Appreciation post: A simple magnet trick for finding dropped tools

Lost a wrench in the muck on a job near Jacksonville last year. Tied a strong neodymium magnet to a rope and dragged it along the dredge path, found it in about 20 minutes. Anyone have other good recovery methods for when stuff goes overboard?

3 comments

3 Comments

maxf3320d ago

Taped a flashlight to a pole once to spot a socket in clear water.

brianreed20d ago

That Jacksonville muck sounds like it eats tools for breakfast. I dropped a brand new pair of channel locks off a dock once and just had to watch them sink into the murk, gone forever. My magnet trick only works if you drop things on dry land, which I seem to do a lot. Maybe I should start tying everything to my belt with a string like a toddler's mittens.

lewis.mila20d ago

My old crew in Tampa swore by a big magnet on a rope too, but we added a cheap underwater camera. Hooked a GoPro knockoff to the magnet line so we could see what we were dragging over. Found a whole drill set that way once, saved us a trip to the store. The murky water down there makes it feel like you're fishing blind otherwise.