If you love DIY and adventure, one of the best instruments you can have is a pinpoint metal detector. With it you will not only have fun traveling the countryside in search of “hidden treasures”, but you will also have fun assembling this device with your own hands and following a few simple steps. To do this, there are several methods to do it, although some offer to use an old radio that you do not use, but the results obtained will not be as good.
This item offers a more professional metal detector with higher power which allows you to detect small metal parts or deeper ones. This will save you from investing a large sum of money in a metal detector, the price of which can vary considerably.
Method 1: homemade metal detector using a radio
This can be good for locating metals that aren’t too far away or even checking cables in the wall before drilling and getting a good scare…
Materials needed
The materials are very cheap and you can find them at home:
- Battery-powered portable radio that supports AM frequencies. Can be any cheap radio that you can have at home without using or owning one. It shouldn’t be a big deal…
- Inexpensive portable calculator , it also does not need to have any special features.
- Ribbon , it can be insulating. It’s just a matter of linking the devices.
- A long stick, such as a mop, a broom, an unused selfie stick, a stick or, if you prefer, an adjustable length stick of those used by painters.
- Others: if you prefer to adjust it to your needs, you can equip it with a padded handle, or whatever you need.
Step by step building
Once you have all the elements, the construction is very simple by following these steps:
- The wave transmitter used will be the calculator. When connected, it will emit waves that will collide with metal and make the radio tuned to AM sound different when you find metal. Therefore, you need to glue the two components together and in such a way that you can activate them easily.
- Once assembled, you need to make sure the radio is at full volume so you can hear the oscillations well. If it detects metal, the noise it will make won’t be too loud, so it’s best to do it in a quiet environment.
- Make sure that when you plug in the calculator, there is interference on the radio. This is why they must be very close together and well fixed with the adhesive tape. Try this by bringing a metal object close and seeing how the radio noise is changed, it will be the same effect that occurs when scanning in the field.
- Finally you can add a long stick attached to these two devices to search more comfortably without bending over, although if you are going to use it for walls you may prefer to leave it without a stick…
