NGE
Silver Member
- May 27, 2008
- 3,506
- 119
- Detector(s) used
- Etrac, Explorer XS II, Fisher 1266-X
- Primary Interest:
- Other
A new use for all your old power lawn mower handles! 
Somewhere in all my junk, I have the plans for this tool/toy 
. My friends say, "look, here comes that ding-a-ling with the french fry basket" The operation goes like this, take it to your favorite super trashy beach, pull this behind you in a row, stopping only now and then to dump trash at end of each run (walk). Very hard to run with this thing :icon_jokercolor. It goes as deep into the sand as you want, all you have to do is bear down on the handle or you can make an adjustment on the center strap on the handle. The 'teeth' on the leading edge are supposed to be the business end of old forks, but because I was using it in the water, I made it out of one piece of strap steel and cut slots in it with a cut off tool. . The measurements are; 24" X 15"X7". From its upright position, it is 38" Tall. It is made with 1/2" hardware cloth (galvanized) 1" strap aluminum, whole lotta aluminum rivets, stainless nuts and bolts. Also, you may want to attach a few strong magnets inside the basket to collect hairpins, nails, and other bits of rusty junk that may go through the mesh. I have successfully used this in swimming areas that have deep sand with numerous rusted nails from old swimming docks near shore. It helps getting the trash out before getting the detector out . I have attached a rope to the basket and one one the handle end, and taken it to a very polluted stream near my home, and with the help of a friend on the other side of the creek, we successfully dredged that area of the creek down to hardpan, we have made many, many good finds in the bottom layers from when people 100 years ago, used to swim in there. If the dredge got hung up on something, my friend would just pull it back to the other side to get it un-hung. . This was NOT the intended purpose of this tool, but who uses their tools for what they were made for anyways 
. Here are the pics of mine......
Somewhere in all my junk, I have the plans for this tool/toy . My friends say, "look, here comes that ding-a-ling with the french fry basket" The operation goes like this, take it to your favorite super trashy beach, pull this behind you in a row, stopping only now and then to dump trash at end of each run (walk). Very hard to run with this thing :icon_jokercolor. It goes as deep into the sand as you want, all you have to do is bear down on the handle or you can make an adjustment on the center strap on the handle. The 'teeth' on the leading edge are supposed to be the business end of old forks, but because I was using it in the water, I made it out of one piece of strap steel and cut slots in it with a cut off tool. . The measurements are; 24" X 15"X7". From its upright position, it is 38" Tall. It is made with 1/2" hardware cloth (galvanized) 1" strap aluminum, whole lotta aluminum rivets, stainless nuts and bolts. Also, you may want to attach a few strong magnets inside the basket to collect hairpins, nails, and other bits of rusty junk that may go through the mesh. I have successfully used this in swimming areas that have deep sand with numerous rusted nails from old swimming docks near shore. It helps getting the trash out before getting the detector out . I have attached a rope to the basket and one one the handle end, and taken it to a very polluted stream near my home, and with the help of a friend on the other side of the creek, we successfully dredged that area of the creek down to hardpan, we have made many, many good finds in the bottom layers from when people 100 years ago, used to swim in there. If the dredge got hung up on something, my friend would just pull it back to the other side to get it un-hung. . This was NOT the intended purpose of this tool, but who uses their tools for what they were made for anyways . Here are the pics of mine......
