Home-Made Floating Sifter

sctoddc

Full Member
Jan 4, 2010
107
3
Greenwood SC
Detector(s) used
Fisher 1280x Aquanaut, Garrett Ace 350
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I saw one of these on eBay awhile back....starting price was $60.00...and under that it had reserve not met. I thought, man that would be so easy to make; so I did...lol. Parts list consisted of

5' stick of 1.25" PVC pipe
4 1.25" elbows
5' roll of 1/2" hardware cloth
8 2" hose clamps

First I cut the PVC into 15" lengths, glued the elbows in place.
I then layed the hardware cloth over the "frame" and cut a bit extra (you can see why I did this in the pics).
Folded the corners to fit, then tied it altogether with the hose clamps...done.

For less than $15.00, and about 45 minutes, I had the same thing this guy was selling. Hope maybe this can come in handy for some of you water hunters...thought I'd share.

Todd

Please excuse the messy work bench...LOL
 

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Hello
How are you I hope your doing well . I would like to suggest a change in the way that you make the water sifter my change would make the sifter a little bit less heavy it's a simple piece that you use everyday and that is wire ties they don't scratch you when you are carrying it to the water and in the water and they won't rust and have to be replaced . I have made my own sifter and this is the best thing to use . :laughing7: :thumbsup:
 

You could also do the same thing with a floaty/noodle swim thing, and some plastic 1/2" mesh and plastic tie wraps. anyway you do it, it still isnt anywhere close to $60.
 

Yes, I made mine with a pool noodle, a wire storage drawer, chicken wire and zip ties, about $15 too. I use mine for fossil sifting streams, but would love to use it for coins around old piers! :icon_thumleft:
 

I think this is a cool idea. Thank you for sharing all the pics and your time to post. Paul
 

Yea, I need to make something like this that floats so i can pull myself up for air and not drown when I'm in chest deep water, hunting a concave edge and a big wave passes. Where do u find a chicken wire storage drawer like that?
Cheers,
Dan
 

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Yea, I need to make something like this that floats so i can pull myself up for air and not drown when I'm in chest deep water, hunting a concave edge and a big wave passes. Where do u find a chicken wire storage drawer like that?
Cheers,
Dan

I got the wire storage drawers at Lowe's. I'm sure Home Depot has them as well. I laid 1/4" chicken wire along the bottom (inside the drawer) and folded halfway up the sides, then zip-tied the chicken wire in place to the storage drawer. Then cut and zip-tied cut up pool noodle to the sides. Floats great! Good luck and HH!
 

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There we go. It almost sifts itself while its floating! Anything black in the photo are zip-ties. I cut and sanded the excess material off of them so that they don't get in the way/cut me. I've been using two sifters like this for at least a year now every weekend and have had no problems! With the wire storage drawer, it is very easy to attach a rope to it to tow it behind you or secure it to an anchor or piling.
 

Thank u so much! I'll build one in the next couple of days. I'll do like u mentioned to me in pm and use larger wire drawer so i can double up the noodles. I'll attach some brass rings on the sides so i can quick connect my detector and/or sand scoop with brass swivel clips if i need to get a free hand for a sec. Yea...this is going to work great!
Cheers,
Dan
 

Wow. I cant find pool noodles anywhere in houston. I hav been to 4 walmarts, 2 academy's and 3 dollar stores. Noone has. I was stumbling over them at walmart 2wks ago. Looks like there gettin ready for halloween now
 

It isn't the exact same thing but I was thinking a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled into bottom and swimming pool life ring for water hunters to put all the trash metal finds into, it would remove the weight off of your body and if you added a leash it could just tag along behind floating, but I think the lid would be best left on so no spillage, maybe cut opening in lid.
 

I like ur thinking!
 

Thank you, both are good idea's. Love were your heads at...
 

Here's my homemade. Only thing I would change is center the screen, so I can use both sides.100_0935 (800x600).jpg
 

easy to make, no metal parts, but i dont like it when it bumps into me all the time, so dont use it anymore.
 

IMAG0615.jpg

3" pvc
small milk crate cut short
plastic gutter leaf guard
zip ties

no metal allows waterproof pointer to be used.
 

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