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10” 24K Coil Issue


rled2005

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Another addition for the coil;

IMG_2949-Recovered.jpg

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This was some of the "hand-crafted" Sweet Home touch the ladies in the coil department had to do to tune these. With the initial prototype coils, when heated to 120 degrees F they would go out of tune. Without modern epoxy dispensers, plastic housings, or better yet software ability to compensate for different X and R null drifts, I started experimenting with different materials since we had only a few months to launch the 24k. The initial tuning was done with a small circle of copper wire placed where you see the foil strip. But this wire would change its electrical characteristics with temperature swings. Ever touch the bottom of a copper pan after it's been on the stove? Copper conducts heat! Add to that the epoxy having some thermal changes as well, and it was a recipe for lots of coil failures.

As an avid cook, I remembered using foil on my smoker to finish off briskets and pulled pork. Even if the meat was 200 degrees inside the foil, the actual foil did not get hot. So we tried using foil and the coils were much more stable at different temperatures. However, it's still a redneck/jerry-rig fix.

I am sure Garrett uses better than 1950s technology to produce and tune the coils for the 24k, but at White's we were very limited on what we could invest in manufacturing. Stabilizing the foil should help, but moving it even 1mm will throw the coil out of tune.

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tboyken:

You have peaked my curiosity.  What would be a best practices analog method of tuning the coil and also digital method of tuning the coil?  A second question:  If we are so unfortunate as to have this issue, and accidentally do move the, foil, how do we retune the loop?  Just curious for future reference.

Thanks

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What I was told by the current Whites repair facility here in Oregon, is they go in and move the wires in the center to null the coil. As you can see in the picture where they have re-melted the hot-melt glue.

IMG_2946.JPG

IMG_2948.JPG

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Thanks Chuck, but it worked out for the best. I’m a union man now with a pension, good pay, and my side business is doing well. Plus I can detect just for fun instead of work.

It is sad that White’s shut its doors but does not surprise me. I hope the silver lining is that Garrett can use some of the work we did and give the overseas companies hell for a few years.

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9 hours ago, tboykin said:

You won’t be able to retune the coil without the exact equipment White’s had. It looks like the repair facility has it which is good news.

No, that was done before I broke into it. It’s working fine now since I made some changes.

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