Home made steel beach/sand scoop under $8.

[SilverSearcher103]

I had the idea the other day to take a 3 qt grain scoop for feeding animals and modify it to be a sand scoop for metal detecting. I got the scoop from my local feed mill, tractor supply also sells them and you can get them online. It cost me $7.90 out the door from the feed mill.

Feed Scoop-Horse Feed Scoop | Agri Supply #67398

The steel is fairly thick, strong, and its made in the usa. I started by marking out my holes to drill, I drilled 1/2 inch holes and made them roughly 1 inch apart. When I finished drilling the 1/2 inch holes I decided that I wanted to drill smaller holes also to help drain the sand faster but not weaken the metal any. The smaller holes are a little over 1/4 inch. Here's how it looks. (Sorry for the subpar pics, it's dark in my house)

























It weighs in at a little over 1 pound so it's not heavy to carry. I tested it out the other day in some dry sand and it worked like a charm. I'm not sure how it's going to do in wet sand, but I think it'll work ok. Overall I'm happy with how it turned out, especially since it took less than a half hour to make and only cost me $8. The only other sand scoops I found at this price range were plastic, and even those cost $15-$20 and certainly are not as durable as a steel scoop.

I hope this can help somebody, I think it's a great option instead of spending $30-$40+ on a metal scoop or $15 for plastic. HH

 

[Terry Soloman]

You did a great job. This is an old idea that many of us have used over the years. The problem for the majority of folks is they don't have the drill to do it, or they don't have a feed shop to buy it in. Works great in dry sand, but not in the water. Lastly, most of us get tired bending down all day, so we buy a long handled scoop.

 

[Showtime2385]

Very nice, Well done