Cheap, Down and Dirty Mailbox

[garren]

Garren, I have heard of an old paddle wheeler in a swamp by Jefferson, where is this? I am not asking for your exact location, just curious which river or lake. I am in Austin. Keep the photos coming.

A paddle wheel in Jefferson would be super cool! I just metal detected a property along the bayou there this spring. Finding a boat in that swamp would be chore. Our project is a long way from Jefferson. We'll be diggin up here in N. TX.

Well said, Jason. Garren, once you blow a hole in 4' of water, you'll need move the blower slightly one way or the other to make room for inspecting the hole. Just pull in one after corner rope and loosen the other side and re-tie them. Position the blower to where your next hole will be, then go inspect the hole you just blew. Once you're satisfied with exploring that hole, you're already positioned to blow your next hole. I recommend that you plan a grid of blowing holes rather than blowing randomly. Keep track of your holes and artifacts found from each blow. Use markers and/or GPS to help with on site. Otherwise, you'll end up blowing areas you did before and miss spots you could have planned for. Keep us posted.

Thanks Darren! When I metal detect I tend to be a grid searcher....I'll use a GPS and do the same here.

It looks like our trial run will be Wednesday. I'll take pics and keep ya'll posted.

 

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[Jolly Mon]

I read a horror story about sand and debri going into the water intake and stopping up the impeller...How about wrapping panty hose around that part of the motor to reduce the size of debri that can get in there.
necessity is mother of invention?

If the bottom you are working on is mainly very fine silt, you might be OK. I am not sure about the pantyhose idea. The last thing you want to do is restrict the water flow to any great degree. I would try it out first, keep an eye on your motor's discharge and then check the impeller after blowing a few holes. It might be a good idea to inspect the impeller before you use the blower for the first time so that you have an idea about what you are up against in terms of wear. The really big trash should be taken care of by your outboard's current "filter"...it is the coarse sand that will get in to your impeller and eat that baby alive...but again, with really fine silt you might be O.K. for a considerable period.

 

[garren]

If the bottom you are working on is mainly very fine silt, you might be OK. I am not sure about the pantyhose idea. The last thing you want to do is restrict the water flow to any great degree. I would try it out first, keep an eye on your motor's discharge and then check the impeller after blowing a few holes. It might be a good idea to inspect the impeller before you use the blower for the first time so that you have an idea about what you are up against in terms of wear. The really big trash should be taken care of by your outboard's current "filter"...it is the coarse sand that will get in to your impeller and eat that baby alive...but again, with really fine silt you might be O.K. for a considerable period.

In this spot it looks like a thin layer of broken mussel shells and gravel over a very fine sand or silt....under that is some dark stinky silt. I would hate to wear out my impeller or get a shell fragment hung in the discharge. That happened in the past and was a real pain to clear! I guess we can keep an eye on it and take slow and easy. We're not in a big hurry.

 

[garren]

How does this look now? I cut away some of the tube around the prop. Surprisingly, it's still quite rigid.

 

[Salvor6]

Garren that looks real good. Let me know how it works.

 

[thetigers2]

Nice work Garren....

 

[OBN]

Thanks Garren for posting, pics and issues that could arise. Looks real good..

I have been kicking around the same idea's for use in sanded in area's in the Chesapeake Bay with "Big Scoop" but have yet to get all in motion. Was considering the same thing as yours other then maybe less of a 90 degree angle, more around 60 degree to keep debris away from the engine. Which I am sure it would be less efficient but maybe safer? I had planned on 2 anchors but from the post seems three is better. My area is much like yours in most, 4 to 5 foot deep water, sand as much as 12 to 24 inch needs removed and bottoms can vary from shells, clay & many times a rotton vegetation smelling bottom. Many if not all of the old beach's are gone from the bay, other then the names, all forgotten. Still lots of treasure to be found, it's just deep under the sand. Please continue all info as your work progresses.
Just added the Hummingbird 858 DI which I hope
will help in Waypoints and Sonar images
Thanks Joe Beechnut / OBN




Also Thanks Seeker41 for turning me on to this post

 

[garren]

Thanks OBN. I will definitely keep ya'll updated on the outcome of this shenanigan.

In the mean time... if you watch "Storage Wars Texas" tonight (Tues.) on the A&E Channel you'll see me and the boat. The episode I'm in comes on at 8:30 central time.

 

[BVI Hunter]

You have a great idea don't over think it, I built a portable mailbox/ blower using a 18 inch plastic cement shut 4 ft length , the prop was attached to a hydronic / air drill e ncased in fiberglass , run off a air compressor 175 psi 25 cfm with a 100 ft length of 1 inch hose, much better than hand fanning . Moved a lot of overburden, portable and inconspicuous .

that sound interesting too!!

any chance of a picture?

 

[bay pirate]

Great job !! Your impeller is going to hate you...

Jolly man is right. After you figure out the vacume situation, look hard at extending your mail box several feet. The silt, sand and debris will certainly chew your impeller to bits and you will blow your motor simply due to your wash zone is your fresh water intake for you motor. Other wise, I love it.

On a second not or thought, have you considered using a pressure washer. You would have use a low pressure tip but you could move some material the way you wanted to. I use a pressure washer when I need to pull sinker cypress up that has been buried in the mud for 100 years. Good luck

 

[Jason in Enid]

Wouldn't it be possible to tilt the motor slightly, giving the blower an 80 degree angle instead of 90? That should keep the majority of the silt and debris moving "out and away" instead of just "up and out".

 

[garren]

We tried it out today and for the most part it was a success. We got two for the price of one...it works AND we got to tear some stuff up! We completely solved the impeller problem too. A Tnet member sent me a msg describing his set-up and it worked like a champ for us. We put flushing ears (I call 'em "watermuffs") on the water intake. Then hooked a garden hose to the ears and ran the other end to the bow where we hooked it to a bilge pump. We hooked the pump to a trolling motor battery and hung it over the side. It pulled plenty of fresh water to the back and the motor ran clean and cool the whole time.
Now for the blower...It worked great. It blew a pretty deep hole fairly quick with very little RPMs. However, we did kinda tear it up. Everything that hung down behind the prop was pulled into the prop...We bent all of the mangled stuff out of the way and kept going. Two things to change will be cut away everything that was mangled and, as Salvor6 did, add a metal hoop inside the end of the tube to make it more rigid...it bends easy. The shop next door to mine is a machine shop and they have a hoop bender/maker thingy...
We found a valve and part of a pan and maybe a fire extinguisher holder?
I have some video from my Go-Pro camera I'll try and edit and post tonight....here's a couple of pics for now.

 

[garren]

I did a google search and found a photo of a circa 1923 "Caravan". Looks like the exact fire extinguisher bracket we found, hanging behind the mannequin.

 

[bay pirate]

That's freaking awesome. Great in site on the earmuffs for the water intake. Keep up the good work and post-o-plenty

 

[Jason in Enid]

Congrats! I can confirm that you found a fire extinguisher holder. I collect them, and yours was probably a Pyrene extinguisher.

 

[Salvor6]

Good job garren. Just take a piece of 1/4" by 1/2" cold rolled steel to your local fabricator shop that has a slip roll machine and have them roll it to the inside diameter of your tube. This will make it strong enough to withstand the pressure.

 

[Jolly Mon]

We tried it out today and for the most part it was a success. We got two for the price of one...it works AND we got to tear some stuff up! We completely solved the impeller problem too. A Tnet member sent me a msg describing his set-up and it worked like a champ for us. We put flushing ears (I call 'em "watermuffs") on the water intake. Then hooked a garden hose to the ears and ran the other end to the bow where we hooked it to a bilge pump. We hooked the pump to a trolling motor battery and hung it over the side. It pulled plenty of fresh water to the back and the motor ran clean and cool the whole time.
Now for the blower...It worked great. It blew a pretty deep whole fairly quick with very little RPMs. However, we did kinda tear it up. Everything that hung down behind the prop was pulled into the prop...We bent all of the mangled stuff out of the way and kept going. Two things to change will be cut away everything that was mangled and, as Salvor6 did, add a metal hoop inside the end of the tube to make it more rigid...it bends easy. The shop next door to mine is a machine shop and they have a hoop bender/maker thingy...
We found a valve and part of a pan and maybe a fire extinguisher holder?
I have some video from my Go-Pro camera I'll try and edit and post tonight....here's a couple of pics for now.

View attachment 874957 View attachment 874958

That bilge pump to flusher is a great idea for getting clean water to your outboard. I wish I had thought of it. LOL.

Congratulations on finding some interesting relics on the very first try. There is a pretty good book out there in the public domain, I can't remember the name of it...something like Shipwrecks on Western Rivers. Many people don't realize how extensive inland shipping was historically. Anyways, you can probably track it down by doing a few Google searches. This shipwreck business can become addictive...best of luck and keep the pictures coming !!

 

[garren]

Here's some of the video footage from the Go-Pro cam. I tried to get a little of everything...Some of the trip to the spot and a little snippet of the shoreline where we're working. Then the initial run and the ooops moment. Towards the end I got some footage of the discharge from the impeller so you could so how clear the water was and how well the earmuffs were working. At the end you can kinda see the water hose and wires to the bilge pump hanging over the side.

Im ready to go back and now a cold front's coming in!

 

[OBN]

Thanks, Love the video. I think the main thing is your main mounts held up, this gives you a good foundation to work with. Seeing how well they did I am thinking now more of a hinged type of mail box so less time is spent on setup and the angle can be adjusted, more of a thrust diverter box. How much sand was moved on this adventure in the amount of time you worked it? And thanks again for sharing...

 

[ScubaFinder]

Nice work Garren, I wish I still lived in Dallas so I could go with you, I miss the alligator-less rivers of Texas. While I love your blower design, you might consider looking into deflector plates as well. Weld a 24" x 24" plate of steel onto your mounts at a 45 - 60 degree angle and it will deflect the propwash down as well, they work great in shallow water. I also had a 6" PVC elbow fitted onto my Evinrude 9.5 and once used a 4" PVC elbow on a SeaDoo. Both worked great in the shallows while I was a 1715 fleet subcontractor. My mount looked just like yours, and I used big hose clamps to hold the PVC in place. I love anything McGuiver-ish, keep it up and keep us posted. This thread is inspiring me to make a new one for my Evinrude. :-)