Neodymium magnetic sweeper wanted

[newbury]

I have an attraction for magnets.

In this thread there's a discussion of attaching LED light to ROPS with magnets. In addition a little side discussion of strong magnets for finding nails in burn piles.

I've just had an addition put on and there are nails in the yard, not many but I'd like to find them. My contractor has been pretty good at picking up nails etc. but he uses a "sweeper" from Home Depot which doesn't seem very strong.

I've looked for a factory "magnetic sweeper" that uses neodymium magnets but haven't found one so I've repurposed the 10 magnets I bought for mounting my LED lights (I had only been using 4 for lights) and made a quick "magnetic sweeper bar". The other 6 had been holding notes on toolboxes and the refrigerator. A little overkill because the magnets have 112 lb pull and are hard to get off the refrigerator.

Seems to pick up well, pictures may follow.

BUT - the reason for my post is - has anyone found a REALLY strong magnetic sweeper? Something that will almost pull nails out of the floor

 

[dickfoster]

Well the strongest magnets you can get are neodymium so you're going in the right direction. The bigger they are the more they cost and the stronger they are.

 

[Ford850]

That should work well with the nails/screws that get pushed into the soil, or buried in ashes of a burn pile too. I think a strong sweeper could pull them loose. I use a Harbor Freight 250lb magnet in a 5 gallon bucket, which works great for stuff on the surface. Yours should be many times better than that.

 

[TractorGuy]

Magnetic Sweeper, Magnetic Broom in Stock - ULINE

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Make an electromagnet! I don't think it'd be hard and could be a really fun project.

And it would have an on/off switch.