Powerful Magnet

I wondered where you were hiding! I have confess, this gang here appears to be more sane than the fellers at Cast Boolits:)!

One thing about it, these folks have a broad spectrum of experience and always ready to share it.

I spend lots of time lurking here, just about abandoned CB's.

Well, they can get their fine book out and write all they want. I've got a pile of junk here and it's getting torched, that pack of morons in Frankfort can stand and toast their backsides by the fire if they want to.

Soundguy

I have a small "magnet in a can" that I got at Menards for about $5 or so. It has a loop handle over the aluminum can and a "T" handle to pull that releases what has been picked up. I cleaned up quite an area with it, then modified it with a handle about 30" long that allows me to operated it standing up. I just sweep across the area, and drop the nails into a few buckets set about 10' apart.

Old TV's and speakers had permanent magnets. When I helped clean up after a roofing job, I dragged a couple of those round magnet doughnuts around tied with twine to my boots. I found a whole lot of the nails as I worked picking up the removed roofing and at the end of the job I wasn't finding any more nails on the magnets. While I doubt that I got them all, I think I found most of the dropped nails with very little effort.

You might want to check with your local fire department, especially if it is a volunteer department. They might want to use your pile as a practice burn and it might not be a bad idea to have them on hand if the pile is as large as you suggest. Pallets and empty crates can really burn hot and fast and could surprise you. Good luck!

Charles

Thanks to everybody who has responded, lots of great tips and ideas.

Link

also do a search on 'magnet'

john

Get a OLD permenant mag chuck from a machine tool such as a surface grinder. Junkers can be had cheap.
The bigger the better. They have a handle on them to relese the mag force. You can install in a big piece of plastic pipe to keep clean then drag it with a tractor. You can locate these chucks on Ebay or from local machine dealers, usualy the junkers hace a bad surface or are not accurate for any more machine use. They are either rectangle or round.

I've used a magnet to clean up lawns and driveways after roofing jobs, especially ones that involved a complete tear off of the old roofing. Here are a couple of tricks to add to your bag: Putting the magnet on a rope and dragging it will work in some circumstances where having it attached to a handle doesn't. My favorite is, if you find or make a steel container for the magnet, like putting it in a can, it will pick things up just about as well, but then you can lift the magnet out of the container and the metallic debris falls off. Makes you feel smart, too.

Harbor Freight sells 50# or 100# capacity magnets with an eye bolt attached, for about $10.
Probably made in China (bad) but no moving parts (good.)

All the best, Stan