Magnetic brooms

[S854]

I’m thinking of buying a mag broom for use in a portion of our land.

We currently have irresponsible family members living in a trailer located next to our barn. We’ve fenced off roughly 1/4 acre around the trailer to contain the debris. (Sorry for the rant… I’m not happy with the current arrangement, there’s not much I can do about it… you know the story, happy wife, happy life… regardless…)

Once they move on I’ll be needing to collect as many nails/staples/bolts/car parts as possible… before they find their way into a tractor tire…I’ve already convinced my wife not to drive her car in there… three flat tires is enough! (Ranting again..).

The natural vegetation has been wiped out by their animals/cars/four wheelers (there goes the rant…) so I’ll be left to pick up small metal objects out of the dirt… which could be tedious at best…

in comes the mag broom… I don’t want to drive my tractor in there, for obvious reasons, so I’ll be sweeping the land manually for the first few passes and thinking about eventually hanging the broom under the garden tractor to pick up any strays missed on the first/second go round… fixing a garden tractor tire is easier than a large loaded tire… (rant!)

Researching mag brooms I’ve found considerable variation in both price and what they term “holding capacities“… with price going up with capacity… No surprise there…

Im looking for real world experience with any of these mag brooms… right now I’m thinking “go big or go home”… more is always better… but is it three times better?

 

[flyerdan]

What I'd do if faced with that project would be to source 4 or 5 old car air conditioner pumps for the electric clutches and use them as an electromagnet bar on a couple of wheelbarrow tires and a car battery. Roll it around engergized and drop the scrap on a tarp or something that will contain it easily for dealing with. There shouldn't be enough weight on it to cause issues with the wheelbarrow tires, and when you're done it can be converted to a sling mount for use on a skidsteer or tractor for maintenance patrols.

 

[bigtiller]

I have a 36" one that I have adjusted for the concrete floor and it is great.

I have tried it on the gravel driveway and grassy areas without adjusting the height of the wheels. The 7" wheels made the thing quite bouncy over the ruff ground and grass would rub the magnet and occasionally catch and pull something off. But a couple of passes over the same area seamed to get it all.

Had I taken the time to raise the wheels to the highest setting it probably would have been just fine.

 

[crashz]

I bought 2 at Harbor Freight. Probably the best HF tools I have. I bought them when I hired a few friends to do my roof at our old house. I told them I'd handle the ground work. These magnets were great, and actually picked up old steel (nails) that were embedded in the ground well before the roofing project.

HF is a gamble, but these are worth it.

 

[Vigo327]

I don't think you need an actual 'magnetic broom' unless you plan to use it as a hand-operated broom later. If you do a temporary thing on a tractor implement it would be cheaper.

For example, if you have a landscape rake, 2-3 of these wire tied to the tines near the bottom, would do it and be a total of $45. Could run rake spun around backwards too.

 

[tradosaurus]

I’m thinking of buying a mag broom for use in a portion of our land.

We currently have irresponsible family members living in a trailer located next to our barn. We’ve fenced off roughly 1/4 acre around the trailer to contain the debris. (Sorry for the rant… I’m not happy with the current arrangement, there’s not much I can do about it… you know the story, happy wife, happy life… regardless…)

Once they move on I’ll be needing to collect as many nails/staples/bolts/car parts as possible… before they find their way into a tractor tire…I’ve already convinced my wife not to drive her car in there… three flat tires is enough! (Ranting again..).

The natural vegetation has been wiped out by their animals/cars/four wheelers (there goes the rant…) so I’ll be left to pick up small metal objects out of the dirt… which could be tedious at best…

in comes the mag broom… I don’t want to drive my tractor in there, for obvious reasons, so I’ll be sweeping the land manually for the first few passes and thinking about eventually hanging the broom under the garden tractor to pick up any strays missed on the first/second go round… fixing a garden tractor tire is easier than a large loaded tire… (rant!)

Researching mag brooms I’ve found considerable variation in both price and what they term “holding capacities“… with price going up with capacity… No surprise there…

Im looking for real world experience with any of these mag brooms… right now I’m thinking “go big or go home”… more is always better… but is it three times better?

I think you have larger problems than metal refuse. The lack of respect from your wife and her family members needs to be addressed. Hopefully your wife's relatives will move on but I wouldn't count on it.

My family knows a happy household is a happy father.

 

[Hughman]

I have a metal leaf rake that I attached a big speaker magnet to. Use it to collect nails out of a burn pile.

 

[M59]

I

I’m thinking of buying a mag broom for use in a portion of our land.
View attachment 790068

S854,

I can't help with the relatives but I can provide feedback on the HF rolling magnetic "broom". I have acquired 5 of them over time since they work so well indoors and out. They work fairly well on gravel as long as you drag them and not push them ( tends to dig in). Also work fairly well dragged on grass so long as the grass is not more than 3" tall. The wheels are not big enough dia for "broom" to work well. When grass is 3"+ then picked up items tend to get wiped back off, particularly if small nails/screws) or the "broom" hangs up on lumpy ground. I have put 2" larger dia wheels on the one I use in grass around the house.

 

[newbury]

I've a lot of magnets, mostly NEODYMIUM POT MAGNETS from CMS.
The brooms look nice for repeated use, such as sweeping a shop floor but I doubt their pulling power with trash in the soil.
I had a carport collapse and the cleanup left sheet metal screws all over the place, working themselves into the dirt.
I took about a dozen Cup Magnets w/ Threaded Stud Neodymium 23 LB Holding Power and put them on about a 3' piece of Steel Punched Flat Bar. for a "drag" bar.
You could get stronger magnets of course but the stronger the magnet the more difficult it is to get the offending material pulled off the magnet and 23 lbs was the "sweet spot" for me.
/edit - and when I was done with that the magnets were easy to repurpose.

 

[S854]

I do have several Christmas wreath door magnets (good holding power) and a rather large subwoofer speaker magnet… hmmm… maybe I could incorporate them with a piece of sheet steel to form a drag of some sort… cheaper than buying something new…

As far as getting the “guests” to move on… I’ve stressed for a year and a half… finally decided it wasn’t the hill I wanted to die on… someday I’ll find solitude… until then I’ll “vent” from time to time… thanks for commiserating…

 

[MTGreen]

You could find a way to encourage them out such as having a water or power or heating/air conditioning problem or something structurally with the mobile... And lo and behold parts are on backorder guess they'll need to stay in a hotel for now... etc. If you're clever you can engineer it so as to not make your spouse suspicious. Alternatively the rent payment needs to match inflation this year (may be more of a battle with the spouse though) Enough of those types of things and they'll be motivated to find housing elsewhere.

Removed a completely feral "pet" cat that way from my property that belonged to my MIL. And come to think of it my wife and I both used those tactics to "encourage" that same MIL to move 1100 miles away...

 

[brutus54]

Had our old deck replaced and there were nails and scwews everywhere. Got the wheeled magnetic broom at Tractor Supply and spent a week sweeping the backyard. Filled 3 gallon jugs before I was comfortable driving the zero turn over the area. Very powerful and a worthwhile tool.

 

[2manyrocks]

As expensive as some of these pick up magnet are, I'd rather spend the money instead of dealing with a flat tractor tire.

I had to make repeat passes with one after having a roof done about a year ago. Thought I had all the nails up. Made another pass in the Spring before the grass came up, and found more.

 

[S854]

As expensive as some of these pick up magnet are, I'd rather spend the money instead of dealing with a flat tractor tire.

When a nail/staple/screw went into wife’s tire I removed the tire, took it into town and had Discount Tire repair it for “free” … easy peasy (but time consuming)

I’m rather new to this whole tractor owner thing… however, I’ve seen what’s involved with changing loader tires and it didn’t look cheap… hoists, hydraulic arms, BIG pneumatic wrenches…obviously a much larger tire involved there…

I don’t have the capability to load a flat rear tractor tire into the back of my pickup, so… What is a reasonable cost assumption for repairing a tractor tire at my rural home?

FWIW, my new tractor came from the dealer with inner tubes due to the calcium they use as ballast so just plugging the tire isn’t a option for me…

 

[crashz]

HF magnet is $50 for the 30" wide unit. $12 for the 17" unit. Its cheap enough just for peace of mind.

 

[2manyrocks]

When a nail/staple/screw went into wife’s tire I removed the tire, took it into town and had Discount Tire repair it for “free” … easy peasy (but time consuming)

I’m rather new to this whole tractor owner thing… however, I’ve seen what’s involved with changing loader tires and it didn’t look cheap… hoists, hydraulic arms, BIG pneumatic wrenches…obviously a much larger tire involved there…

I don’t have the capability to load a flat rear tractor tire into the back of my pickup, so… What is a reasonable cost assumption for repairing a tractor tire at my rural home?

FWIW, my new tractor came from the dealer with inner tubes due to the calcium they use as ballast so just plugging the tire isn’t a option for me…

I don't know the cost, but it would be a monumental hassle.

The magnet pickup tool that I bought from Lowes did okay in short lawn grass with freshly dropped screws. If someone has been tossing out metal for an extended period, the metal is going to be pretty embedded in the grass making it hard for a normal magnet pickup tool to grab it. I wouldn't trust any magnet 100% to deal with embedded metal, especially if it potentially involves driving a tractor tire over it.

Amazon has some fishing magnets that are pretty cheap and powerful. If I had an area that I suspected had a lot of metal in it, I'd think about mounting some of them to a board or piece of metal to make a super magnet pickup.

 

[newbury]

Amazon has some fishing magnets that are pretty cheap and powerful. If I had an area that I suspected had a lot of metal in it, I'd think about mounting some of them to a board or piece of metal to make a super magnet pickup.

Yup, that's basically what I did.

 

[RjCorazza]

I used (4) 600 lb fishing magnets bolted to a cut down metal yardstick. 3' of Rope attached to both ends for a handle.
I use it mostly prior to lawn mowing after a customer gets their roof done, and it works very well.

 

[newbury]

How do you efficiently pull nails etc. off it?
That would be one of the advantages of an electromagnet.

 

[CADplans]

I have a 36" wheeled magnet with a handle, probably like HF sells,,
I use it in my shop, and I useit right outside the shop door, maybe a 20X50 foot area.
THAT is about all I would consider doing with the hand magnet.