Whoa, check that out over there! If only I could reach it.
Dang.
So for some time now I've been working on making the perfect gem scoop.
Let me show you how effective this tool is.
Check that out. I like to see another gem scoop get that.
I know right my acting is top-notch but that is not what we're
gonna be talking about today. I would like to talk about rock scoops. Why would
you want a scoop to reach out into the water and grab something? Well, the water
around here is very cold, you don't want to put your hands in it, maybe you have
hip waders on, chest waders on and you want to bend down and grab something out
that otherwise you would not be able to reach and again. So for years and years
I've been experimenting with different types of gem scoops. Trying out different
things and I have came up with a design that I think will work very well for you
and you can easily make this with some basic hand tools. Let's first look at
some of the ones that I've made and experimented with. Of course these are all steel.
I have a welding shop here. Well, this one's kind of tall. You can see this one has a
long steel handle and uh well it's a vertical handle with a small, small tray.
So that was one of the designs. I was playing with tray size, what works, you
know. Another one was the box. This is a uh, what is that, a three by four scoop
with a handle pitched pitched inwards. As you can see right there pitched inwards.
So and it's a much shorter handle. I've been testing all these different things
out and I have settled on one great design that is easy to build. That is, oops. That is easy to build.
So this is, there you go you can see it all, this is the design that I have
settled on. It is affordable, lightweight, very durable, and it functions great.
So let's, let's talk about this a little bit. These have multiple names: gem scoop,
treasure scoop, rock scoop. I think the treasure scoop came thing, the
treasure scoop thing came from the Estwing company. Etswing makes amazing
hammers, other tools. Uh well here let me let me grab one. Here is a Estwing rock
hammer. Now, they came up with a thing called the treasure scoop and it is
about a 33 36 inch handle. The tool that has about a four inch little spoon cup
at the end and a little spike offset. Actually I'll put a photo in there um and
it had this nice handle on it. I mean Estwing handles are top-notch stuff, right.
So they discontinued those in 2004. Since then there's a website that uh well, you can
buy kind of the replica of that or whatever, um that design and it's about 50
bucks. So you can always go purchase that or you can make this right here for
under $10. So, let's uh talk handles. This handle is a 33 or 36 inch I forget what
I did here. You know, it's always good to be prepared. Yeah 32 inch. 32 inch handle
on this one. So this is a piece of half-inch ID schedule 40 aluminum pipe.
Now, I had that sitting around the shop so for me that is a no-brainer. Use that.
However, however probably some options that you could use would be a electrical
conduit from Home Depot. That is $1 a foot. You could use a fiberglass tool
handle possibly. Maybe some PVC, some aluminum. I mean I, who knows
what I paid for this. It was an end cut. But so that's a handle. Handle is easy to
think it done. The scoop is more difficult. So I've been trying all kinds
of different scoops and let me show you what this started as. that scoop
started as this. This is a grain scoop that you can buy off of Amazon for seven
dollars and fifty cents. And I cut the handle off and I squared the nose
because in my testing the way these generally are used is by pulling towards
you and you kind of scoop in like that and
maybe you put your foot there and scoop in and kind of kick your rock in or a
reach and side grab, at which point you have a lot of surface there. The smaller
ones you can't really do that. Then, you know, the holes are drilled so water can
drain out and but that's another aspect of this that I've tested a lot. The size
of holes, number of holes, on and on and on. So where are we at in this? Uh, $7 and 50 cent
24 ounce grain scoop off of Amazon, link down yonder and then your handle of
choice. So pretty simple right? And this can all be accomplished with some basic
tools. Let's look at some tools. Let's look at some of the basic stuff that
you're gonna need for the project. You're going to need a handle material, about 33
to 36 inches long that depends on your height if you're a shorty or if you're a
tall person maybe you're making it for your kid you can get put a smaller
handle on it you're gonna need that green scoop you're gonna need a drill
the file quarter inch drill bit your quarter inch Bowl a step it is really
nice a spring-loaded center punch hacksaw tape measure and some tape
pretty basic stuff most people have that however if you have access to power
tools like like an angle grinder with a cut-off wheel
and a flap disk it will accelerate the process if you have a vise
that'll speed it up you know that's I have all that stuff I have a full
fabrication shop right behind me back there so I'm gonna use it and yeah let's
let's make this thing so for this one I believe this is a 32 inch handle that
seems like for me being five eight five five nine that works out really well
this scoop which well let me move this aside and we'll talk about this scoop a
little bit so I know it is hard to tell but this scoop when you cut the handle
off the perfect way to attach it is to slot in the wall here the perfect way to
attach it is to slot your into a piece of pipe drill through and run a bolt
through it pretty simple this also pitches the the handle towards
you which in my experience that's nice for that dragging motion that you use
this for so let's start modifying our scoop so what you're gonna want to do is
put your piece of tape on the nose of your scoop just like that that will
establish that perfect straight line across the nose of it that you'll be
trimming off and then we will be cutting the handle off and doing some file
so here's where we're at if you used some kind of power tool you might have a
little sharp bit there and we want this to be as smooth and as rounded as
possible so I'm gonna clamp this in my vice you could also step on this or even
just hold it and use your use your file or if you have a flapper wheel for an
angle grinder let's just hit that real quick so in my testing if you have 16
well I have 16 here because kind of is an X pattern but if you have like 15 to
20 quarter inch holes in your scoop of this size when you pull it out of the
water it will fully drain in about a second which that's good great amount of
holes so on your scoop that you're working on layout maybe you can see it
layout on with a sharpie the holes that you want to drill and if you have ever
tried to take a drill bit like here's a quarter inch bit or step it and just try
to drill on the metal it's gonna want to skate around so we will be using a
spring-loaded Center punch this just makes a nice divot for your drill bit
and it'll look like a pro mate it
just gonna do that 15 more times so we have all of our holes drilled no sharp
edges on this you know we are for gold in here for this this portion of it so
at the end of my handle I've measured down can I see that measure down about
an inch and I put a line I will be doing the split method an alternative means of
attaching if you're gonna be using a different handle material could maybe be
some kind of hanger where you know you could go kind of like that that could be
an alternative to this this is a little more difficult method I will be cutting
a slot through both sides of the tubing and that will nest down on that and get
bolted in place and be rock rock solid maybe if you used a couple of these it
could work just a alternative way of building this
so you can see that I've kind of slit and drilled a hole at the bottom of the
slit on both sides now my reason for doing that is this is not going to just
slide on there with these we're gonna be opening up that slit with the angle
grinder cutoff wheel with a Oh what is that about a 1/8 inch deck blade side
note when using an angle grinder you're going to want to put some of your safety
Sally gear on so that some of that face shield I have seen blades explode I've
had a wire wheel throw a wire and hit my glasses so not not a joke of a tool
so I got our two little slots cut and let's test fit this here you see we're
mostly seated all the way down here that is pretty good I'm happy with that we
will drill our hole for our bolt now you know because we blunted the the nose of
this it wants to stay up really really easily this doesn't have to be perfect
here the bolt that you choose to go with needs to be able to span your handle
diameter of choice and I suggest using one of these nylock nuts and a couple of
washers so that you can wrench this thing down and make it wicked tight once
again Center punch comes in handy especially for drilling on something
with a that's round you're definitely definitely gonna want to center punch
cuz you will slip off and this doesn't have to be perfect you know you want to
angle your drill so it's as straight as possible with metal go slower than
faster that's a good rule of thumb there are you know speeds and feeds but the
most part slow slow and steady
there we go and uh put your bolt through and tighten it up and you should be
pretty much good to go so now we are all bolted up here there's that one and the
other one so if you found this video to be helpful please subscribe hit the like
button share it if you feel like sharing this if you think maybe some other rock
towns could benefit from this what else all of those good YouTube things I will
be starting a playlist of some kind of more DIY rockhounding projects like
you're witnessing right here that will be on my main page what else you can
make some improvements to this you could add a grippy handle but for under ten
dollars this is this is a winner right you can make four of these for your
whole family for the price of one of the treasure scoops and these are a superior
design I believe you couldn't possibly add some you know be the Plasti Dip a
handle on you could use bicycle grip tape there's a number of things that you
can do for a handle that's really up to you cost and your skill level so
whatever whatever it B's yeah thanks for watching I hope I hope you enjoyed this
you