flyin-lowe
New member
Some of you might have seen this on another forum but figured I would post here for those who haven't. I have been thinking about doing some water hunting with my AT Pro. We have a local park with a beach and a few other fresh water areas I have in mind nearby. I could not justify the price of the new scoops for me to use a couple times a year and maybe once a summer while on vacation. I know sometimes you can DIY stuff cheaper then buying new and sometimes you can't. I think with a little bit of looking around you can definitely get a high quality scoop for a fraction of the cost. Here is what I did and how it finished up.
I first went to a local scrap yard/impound lot. My employer does some work for them so they donated a piece of stainless steel to me. I was ahead there but either way at scrap weight this piece of stainless was only going to cost $20.00 so that is still good. As for the fabrication I used 2 different people. I have a friend who is a blacksmith and makes a living doing metal work. I took a small picture of a stealth scoop 720i to him and he said he could do it no problem. He told me he was not looking forward to drilling all the holes in the stainless so I told him I would get back with him. I then went to my local high school which has a machine shop. If your local school does not have a machine shop you could also check your local college or community college. Anyway I took it to the high school and they offered to do the entire project for free. I told them I just needed the holes drilled and I had somebody to do the rest. The set up my piece of stainless on a CNC machine, wrote a program and let it drill all the holes.
I then took the scoop to the local blacksmith and he made the bends and welded it together. He also made the slot for the handle to attach. All in all I have $8.00 in this scoop, had I paid for the material I still would have only had $28.00 in it saving my self $150.00 or so based on new prices. Many people don't think about local schools with machine shops but they almost always work for free, unless they have to supply a lot of material. Plus they really like doing projects like this because it is something out of the ordinary.
With a little time and running around you can get a quality scoop without breaking the bank, especially for somebody like me who only water hunts a couple times a year.
The stainless in this scoop is 1/8 inch thick, very heavy duty stuff. All I have to do is cut the handle down to a shorter length.
I first went to a local scrap yard/impound lot. My employer does some work for them so they donated a piece of stainless steel to me. I was ahead there but either way at scrap weight this piece of stainless was only going to cost $20.00 so that is still good. As for the fabrication I used 2 different people. I have a friend who is a blacksmith and makes a living doing metal work. I took a small picture of a stealth scoop 720i to him and he said he could do it no problem. He told me he was not looking forward to drilling all the holes in the stainless so I told him I would get back with him. I then went to my local high school which has a machine shop. If your local school does not have a machine shop you could also check your local college or community college. Anyway I took it to the high school and they offered to do the entire project for free. I told them I just needed the holes drilled and I had somebody to do the rest. The set up my piece of stainless on a CNC machine, wrote a program and let it drill all the holes.
I then took the scoop to the local blacksmith and he made the bends and welded it together. He also made the slot for the handle to attach. All in all I have $8.00 in this scoop, had I paid for the material I still would have only had $28.00 in it saving my self $150.00 or so based on new prices. Many people don't think about local schools with machine shops but they almost always work for free, unless they have to supply a lot of material. Plus they really like doing projects like this because it is something out of the ordinary.
With a little time and running around you can get a quality scoop without breaking the bank, especially for somebody like me who only water hunts a couple times a year.
The stainless in this scoop is 1/8 inch thick, very heavy duty stuff. All I have to do is cut the handle down to a shorter length.
I think you could sell those, or license the build to some other scoopmaker?