Fishing With A Magnet

[mojjax]

I just bought one on ebay . I can hardly wait to try it !

http://cm.ebay.com/cm/ck/1065-29392...&lk=ItemDescriptionANDimage&Item=260014058798

 

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[Jeffro]

We use ones with 1500 lb pull at work all the time. Even have bigger ones with 3000 lb pull available. Never thought about using one for fishing out metal, but what the hey, its worth a shot

 

[ericwt]

mojjax: I bought that one on ebay of few months ago. It works great.

ericwt

 

[Cannonman17]

I can just see buying one off ebay and the mail man goes to grab the box and realizes it's stuck to the side of the truck... "what the...."

 

[boogeyman]

When I was a young boy, we used to fish with magnets and grapnel hooks from piers and docks in California. Pulled at least a hundred pounds of fishing tackle rods etc. out of the water. We made a bar with a chain sling, and had 3 - 4 grapnel hooks on it. The other rig we used was a magnet from a Wurlitzer jukebox bass speaker tied to rope my uncle gave us. About the size of parachute cord. We made a reel from plans for a kite string reel, that worked well. I pulled up numerous bike frames, two outboard motors (coroded beyond use) etc.

Funny story, we had a cop try to tell us it was illegal to pull up stuff from the city docks, and told us to go home. My buddie and I later found a dock that had 13 bikes around it. We called the police, and our friendly cop showed up. We told him we wanted to claim them! He tried to talk us out of it to no avail, and we persisted knowing that officer jerk would have to fill out property receipts and transport 13 gooey slimy muddy bikes back to the PD to hold for thirty days. Needless to say we never picked up the bikes, but laughed for many years about officer jerk and his gooey uniform and police car. Needless to say we never were bothered by officer jerk on the rest of our "treasure dredging" expeditions!

 

[Skrimpy]

Cool thing here. A buddy of mine and I have stumbled upon a property that was the site of a hotel from about 1750 to 1950, and golly gee! There is an old fieldstone well on it. I thought we would scoop for all of the "wish" coins that should be in the bottom...ie large cents, colonials, up to modern coins that should be in good condition b/c the water is not moving, and there is little or no oxygen down there...I can feel the stack of uncirculated condition chain large cents calling me in the bottom of the well....yeah I know wishful thinking...Then we saw the Discovery article about the 1610 Scottish pistol found at the bottom of the well at the old Jamestown site, and both said "We need a magnet". We may not find a 1610 Scottish pistol but we might pull up some good stuff...Gotta rig up a scoop for those large "wish" cents though.

 

[buscadero]

I have a 200# Magnet. used it around the Boat Clubs a lot. Always in demand for "fishing" for Car Keys & Tools around Boat Slips.

Had an idea once about using a Boat loaded w/ Magnets, Grappling Hooks, A huge Rakelike Tool, & maybe even a Diver, to "Drag" downstream from Bridges.(Exp.old ones) looking for Guns, Safes, etc. Then I thought about Car Bodies, Tree Trunks, & Refers,etc.

Might not be bad down South for CW Stuff! Anybody think it could work?

Joe

 

[Blind.In.Texas]

Magnet sticks are awesome I made one, because I saw them for sale at Home Depot for $20, from an old broom handle with the zinc screw tip. I drilled a pilot hole into the end of the stick, used a speaker magnet from a 6" 4-Ohm subwoofer (had a hole in it already), then used a large lag screw and fender washer to hold the magnet to the stick. I pick up nails and junk from the garage area and at work when there are lots of small sharp metal objects to pick. Good luck with that magnet!

 

[PAyoungin]

Anyone ever done it off of a pier. I would imagine you could get quite an assortment of things.

 

[privet12]

I dont know but if anyone does try it with a 3000 lb pull magnet I hope they have it hooked to a crane if the what to get it back lol.

 

[dahut]

Fishing With A Magnet...my two cents...

..when I was kid in the early 60's this was a not uncommon thing. My dad used to have a big magnet with a rope tied onto it that he got from the mysterious "Radar Site" where he worked. Whenever we went fishing, (which was often), he used to toss the blamed thing off the docks or jetties where we were at. He normally did this just to keep busy when the fishing was slow. Between that and the crabtraps he kept working, he never got bored!

That big horseshoe shaped magnet, painted bright red, would "kersploosh!" like some fat kid bellyflopping from the high dive - and he would pay out the rope as it sank, whistling a litte for effect as it did so. Then, with a steady hand-over-hand stroke, he would begin hauling it in. Most of the time he got nut, but sometimes fishing gear, old boat parts and plenty of whaddaheckisits'es would surface. He even hauled in at least one part of a small outboard - it may have been the whole thing, if I remember right. If nothing else, he kept everyone entertained, as a big crowd would always gather around to see what latest wonder he was pulling up from the deep.

My dad passed when I was 12 and looking back, I was kinda embarrassed to have such a kooky dad. But, oh now, I would give almost anything to have him here so we could go "magnet fishing" again!

 

[swizzle]

One thing that you might want to do is cover your magnet. I use a pice of cloth to cover mine and it helps to remove all of the fine magnetite that I find in NY. As if you run it across some rusty metal you'll get rust chunks that'll break up into tiny pieces and soon start to wear the coating off of your neodyniums. I haven't found anything extremely cool yet but I'm still working on it. Swizzle

 

[larrybass]

Very interesting post you started here, Jake! Being a Canadian, I can answer the question that was brought up a couple of times, and that is, yes, most Canadian coins will indeed stick to a magnet. 8) As a matter of fact for the last while, even our pennys now stick to even el'cheapo magnets. To illustrate, I remember one time, fishing a quarter from a street grate, after eyeballing it in there while waiting for a bus the day before. Took a couple of tries but a cheap magnet tied to a piece of thin, plastic coated, copper speaker wire, that I found laying on the ground nearby, and a little patience, did the trick.

There sure are lot of good ideas and fine dialog flowing through the threads in this hot post, buddy. Good one Jakeman! 8)

LarryB

Lb

 

[Ant]

I saw a guy who had a magnet that pulled up a rim with a tire on it. The magnet was about the size of a softball cut in half. He had to pry it off stuff with two prybars, and he stood back while he did it.

Here aretwo pictures of a hard drive magnet. I put the square medal peace on the magnetic end and can't get it off with both hands. Seems like the older and thicker hard drives have stronger magnets. I'll have to put this in a vise to get the medal peace off. So if you have any old computers around that don't work anymore, pull that hard drive out if you want a good magnet.

Hi Pilgrim 770, thanks for that tip. I had an old harddrive sitting around and I decided to do what you suggested. And the magnet inside turned out to be a Rare Earth Magnet. It's so powerful that it can pick-up the PC it came out of.
Better to keep one of these REM out of pants pockets, if family the jewels. Especially with one in the right pocket and one in the left pocket, ouch.
Thanks thanks.

 

[Functional]

Some facts you might find of interest.

As mentioned previously, a magnet can be used to find most Canadian coins, (since about 1967).

If you have a magnet from a hard drive, or stereo speaker, your better off keeping the metal that is connected to it as this increases the attraction by about 100% over having just the bare magnet.

All that stuff you find stuck to your magnet isn't gold, (as much as you might wish it was), but some of it could be, so if your in an area that is known for having gold, you might want to hang onto the black sand.

Here in British Columbia, Canada, theres no shortage of black sand and saving it is worth your while, considering half of the gold in the province is considered ferrous, (ie: can be attracted by a magnet). Your location may have similar gold and iron content. Personally, I wouldn't go out with one of my ancient metal detectors, or with my gold pan without having my magnets along for the ride.

When storing, or using magnets, keep the like poles away from each other even though you might not want them attracting each other, (I recommend a wooden with steel plate attached to either side to act as a spacer between them, with the opposite poles closest to each other). As you know, like poles repel, but they also tend to cause a loss of magnetic attraction depending on the material they are made of and the distance and duration of exposure to the other like pole.

F.

 

[treasure diver]

I bought one for $12.00 at Harbor Fright. I thought I was going to have to take the shopping cart with me. It took two guys to help me get it unstuck. lol.

 

[Froggie]

Does it work with these?
Sorry, I had to.

 

[boogeyman]

They make good refridgerator door handles. Not to mention tie downs for your truck or jeep. I've been using a couple with a piece of newspaper under them to keep my water cans in place. One of the Harbor Freight kids told me he got one stuck to the button and zipper on his pants when he was getting one out for a customer. By the look on his face, I bet he'll never live that one down. Not to mention a good story for the great grand kids!!!!!

 

[geo4472]

good idea especialy around lakes, ponds, rivers,etc. where rev.war or civil war battles where fought think of all the old weapons(swords, bayonets,etc)you could find some might still be in good shape depending on what they are made of

 

[pgill]

Great topic guys. I guess you can never know what you will find in the water!!! I am not sure how long a coin will last under water before it rusts away

God bless
Peter