Magnetic rake for beach use?

[mikebourgeois]

I was watching a piece on youtube with regards to a giant rake/sifter set-up on a tractor that groomed the beach and penetrated the top 2 or 3 inches. It worked quite well and when the hopper is full you dump it and it's get all sorts of trash in it... what I'm curious about is could you make one... hand tool sized... a magnetic rake that would sweep through areas and perhaps snatch up a lot of the surface or almost surface trash that you'd run into so that you could focus on the deeper treasures?

I have an article from ways back (follow link)

https://books.google.ca/books?id=kN...kQAQ#v=onepage&q=electromagnetic rake&f=false

It looks like a pushbroom with nails and some sort of energy source hooked up that was used to collect spilt nails and the like. Does anyone think it could be updated and modified for a more purpose driven tool at the beach on sand? I'm not technically inclined but the idea does seem sound... I'm just not sure of how much of what you'd need to make it work and if it'd even be viable.

thanks

 

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[Oldrustystuff]

I like this idea.

Like magnet fishing for the sand.

Now I'm tempted to put a bunch of Neodymium magnets in a pvc tube to see what it cant suck out of the sand and how deep it could reach.

 

[boogeyman]

Do a search here on TNet. A few years back I posted up pics & plans for what we called beach carts. They are the same principal as the sifter tractors. Another tools is a sand crab net. Google it to get some examples. If you have a welder, you can throw one together in an evening. If you're thinking wet sand don't bother unless you have calves like Charles Atlas! They are great for working the fire rings! Forget magnets! You'll spend more time cleaning magnetite that sifting! If you build one make absolute sure you've ground all welds smooth & bent all the pokies on your screen or expanded metal! Amazing how many little almost unnoticeable things will get you! Hope that gets you pointed in the right direction. No sense re-engineering something we engineered in the late 60s.

 

[pulltabfelix]

just google roofing tools magnetic and you can find what you want already built and ready to ship.

 

[mikebourgeois]

Found a supplier in Canada that I'm talking with now to see if their product will work reliably on sand.

 

[mikebourgeois]

Found a supplier in Canada that I'm talking with now to see if their product will work reliably on sand.

Update to my update...

Salesman said their product works great on flat roofs, grass and gravel... but buried in sand even an inch or so is too much for their setup. He suggested Rare Earth Magnet of larger size attached to hammer or axe haft to probe areas. Good advise even if I already knew that part. Oh well... I'll just do my digging and take what I gets.

 

[alaskaseeker]

I had a rake that I had put round magnets with holes in them on the tines, worked quite well helping to eliminate surface junk in places you are hunting. I would layout an area and rake it pretty good.. Loaned it out a few years ago and it didn't come back.. I see now there's some super type magnets like that and I might get some and make another , these are stronger mags should do a lot better.....