of energy/power it would need to force it through the sand, would be prohibitive. It would take all the more time to push sand through smaller openings, etc......

But I think a few beaches did indeed have the model capable of doing the finer tuned cleaning, and it could indeed be set to those levels. And maybe the operators purposefully push them to this limit, so they can riffle through the results? But this is VERY few beaches that even have beach cleaners, and even then-so VERY few that do coverage to this extent, etc... Also they are only for dry sand, not wet sand, so you never have to worry about them beating you to targets out on the wet.

 

[Sandman]

Even at freshwater swim areas beach cleaners were used and found to be a waste of money in upkeep and such. As Tom said the amount of shells, stones collected greatly make this operation costly in manhours and dumping the trash somewhere. Our county even tried this motorized beach cleaner and the operator had to keep it from getting clogged up. The only thing it was good for was smoothing out the sand and foot prints. They next just went to dragging a doohickie behind the tractor to smooth out the sand.

 

[seapro1]

I have hunted behind them at Panama City beach and found rings right where they went through. I now live in Cocoa beach, Fl and they supposedly have bought one but I have yet to see it.

 

[Surfminer]

Years ago in Miami Beach

Very interesting ... I was under the impression that most could catch smaller targets, but assumed that the really good stuff they'd just pass over because they don't dig deep (usually no more than around 3.5"). Many of the prime beaches here are created with externally sourced desert sand, so there's little other than what humans have left in it.

I had considered starting a small beach-cleaning business with the explicit goal of treasure on the side. Probably won't do it, though. Anyway, thank you for the information!

HH

Ammo

Years ago in Miami Beach I lived a few blocks away from where they would dump the hopper behind a dune until the designated beaches were done and a dump truck would haul it away.They had one sand rake machine at the time and they would only do it every 2 or 3 weeks.Needless to say,whenever I happened to see it out I would be waiting for the rake to dump.The drivers where friendly and would do a quick scan as the dumped it (and usually found something to smile about) and would tell me good luck as they went to fill it again.
Then i would go to work and shift the whole pile (of rocks,shells broken glass,clothes,plastic ...you name it) a few feet over slowly with 2 poles and a shovel.I usually ended up with atleast 5-10 gold,bunch of silver and a pitcher of clad coins.It would catch some of the small items (coins,rings,etc) but likely just a very small percentage.The driver had told me at the time that the teeth would frequently break and where very expensive to replace and that was why they only ran it when need be.
Now they have several rakes running almost every other day and dump in a secure fenced in area and is searched...so the fun is now over here,but anyone living on tourist beaches should investigate their beach rake procedure,if you have access....it is a fun lil treasure hunt.

Good luck and happy hunting!!!

 

[CASPER-2]

long ago I knew a guy that would follow the cleaner at the end of his run - they wold have lifeguards at end of day and each morning pick up the big trash - and the machine would comb for the bottle caps and pulltabs - he would dump the stuff 100 yrds from beach in a designated spot - this beach had tons of rusty nails because it had huge boardwalks long ago - so hitting the piles with a detector would not work - but guy would go there after heavy rains and the sand would wash away and he would find gold chains and bracelts shining thru the rusty caps and nails - they dont dump there any more

 

[Tom_in_CA]

surf-miner, I too heard a similar story, of a city in southern CA that had one of the beach-cleaners with refined/small-enough openings to catch coin sized items. And the rumor was, that the city-public works employees litterally quarreled over who got to run the machine (it was a prized position). For the very purpose your say: to riffle through the end results.

And even though the machine needn't have been set to such small openings (apparently it was adjustable) or run as deeply (d/t it's hard on the machine, takes more time, etc...), yet the operators would purposefully push the machine to the limits. And just as you say: when it came time to dump the machine, it went behind closed gates, into a yard where you could not follow it in. And if you asked any questions of the drivers, or attempted to follow the machine to the dump site, you were met with strict silence, hush hush, etc... So md'rs in that area naturally assumed the operators were onto something good, as the reason for the strict disallowance of anyone to scan the tailings, etc....

 

[SeabeeRon]

As has been said, you find goodies by following the track of the beach machine! A good place to look is at their turns where the sand piles up as items tend to collect there!