Fun with a VibraProbe - 339 coin night

Re: Fun with a VibraProbe

pennies?!?

Must be the change falling out of their pocket as they are reaching for the quarters.

When my probel comes I might have a little look-see around my cousins vacuumes at his gas station.

Re: Fun with a VibraProbe

Hey, here is another idea. While at the family reunion slip one of the kids the probe during the sand box penny hunt :!:

Re: Fun with a VibraProbe

Hey Tres !..what gives ?..Plug diggin', battery powered instruments, and now "fun with a vibra probe "..I thought this was a "family oriented" site...HH , or whatever.. Roadrunner_426

Re: Fun with a VibraProbe

'Tis a sexy hobby, what can I say?

36 coins today with my unique method. 3 dimes, a nickel, and the rest pennies. I also found a spoon, a few hundred nailgun nails (in little bundles still, not broken up), and a dozen pull tabs/bottle caps.

Most payphone coins were to the right of the pay phone, most vacuum coins were to the left. About equally disbursed between pay phones and vacuums, although the machines closest to the store was likely to have the most coins.

I guess when a quarter will pay for all or most of what folks want to buy (air, vacuum, phone call) that they will look hard for one that is dropped. Kind of a "perceived" value that a quarter is worth more at a pay phone than in front of a furniture store.

Re: Fun with a VibraProbe

Thirty-six coins isn't bad...I was at a park tonight for a couple of hours and didn't pick up but twenty...you may have opened up a whole new field of detection...HH Roadrunner_426

Re: Fun with a VibraProbe

Might be interesting to see what's inside those vacuums too.. LB

Re: Fun with a VibraProbe

Leakin, I agree.

So tonight I went and emptied the collection bins on two vacs, put the refuse in garbage bags, and brought them home.

I only got about 1/8 the way through one bag when I realized I was making a mess, so I've called it quits for the night.

Here's what I'm doing:

1) Take the gunk home.
2) Scooping out with a plastic scoop (just because it holds more than my metal one)
3) Putting a scoopfull into a perforated plastic tray (this is where it was messy, the dirt was sifting through onto the yard. I need to perfect this step)
4) Probing scoop ful with VibraProbe
5) Using tip of Probe or plastic scoop to move any hits to the side of the tray
6) Probing hit clusters more until I find the target
7) Removing target with scoop tip if it's a coin, scooting it to the side if it's not a coin

So far:

8 dimes
6 pennies
4 nickels

Two of the nickels were 61 and 63 Ds I thought those were years but they are not. The strike on the 61 is really super deep and it looks very nice

I guess that dimes are lightest and easiest to (edited) up?


I need to come up with a better method. I don't want to take forever, but I don't want to put my hands into the dirt, even with rubber gloves on. I don't want to get cut on anything. Maybe a two screen process where the first screening would let coin sized objects fall through and the second screening would only let dirt and lint fall through?

I'll keep you updated. If I can get a few bucks out of each bag then I may go back and ask if I can do this every week. I didn't ask today because I wanted to test the waters and not cause any weirdness if it ends up being a bust.

I would like to compare a year's worth of collections out of different types of station vacs in different parts of town. Branded vs Unbranded, Rich v Middle class v Poor. To do that I've got to come up with a much faster sort method.

Update

I went out and tried again. I finished one bag. For the rest of the bag I followed these steps:

1) Load into the sifter, shake like mad over the trashcan
2) Shake like mad some more.
3) Lift the fiber and stuff up with the plastic scoop, wave the probe over it, verify any hits were on foil/bobby pins. Throw that away
4) Pluck up the coins with gloved hands.

I finished this in just under 1 hour. Here are the final results for that bag:

130 pennies
10 nickels
19 dimes
1 quarter

$3.95

I suspect the process could go a little faster. There were two nice nickels (above), a nice 1967 dime that's just pretty, and a wheat penny.

Re: Fun with a VibraProbe

That's even more coins than I thought would be there...certainly more than I'd find in an hour ( or 2 or 3 ) of metal detecting...there are 2 car washes down the street that must have 15 to 20 of those vacuums between them...wonder how often the bags are replaced ? It's got to be messy work, but if someone had a mind to, they might could almost make a living at it, depending on how many machines they had access to..did you just open the vacuum yourself or have to get an attendant to open it ?...wouldn't surprise me if there might be a stray piece of jewelry show up every once in a blue moon too . LB

Re: Fun with a VibraProbe

I just opened it up. There are a few around here that are locked, but most aren't. They all have giant locks on what I assume is the money box.

I'll do the otherone later today. These bins were very, very packed. I would imagine they hadn't been emptied in a while. The first one I went to was round and two bins in the bottom. I left those alone because the bins are oddly shaped and I wasn't sure I could get them back in. The second one I went to was also round but didn't have a bin! They are just letting that muck pile up. The suction on that one must be awful. The third set that I went to was rectangular shaped but bowed out on the long sides. They each had one sturdy plastic bin.

Update:

I just processed the second bag/bin. It took about an hour and a half to process. I almost gave up because it was heavier than the last bag and was FILLED with dog food nuggets. The smell was horrendous. In the interest of data gathering I pressed on.

Results

151 pennies
5 nickels
21 dimes
2 quarters

$4.36


This is not for the faint of heart or the easily icked out. I've done a lot of dumpster diving so I think my "ick" factor is way less than the average person's. The reek of that dog food was almost more than I could handle though. I'm also a hideous mess.

I'm not sure I would do this as a hobby unless I was unemployed or under employed. The costs were: The cost of gas to go six miles and back, wear and tear on my VibraProbe, two black garbage bags. I will do this again if I can find suitable vacs in a lower income area and a high income area just to satisfy my curiousity.

In addition to what I listed above, I found one candian penny, a little pendant that I'm sure is nitro, a dainty bookmarker made out of metal (I broke it), and a Brazillian Flag pin.

Totals of two vacuums at a branded gas station in a middle class neighbourhood:

281 pennies
15 nickels
40 dimes
3 quarters

You are one innovative person! I would never have thought of doing that!

Tres, that's a surprising number of coins..might even be worth considering on a regular basis if the quarter total wasn't so low, and it wasn't such a messy job..I'll guarantee somebody, somewhere, is doing it on a regular basis, and probably without a probe.. Leakinbattries

Based on some of my newest findings, I agree that there are folks who do this quite often.

I drove all over the dicey end of town. 100 percent of the vacs were locked on the bottom (refuse collection bin). I finally asked one station owner why he locked the bottom. I understand why owners lock the coin collection box. He told me that he locks it because vagrants take the whole bin, not just the refuse! He got tired of buying new bins.

So, back to my part of town. I found an unlocked, branded station vac that had a bin (collapsable) that I could remove without making a mess. Results:

61 pennies
6 dimes

$1.21

Why so low? Is supect because there was no car wash. Those first two strikes were at a station with a carwash, I didn't think that would be a factor. This one was filled with weird stuff, too. Airplain liquor bottles, socks, wadded up newspapers. I don't know how this old vac had the suction for that. There were also two rings, a key, a watch face, two non-matching earrings, and a Coach handbag tag.



Across the street, branded station with a car wash. Collapsable bin:

112 pennies
15 dimes
9 nickels

$3.07
This bin was not very full.


Both bins from today were round.


Now here's the question: How long does it take to fill a bin? I dunno. I will find out soon enough though. I'll check them once a week and see how full they are.


I think I could probably do a side business of emptying bins and cleaning out the collection area. There are lots and lots of unlocked vacs up here with no bin. It's a messy job but I could do them very quickly if I didn't have to be sneaky. Just pull the gunk out, dump it, wipe out the bottom, wash the bin (if there is one), replace the bin, and lock it.

Advantages to the business owner? Stronger suction, extended motor life. The stronger suction would be important because if they vac across the street doesn't get maintained and has lousy suction, people will remember that their car didn't get clean there but did get clean at the maintained vac. That could easily lead to not only a few extra vacs per month, but a few extra tanks of gas, a few extra car washes, and a few more sales of sodas and snacks. Pay me $15 a month and I'll take care of it for you ... employees hate to do this.

Entrepreneurship is alive and well ! You might just get some takers...anything to the 2 rings you found ? Saw your post on seas finds for the year..who're you trying to kid ?...a few more 300 coin nights from the vacuums and your total will be right there...HH Roadrunner_426

Tres, I'm a "professional" dumpster diver myself, and made $7,000. last year along with the help of EBay. But, your idea is totally original. Way to go.

I do a bit of diving myself as I do metal salvage on the side. A frequent find is old vacuum cleaners. (I clean the copper out of the cords and motors). Anyway, after reading your post I wondered what treasures might lie in the old vacuum bags. I pulled the bag from the next one I got with intentions of going through it. Unfortunately, the smell was so bad that after gagging and nearly losing a cookie or two I had to abandon the effort. I might try again if the next one smells better. (I'd love to find a lost ring!!)

flbandit, yeah I'm having the same problem. Besides salvage I haul stuff out of peoples basements, garages etc. That's profitable, but MDing is my real love.

Sounds like some sort of surgical mask might be useful to help keep the dust/odor at bay.. HH Roadrunner_426

In Kew In England there is this dump where people just pull up and dump their cr@p
Well there is this company (family business) that have the contract to sort the stuff out and you should see the goods they pile up some really nice stuff

Seeing as the cheapest house there is about 1 million pounds they do not see the stuff as valuable


Where theres muck theres gold as the saying goes

You have a plan, and it looks like its working for ya. I would be concerned with what bio hazard might be lurking in there. Just never know what some people have in their cars. The ick factor dosen't bother me. I would be more afraid of some junkies needle. Glad to hear your taking the right precautions. Good luck on your quest.