Home-Made Floating Sifter

sctoddc

Full Member
Jan 4, 2010
107
3
Greenwood SC
Detector(s) used
Fisher 1280x Aquanaut, Garrett Ace 350
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I saw one of these on eBay awhile back....starting price was $60.00...and under that it had reserve not met. I thought, man that would be so easy to make; so I did...lol. Parts list consisted of

5' stick of 1.25" PVC pipe
4 1.25" elbows
5' roll of 1/2" hardware cloth
8 2" hose clamps

First I cut the PVC into 15" lengths, glued the elbows in place.
I then layed the hardware cloth over the "frame" and cut a bit extra (you can see why I did this in the pics).
Folded the corners to fit, then tied it altogether with the hose clamps...done.

For less than $15.00, and about 45 minutes, I had the same thing this guy was selling. Hope maybe this can come in handy for some of you water hunters...thought I'd share.

Todd

Please excuse the messy work bench...LOL
 

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Chicago Mike

Newbie
Jun 25, 2011
2
1
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hello
How are you I hope your doing well . I would like to suggest a change in the way that you make the water sifter my change would make the sifter a little bit less heavy it's a simple piece that you use everyday and that is wire ties they don't scratch you when you are carrying it to the water and in the water and they won't rust and have to be replaced . I have made my own sifter and this is the best thing to use . :laughing7: :thumbsup:
 

stevemc

Bronze Member
Feb 12, 2005
2,121
277
Sarasota, FL
Detector(s) used
Whites Surfmaster PI Pro and Whites Surfmaster PI, Minelab Excal NY blue sword. 2 White's Dual field pi, Garrett sea hunter pi II (but don't use it for obvious reasons) 5' x 3 1/2' coil underwater Pi
Primary Interest:
Shipwrecks
You could also do the same thing with a floaty/noodle swim thing, and some plastic 1/2" mesh and plastic tie wraps. anyway you do it, it still isnt anywhere close to $60.
 

FriscoT06

Hero Member
May 2, 2011
600
650
Hatteras Island, NC
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur II (retired), Minelab X-Terra 505
Primary Interest:
Shipwrecks
Yes, I made mine with a pool noodle, a wire storage drawer, chicken wire and zip ties, about $15 too. I use mine for fossil sifting streams, but would love to use it for coins around old piers! :icon_thumleft:
 

idigjars

Full Member
Feb 27, 2012
141
6
SW Michigan
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I think this is a cool idea. Thank you for sharing all the pics and your time to post. Paul
 

Sandscoopdan

Sr. Member
May 19, 2012
327
133
Cypress,Tx
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur II
Minelab CTX 3030
Minelab Equinox 800
Extreme scoop
Boat: 20ft Four Winns w/92 V8 5.0L Cobra Mustang engine
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Yea, I need to make something like this that floats so i can pull myself up for air and not drown when I'm in chest deep water, hunting a concave edge and a big wave passes. Where do u find a chicken wire storage drawer like that?
Cheers,
Dan
 

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FriscoT06

Hero Member
May 2, 2011
600
650
Hatteras Island, NC
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur II (retired), Minelab X-Terra 505
Primary Interest:
Shipwrecks
Yea, I need to make something like this that floats so i can pull myself up for air and not drown when I'm in chest deep water, hunting a concave edge and a big wave passes. Where do u find a chicken wire storage drawer like that?
Cheers,
Dan

I got the wire storage drawers at Lowe's. I'm sure Home Depot has them as well. I laid 1/4" chicken wire along the bottom (inside the drawer) and folded halfway up the sides, then zip-tied the chicken wire in place to the storage drawer. Then cut and zip-tied cut up pool noodle to the sides. Floats great! Good luck and HH!
 

FriscoT06

Hero Member
May 2, 2011
600
650
Hatteras Island, NC
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur II (retired), Minelab X-Terra 505
Primary Interest:
Shipwrecks
DSCN0829 (640x530).jpg

DSCN0831 (640x480).jpg
There we go. It almost sifts itself while its floating! Anything black in the photo are zip-ties. I cut and sanded the excess material off of them so that they don't get in the way/cut me. I've been using two sifters like this for at least a year now every weekend and have had no problems! With the wire storage drawer, it is very easy to attach a rope to it to tow it behind you or secure it to an anchor or piling.
 

Sandscoopdan

Sr. Member
May 19, 2012
327
133
Cypress,Tx
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur II
Minelab CTX 3030
Minelab Equinox 800
Extreme scoop
Boat: 20ft Four Winns w/92 V8 5.0L Cobra Mustang engine
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Thank u so much! I'll build one in the next couple of days. I'll do like u mentioned to me in pm and use larger wire drawer so i can double up the noodles. I'll attach some brass rings on the sides so i can quick connect my detector and/or sand scoop with brass swivel clips if i need to get a free hand for a sec. Yea...this is going to work great!
Cheers,
Dan
 

Sandscoopdan

Sr. Member
May 19, 2012
327
133
Cypress,Tx
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur II
Minelab CTX 3030
Minelab Equinox 800
Extreme scoop
Boat: 20ft Four Winns w/92 V8 5.0L Cobra Mustang engine
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Wow. I cant find pool noodles anywhere in houston. I hav been to 4 walmarts, 2 academy's and 3 dollar stores. Noone has. I was stumbling over them at walmart 2wks ago. Looks like there gettin ready for halloween now
 

Back-of-the-boat

Gold Member
Apr 18, 2013
6,883
8,500
California
Detector(s) used
AT GOLD/Garrett /C.Scope cs4PI/Garrett(carrot) pro pointer/ 5x8 double d coil and sniper coil/Lesche digger/Lesche "T" handle shovel.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
It isn't the exact same thing but I was thinking a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled into bottom and swimming pool life ring for water hunters to put all the trash metal finds into, it would remove the weight off of your body and if you added a leash it could just tag along behind floating, but I think the lid would be best left on so no spillage, maybe cut opening in lid.
 

Sandscoopdan

Sr. Member
May 19, 2012
327
133
Cypress,Tx
Detector(s) used
Minelab Excalibur II
Minelab CTX 3030
Minelab Equinox 800
Extreme scoop
Boat: 20ft Four Winns w/92 V8 5.0L Cobra Mustang engine
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
I like ur thinking!
 

Bocabert

Newbie
Apr 23, 2015
3
0
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thank you, both are good idea's. Love were your heads at...
 

Kevin in IN

Sr. Member
Feb 21, 2011
478
369
N.Indiana
Detector(s) used
Minelab Sov.GT , Explorer SE Pro , Excalibur 1000
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Here's my homemade. Only thing I would change is center the screen, so I can use both sides. 100_0935 (800x600).jpg
 

maipenrai

Bronze Member
Nov 11, 2010
1,151
242
Thailand/Europe/California
Detector(s) used
Excalibur 2 1000
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
easy to make, no metal parts, but i dont like it when it bumps into me all the time, so dont use it anymore.
 

rick67

Bronze Member
Mar 29, 2014
1,612
1,725
Smithtown NY
Detector(s) used
XP, Whites, Garrett,
Lesche, T-Rex, RTG.
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
IMAG0615.jpg

3" pvc
small milk crate cut short
plastic gutter leaf guard
zip ties

no metal allows waterproof pointer to be used.
 

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