converted "bend over" hand scoop... now a beach scoop...

[JunkInTheTrunk]

First off, this is SIMILAR to robby4570's converted handscoop... I've already come up with a plan for a "kick plate", but still need to make/build that part of it. If anything, the scoop itself is MUCH MORE rugged because if you notice where the spot welds were there are now small bolts with nylocks. The handle itself is a 12ft Total-Reach by Unger that was bought from Home Depot for about $18. A tad bit more than what robby4570's pole costed, but this one has tubes inside a tube (i.e. it's an extendable pole). I just cutoff the VERY end of it and put a bolt through it so ALL tubes stay together. You can see this in one of the pictures (i.e. the bottom part where it is cutoff and you see a bolt going through the thing). Therefore, it seems to be pretty darn stiff and I was flexing a bunch of different poles at Home Depot (i.e. mop, broom, etc) and this Total-Reach pole seemed to be the best out of all of them. Seemed to me that it would be less likely to break/bend. Of course, I will have to field test it first, but will let all of you know within the next few days of how it worked out. One thing, I do NOT expect it to be a good water hunting scoop... it was meant to be more of a wet sand to just over ankle deep water scoop. I don't have a PI just yet anyways, so that REALLY doesn't matter. This was meant more for people that MAINLY do wet sand to ankle deep hunting anyways. I can't swim very good, so I DEFINITELY will NOT be where the sharks are ANYWAYS!!! Especially after all of the recent vids I've been seeing Anyways, hope you guys like it???

I eventually plan on getting a Stealth scoop, but would rather save and spend the money on a PI machine FIRST!!! I'm hoping this will work for now. I'll keep you updated on how it works out.

I hope the pics come out okay... got a new camera and the "originals" were like 5MB pics I had to do all kinds of weird contortions of print screen, paint, and other programs just to get the file sizes down to "decent" size... still have some experimenting on the camera itself!!!

HH \_ people

[MrJeep]

Looks like it should work well for you. Nice job and good luck! Gene

[robby4570]

I am flattered that you took my idea and improved on it. I will be getting one of those poles as well. My scoop bent the other day at the mouth as a wave knocked me over on it and there are a few sharp edges that I have to look out for. I was hoping it would hold up better but I had no idea the stresses that it would have to endure. Oh well, live and learn... Good Job on your scoop, looking forward to your ideas on the foot pad!

[JunkInTheTrunk]

Well, using the cardboard to get an idea of how I want to put the "kick plate"/foot pad. I guess I MUST be board people Going to use the metal bar (i.e. the one with holes in it) as "triangle" braces, which is hard for me to describe HOW I plan on doing it. Obviously the final put together you will see it in place.

I KNOW some of you experienced water hunters are like, "dude... W.T.?" and all I can say to that is... well, can't say ANYTHING really against that Just hope that SOME will appreciate the concept. Hell, it MIGHT even give someone an idea to add to a "real" scoop. Who knows??? Anyways, here is the plan thus far of what the plate will look like.

Probably will NOT be completed until sometime next week. THEN I will take it out on an actual test run and see how it holds up and report back. Thanks for looking.

ONE QUESTION I DO HAVE: Does the kick plate/foot pad look like that it will work or is in the "correct position"??? Just curious on some of your guys input???

Any "constructive" criticism is welcome as well.

HH \_ people

Hope the pictures come out good again? It's a !!!! shoot right now with me and the uploaded pictures!!! DEFINITELY GOING TO R.T.F.M. this weekend

[JunkInTheTrunk]

Here is the "kick plate". NOT completed just yet, but just thought that you guys would like to see the pieces starting to "take shape" (i.e. work in progress). I also removed the hose clamp and added the 2x bolts in its place. I think that this would give better support/strength as the hose clamp had a tendency to loosen up and the pole would twist ever so much even though it had the 2x u-bolts. Anyways, the "cardboard model" REALLY helped me see/get some ideas on how to approach the kick plate/foot pad. I'm also going to SLIGHTLY put the kick plate at a downward angle. I'm guessing roughly 15deg or there abouts. My next pictured post will be the final long handled scoop. I will also post total price of materials used.

I SHOULD be field TESTING the thing in ABOUT a week or MAYBE two... depends on my crazy work schedule. FINALLY, had a Saturday off... those are EXTREMELY RARE for me and has been for ALMOST 9months now. I've been working typically 6days a week and leaving the sunday open to go visit my mom and help my sister take care of her. Anyways...

Hope you guys aren't getting mad thinking that I'm doing this to keep the thread "on top" NOT my intentions!!! Again, just thought you guys would like to see the "process" of this project of mine. Thanks to robby4570 for giving me a starting point.

Still fighting the pictures a little bit... I'd rather work on the scoop and read the camera manual last

Final note, if this DOES do decently then maybe it MIGHT be an alternative to a regular scoop??? OF COURSE, it is NO MATCH for a Stealth or RTG, but CAN BE an alternative and/or back-up scoop. You just have to take the time to build it yourself. I guess that's why it doesn't bother me too much. Sometimes I like to do things like this... SOMETIMES!!! Anyways, HH \_ people and hope you like the progress.

[robby4570]

I just started a new thread for the repairs on mine. Also, don't forget to put a big magnet or a couple small ones in the bottom of you scoop the the ever-present bobby pins and small earring backs etc...

Lookin' mighty good, keep up the good work and keep us posted!

[JunkInTheTrunk]

Originally Posted by robby4570

I just started a new thread for the repairs on mine. Also, don't forget to put a big magnet or a couple small ones in the bottom of you scoop the the ever-present bobby pins and small earring backs etc...

Lookin' mighty good, keep up the good work and keep us posted!

Thanks for the kind words and input. Also, thanks for the magnet ideas. I have an idea about those as well now I was hoping you would like the ideas. HH \_

[JunkInTheTrunk]

Well, to most... I want to add corner brackets/braces on each corner of the foot pad to some where on the scoop and/or the pole itself. These are the "triangle braces" I've been talking about. The thought process is that "IF" your foot happens to go off to the side that it will put a considerable amount of force on THAT corner and POSSIBLY make the foot pad/kick plate bend "inward". Right NOW though, just as long as your foot is pretty much IN THE MIDDLE then the possibility of THAT happening is next to none. The foot pad is NEARLY indestructable and the sand scoop is pretty darn beefy now as well. Putting the bolts through the spot welds, I THINK, made the darn thing that much stronger. Just MY humble opinion of course. I liked the idea of putting "cross beams" (i.e. underneath the foot pad) as well to prevent the possibility of the aluminum flexing.

I am thinking about taking the thing out this thursday after work (the ONLY time I REALLY have available) and TESTING what I have thus far. I will let you all know the results. I will ALSO post ALL parts used and their prices. Then again, the TESTING MAY happen on Friday??? I don't know yet??? Anyways, constructive criticism is welcomed.

PLEASE let me know what you guys/gals think thus far.

HH \_ people

[RichC]

Looks good but I don't think it would hold up to the heavy sand we have in this part of Florida's gulf. Let us know how it works for you.

[JunkInTheTrunk]

Originally Posted by RichC

Looks good but I don't think it would hold up to the heavy sand we have in this part of Florida's gulf. Let us know how it works for you.

curious, just so that I learn... what is meant by "heavy sand"? I'm NEW to beach hunting and eventually plan on going into the water, again only ankle deep at the most. Anyways, please let me know so that I can learn. I won't have a PI EASILY until right around the end of this year... maybe until next...

Final question, again out of curiousness, what makes it weak... the kind of sheet metal that the actual scoop is made of?

Thanks for the comments. HH \_

[Terry Soloman]

You are going to think I am being cruel, I'm not.

Your wet sand scoop is going to fail at the base of the handle. There is a reason wet sand scoops are heavy and expensive - because they are under tremendous strain from nose to tail.

Think about the man-hours and money you have in that home made scoop. Parts about $35-$40(?); Man-hours 2-3(?) = about $100.00-$120.00. Now you have a piece-o-khrap scoop that is sure to fail at the worst possible time, and you are STILL going to have to buy a good one.

You could have started with a welded aircraft aluminum 7"-wide scoop for about $160.00, but now that same scoop is going to cost you $275.00 because you tried to save some money.

Water hunting is HARD on equipment, and people. It is basically very easy, but it will tear you and your equipment up in a hurry. Wet sand is HEAVY, and unless you can hang 150-lbs off the end of that handle, it is going to fold like a guy with a pair of 2's..

Originally Posted by JunkInTheTrunk

First off, this is SIMILAR to robby4570's converted handscoop... I've already come up with a plan for a "kick plate", but still need to make/build that part of it. If anything, the scoop itself is MUCH MORE rugged because if you notice where the spot welds were there are now small bolts with nylocks. The handle itself is a 12ft Total-Reach by Unger that was bought from Home Depot for about $18. A tad bit more than what robby4570's pole costed, but this one has tubes inside a tube (i.e. it's an extendable pole). I just cutoff the VERY end of it and put a bolt through it so ALL tubes stay together. You can see this in one of the pictures (i.e. the bottom part where it is cutoff and you see a bolt going through the thing). Therefore, it seems to be pretty darn stiff and I was flexing a bunch of different poles at Home Depot (i.e. mop, broom, etc) and this Total-Reach pole seemed to be the best out of all of them. Seemed to me that it would be less likely to break/bend. Of course, I will have to field test it first, but will let all of you know within the next few days of how it worked out. One thing, I do NOT expect it to be a good water hunting scoop... it was meant to be more of a wet sand to just over ankle deep water scoop. I don't have a PI just yet anyways, so that REALLY doesn't matter. This was meant more for people that MAINLY do wet sand to ankle deep hunting anyways. I can't swim very good, so I DEFINITELY will NOT be where the sharks are ANYWAYS!!! Especially after all of the recent vids I've been seeing Anyways, hope you guys like it???

I eventually plan on getting a Stealth scoop, but would rather save and spend the money on a PI machine FIRST!!! I'm hoping this will work for now. I'll keep you updated on how it works out.

I hope the pics come out okay... got a new camera and the "originals" were like 5MB pics I had to do all kinds of weird contortions of print screen, paint, and other programs just to get the file sizes down to "decent" size... still have some experimenting on the camera itself!!!

HH \_ people

[JunkInTheTrunk]

Originally Posted by Terry Soloman

You are going to think I am being cruel, I'm not.

Your wet sand scoop is going to fail at the base of the handle. There is a reason wet sand scoops are heavy and expensive - because they are under tremendous strain from nose to tail.

Think about the man-hours and money you have in that home made scoop. Parts about $35-$40(?); Man-hours 2-3(?) = about $100.00-$120.00. Now you have a piece-o-khrap scoop that is sure to fail at the worst possible time, and you are STILL going to have to buy a good one.

You could have started with a welded aircraft aluminum 7"-wide scoop for about $160.00, but now that same scoop is going to cost you $275.00 because you tried to save some money.

Water hunting is HARD on equipment, and people. It is basically very easy, but it will tear you and your equipment up in a hurry. Wet sand is HEAVY, and unless you can hang 150-lbs off the end of that handle, it is going to fold like a guy with a pair of 2's..

Terry, I'm NOT taking it as being "cruel", but rather more as advice. Firstly, the man hours doesn't mean squat to me as I'm NOT looking into "production runs on this item" so I don't have to worry about paying someone. The parts were roughly $35-40, so you're VERY CORRECT about that... pretty good, I'm impressed Anyways, I also realize that water hunting is hard. I used to be a "beach bumb" throughout my younger years and KNOW the pounding of the waves... BELIEVE ME... but those days are over and just plan on going ankle deep at the most as I know my limitations. Secondly, I already had the scoop anyways and decided to build a homemade long handle. I GUARANTEE you that my kick plate is MUCH STRONGER than the others that I've seen even production items, BUT I do realize that THAT is probably the ONLY thing on my homemade scoop. I also look at it like this, since I took the time to make the thing, it gave me ideas about ALOT of things... so who knows... I just may apply things from this project into others in the future.

Terry, I do want to say, "thanks for the comments/concerns/advice" and don't think that I don't. I'm the type that keeps things in mind when people tell me things... sometimes I'll have a tendency to stray off, but it is ONLY because I am curious about whatever it is in my mind at the time.

HH \_ to you and everyone else...

MAANNN... 150 lbs... me and the boys would NOT like that

[Terry Soloman]

Originally Posted by JunkInTheTrunk

Terry, I'm NOT taking it as being "cruel", but rather more as advice. Firstly, the man hours doesn't mean squat to me as I'm NOT looking into "production runs on this item" so I don't have to worry about paying someone. The parts were roughly $35-40, so you're VERY CORRECT about that... pretty good, I'm impressed Anyways, I also realize that water hunting is hard. I used to be a "beach bumb" throughout my younger years and KNOW the pounding of the waves... BELIEVE ME... but those days are over and just plan on going ankle deep at the most as I know my limitations. Secondly, I already had the scoop anyways and decided to build a homemade long handle. I GUARANTEE you that my kick plate is MUCH STRONGER than the others that I've seen even production items, BUT I do realize that THAT is probably the ONLY thing on my homemade scoop. I also look at it like this, since I took the time to make the thing, it gave me ideas about ALOT of things... so who knows... I just may apply things from this project into others in the future.

Terry, I do want to say, "thanks for the comments/concerns/advice" and don't think that I don't. I'm the type that keeps things in mind when people tell me things... sometimes I'll have a tendency to stray off, but it is ONLY because I am curious about whatever it is in my mind at the time.

HH \_ to you and everyone else...

MAANNN... 150 lbs... me and the boys would NOT like that

Really glad you understand, and great reply.

[JunkInTheTrunk]

SOME of it is an "estimate"... that is the estimates being the bolts/washers/split washers (lock washer)... Hence, the approximate cost, if you will.

Total-Reach 12' extension pole: 1x $17.98 ea = $17.98
Aluminum door threshold plate: 1x $9.98 ea = $9.98
u-bolts: 2x $0.95 ea = $1.90
metal (possibly steel) bar w/ holes 1x $0.87 ea = $0.87
various lengths of bolts/washers/split washer: est cost $2.50-5.00 (worst case is $5.00)

Total approx: $35.73

The scoop that you're seeing costed me ABOUT $48.00 so OVERALL cost of the long handle scoop is ROUGHLY $83.73

Was it REALLY worth it??? YES and NO. I say this because, like I was saying to Terry, I can apply what I learned to either "enhance" or add-in things to a "professional" scoop. That is my overall humble opinion on the matter. Some will have their own opinions and that is fine, but this is mine. The whole point was to see what "I" was able to come up with and hopefully make a halfway decent long handled scoop with, for the most part, what I have available to me. ALL parts and hardware can be purchased at Home Depot... minus the scoop of course.

I will update this post on how the scoop performs and give my report. So far, I HAVE used it in the "wet sand" and it does VERY WELL!!! HONESTLY!!! I just NOW need to concentrate on my PI, but THAT is a few months away... so what Terry was saying to me was ALMOST pointless in a way as far as the "extra spending" or something along those lines. The analogy to this would be that I could EASILY bike to work and save gas money, but I don't and work is ONLY a few miles away Anyways... Thank you for the comments Terry, robby4570, MrJeep, and the rest. And thank you for looking at the post as well.

I'm also hoping, at the very least, that this will give someone an idea and apply it as they need it. Just like robby4570's initial design did to me. That was the other purpose of me doing this as well.

I can HONESTLY say that "for light duty work", I think this scoop/long handle combination will do just fine... REALLY. I ALMOST want to buy a scoop within the same price range (i.e. $84.00) and see which does better and/or holds up better. I MAY just do that... but right now... NOW I'm saving for my PI!!!

The picture was the first day of TESTING... might have been the second... I honestly don't remember... it WAS the first day with the scoop because I brought my new point-and-shoot camera with me that day as well. Hence, the picture.

HH \_ people

[54shooter]

Your work is your work. Be proud of what you have done..............

[JunkInTheTrunk]

Originally Posted by 54shooter

Your work is your work. Be proud of what you have done..............

Thank you 54shooter.

I can't express how MUCH I understand about the scoop's metal itself NOT "thick" enough or "strong" enough to withstand the abuse. For example, if you LOOK at the Stealth Scoops sheet metal, it is obvious that the metal is more "rigid", if you will. Compare it to the handheld scoops, the handheld scoops look like it was made from aluminum cans and the metal thickness itself is obviously different. I do NOT know how else to say it. The whole point, it is MORE THAN GOOD enough for light duty work as I have been using it off and on... MOSTLY in the "wet sand" and it does GREAT!!! I can tell you straight out that the "kick plate" works VERY WELL!!! Right now, I'm NOT going to say "WHAT?", BUT I found something VERY USEFUL and until I get "a real scoop" I'm NOT going to give that "WHAT?" away at the moment. In the mean time, it has worked VERY WELL. So thus far, if someone wants to do the same thing, well, I can tell you all that it works just fine. I will update from time-to-time on the condition as to keep sortof a "track history" of it. Now keep in mind that, apparently, some people are hard on their equipment... so it may work just fine for me, but yet "break down" for them. THAT I understand as well. Anyways... thanks again for your words and HH \_

thanks to Terry, robby, and others who I have spoken with about it and have given me their opinions on the matter. Again, BELIEVE ME, I do understand a little about "structural design concepts" because of my background and people who I have met in "their fields of interests and studies".

HH \_ everyone

[Spoonsize]

resizing pictures and then saving them in a smaller file size.....

download and install "Irfanview" along with the downsizing plugin.

If you cannot figure how it works, PM me and I'll send along some detailed instructions. There are only a few steps.

Steve Durham