Screw Rake

Using recycled computer hard drive magnets, some string and 40mm waste water pipe create a rake to separate screws etc from dirt for recycling. Simply drag over your workshop floor so that dropped screws, and anything else small and made from steel can be separated from sawdust and dirt and re-used or recycled. To drop the collected screws into a bin simply hold the screw rake over your recycling bin and pull the string.

5 to 10 unwanted hard drives (I found western digital magnets were the easiest to thread string through)

offcuts of 40mm waste water pipe, ABS solvent weld is best as you can permanently and strongly secure pipe and elbows during construction.

90 and 135 degree 40mm waste pipe elbows and a T

strong woven synthetic string

star type screw drivers for hard drive dismantling

Open-up some unwanted hard drives, remove the magnets, lay them in a row and then thread strong woven string through them tying knots as you go. I ended up with a necklace of 7 magnets with a good 1.5 metres of string at either end, the 7 magnets allowed me to have a rake that was 400mm wide at the bottom.

Then start to build the rake around the necklace of magnets threading the sting though the waste water pipe as you go. Remember to include the stopper disc that the screws etc will hit causing them to drop-off as the string with magnets is pulled through the inside of the pipe later-on.

I had a very finite supply of pipe and elbows which governed the shape of rake I was able to make. If you have a good supply of 135 degree elbows you will be able make a much more elegantly shaped rake. Avoid 90 elbows with a sharp bend in them as the necklace of magnets will struggle to get round the curve, as you can see I had 1 gently swept 90 degree elbow.

I did attempt to make a handle that I could turn to pull the sting through the pipe, but this did not work out in the end. I needed to have the string quite loose in order to allow the magnets to drop to the bottom of the pipe at the bottom of the rake to put them within range of the screws they would be picking-up. As it was I just put a screw through the side and used this to tie the string off.