Jin

Any tips for how to sharpen a pick correctly to keep its Hardening/Tempering properties?

I've been filing my pick head with a hand file but it's so slow. Was watching the video below and it looks like I should have been grinding the whole edge of the pick not just the tip.

16 hours ago, afaitken said:

More news...I have purchased another GPZ 7000 and couldn't be happier with the performance. Like night and day! ....but so is the weight. Back onto multiple targets with the 7000 instead of target free ground noise from the Axiom. I have some new x-coils on the way and might Frankenstein the 7000 internals into a custom design to combat the weight with smaller battery pack. Who knows??? To Garrett's credit, their unwavering customer service in the face of disgruntled customers (AKA - "me") they are sending a replacement (not new because they have their hands tied in Australia as to what they can deem faulty???) detector which I eagerly await testing to see if it is an idiosyncrasy of the detector or the detectorist....?

I can't remember if you used to run the 10" X-Coils but I find it makes swinging the zed so much easier weight-wise.

Even though the zed with the 10" is lighter, I still use a Hipstick to carry the weight as it means I can detect all day. 

5 hours ago, Dig It said:

I'm all in with the Gold Digger by Davsgold

Me too. Very happy with it.

Shrubs, trees, and geological features also help identify some areas. 

Quote: "The main issue is it costs me gold. I've gone over the same ground using my SDC2300 and found pieces the E1500 missed"

I think ultimately he felt the E1500 didn't perform as well as his SDC. Whether or not he worked the ground properly or even had enough time to get to know the 1500 properly is hard to say, but when you already have a detector that you feel works better there's little point in keeping the other.

15 hours ago, Nedkelly said:

Yep watched them, I'd like to see the 22" concentric X-coil on the 7000 compared to the modded 5000 with some similar sized coils.

Also a modded SD2200 compared with a modded gpx5000 with the same large coil on a larger,  deeper target. At the moment my fully modified SD2200 has the edge over my standard gpx5000 with the larger coils and a deep test target. Would the modded 5000 equal the modded SD2200 or better it? If it's better by how much?

I'd like to see all of the above as well.

Atm I'm contemplating getting my 2200d modded, and or buying and modding a 5000. Tbh, I only bought the 2200d to see for myself if it has the best outright depth as many say it had. Bought it cheap so not too concerned if it doesn't. 

I already have a spiral 20" X-Coil for the zed which on testing out performed the gpz19 by a good margin, and is so much lighter to swing.  X-Coils made a 26" CC, which if still available may be a good option also. 

The other option is the 32" Detech concentric for the sd,gp, and gpx. 

Not going to be many places these setups are going to be needed but it would be nice to have something that gives the best performance for when the need arises. 

On 2/15/2024 at 1:47 PM, Gerry in Idaho said:

Now I do like the idea of an SDC-2300 packed inside a Manticore housing and shaft for $1700.

A few years back I spoke with the Australian Minelab CEO at the Codan stand (Avalon air show) He said they were looking into the feasibility of fitting SDC internals into a traditional style detector housing. (I assume the circuit board would be too large and need to be re-made to fit.) That never came to fruition but who knows, maybe the groundwork has been done and they could get it to market before AlgoForce does too much damage. 

8 hours ago, phrunt said:

Someone may need to come up with a clip with a rubber on it too to close the gap and prevent them being ripped off 

I used to use these clips on my 4500 that my local hardware store sold. (Bunnings - Australia) They were a tight fit but held the cable tight. 

Cheap also 😀 

 
Bunnings: Products - Garden - Irrigation - Irrigation Supplies - Poly Pipe Fittings - 13mm Poly Fittings

Ruifeng Huang looks to have a bit of experience in making detectors by the look of things. This was from his Linkedin page. 

Quote

Achievement:
Beneficial from my previous in-depth research experiences on electromagnetics and my passion about learning new skills, I have very well understanding of the physics behind metal detectors and am proficient in optimising metal detection systems as general. I help the Company design metal detectors with performance well better than those from the competitors. My involved products include:
o Go-Find (entry level highly automatic coin and treasure metal detector)
o Gold Monster (fully automatic gold prospecting metal detector)
o Equinox (revolutionary multi frequency coin and treasure metal detector)
o MDS-10 (revolutionary dual sensor countermine metal detector)
o Vanquish (entry level multi frequency coin and treasure metal detector)
o GPX 6000 (revolutionary high performance pulse induction metal detector)

Not far from where I live. There are a couple of spots in that area I've always planned on checking out. One spot with similar structures to those found in the Woods Point region. 

7 hours ago, afreakofnature said:

Anyone with half a brain knew you were being facetious.🤣

Bit F'n rude. Not everyone reads something the same way. 

Re: Tongue in cheek. Ok that makes sense now. 

1 hour ago, Jonathan Porter said:

I hang my head in shame 😞, during testing I knew full well about the twisting along with other not-perfect issues like the inbuilt-speaker and the performance not being anywhere near the GPZ7000 with an X coil and said nothing. 😢 It is really hard to take this criticism, I should have known better but it happened on my watch so I will own it. 🤕

JP🥵

Umm, I'm a little confused. Not trying to be negative but isn't it the job of testers to point out things that may be a problem or could be improved? Anyway I'm sure there were other testers, surely someone said something. Tough gig being a tester i reckon. Plenty of people just waiting to rip into you, bit tough seeing as not all things recommended are listened to by minelab anyway. 

As a side note: mentioning the x-coil might open a can of worms. It sort of says indirectly that if you want a good setup get the x-coil. No mention of the z search or the standard setup.  That's how i read it anyhow.

No updates?? Was interested to hear what you thought of the 6. 

6 hours ago, geof_junk said:

Just remember a lot of things are dangerous in Oz even coffee.😈

Yes, I knew a guy that used to work for me that drank a minimum of 25 coffees a day. We often spent 14 hour days together so i saw this first hand. Unfortunately he passed away a couple of years ago in his mid 30's. Got some pain in his back which ended up being cancer and he was gone 3 months later. I always wondered if the excessive coffee drinking and smoking was a cause

7 hours ago, VicR said:

Maybe more the mannerisms and style of photography rather than straight out looks. Finding the big nugget is straight from All Aussie Adventures but then he would have some sort of stupid misadventure which would negate all the good work. Anyway I digress - I think it would be much better to have one large clip rather than 13. If you cut the theatrical nonsense it would be half the time to view as well and half the cost to produce.

Just shows that you cant please everyone all the time.

The videos were short and to the point. Most only being one minute or so in length.

If some one has a problem with one aspect of the machine then there's a short video that covers the problem. No need to try looking for the section that covers your problem in a lengthy video.

Anyhow, the videos wont please everyone but I'm sure they will help many

I thought all the videos Minelab uploaded on the how to use the 6000 were pretty good. Must admit I'm a bit jealous of the guys getting one now after watching all 13 videos. But will control my urge to buy until I get a chance to test one against my current setup. Deep down i feel that the geo sense thing is a game changer. 

1st video here for those that haven't viewed the series

3 hours ago, Jonathan Porter said:

My lad (Josh) having a play with the GPX6000. 

 

 

I guess this is the new JP we will be dealing with in years to come. That's if any gold is left from the amount of prospectors entering the hobby and machines becoming more idiot proof. (I sometimes wonder what the future holds for this industry/hobby.)

Thanks for sharing some real live footage. 

15 hours ago, jrbeatty said:

I'll be looking for different targets with the 26"

The big loops were excellent at locating very large pieces (10 oz plus) at good depth (3/4 foot or more) I doubt they missed many, certainly not on the ground I've followed up on ever since. 

They were less sensitive to smaller pieces (ounce or less) at similar depth, and it's mainly these I will be targeting. The big CC's also punch deep but, due to the narrow field at depth, you need to be almost exactly over the target to hear it. The DOD (and monoloops) are far more forgiving in this respect.

Ok, hope the 26" turns out to be a winner. 

15 hours ago, jrbeatty said:

Out of interest, the last "Big Loop" I had experience with was used by John Hider Smith just before he retired from prospecting in the late 90's.

Can you shed some light on why John retired from prospecting? Did he just grow tired of it?

My old man used to be an abalone diver. He said it killed his love of diving that he had from an early age. I guess doing something day in - day out takes the joy out something after a while.

For me prospecting is my life. The bush is my retreat from the pressures of business and all the other things in life. Couldn't give a hoot about the financial gain but find the challenge of finding something so elusive stimulating. The joy of seeing Kangaroos, echidnas, lizard, deer, NOT SNAKES makes me love being out in the bush. Its actually the only time my mind is peaceful and doesn't have a million thoughts going on at once.

On 4/12/2021 at 6:52 AM, Northeast said:

I think I have missed that somewhere.  Has X-coils changed hands?   

From what i can make out there were 2 partners in the X-coils business. One decided to sell his share. I would be interested to know if they both had coil building experience (the original owners)

Reg Wilson (ex dealer wrote this)

I discovered that the Russian partnership competed with each other and he wanted me to be his dealer and to sell all Xcoils. This to me seemed a mad arrangement. Then the partner (Elnur) who had been supplying Dave sold his share and Dave got the chop and Simon got dealt out of the picture. The new partner (Alex) would appoint a new agent (you there Jonathon?) to compete against me, who at that stage was the remaining agent.
To add to the madness both Russian partners had websites supplying direct at retail. So I had to compete with them as well. 

On 4/12/2021 at 6:04 AM, Jonathan Porter said:

The other issue is the detector is reacting to those deep slugs but you the operator is either not reacting to them because they are so broad or writing them off as ground noise or after having dug at a few only to have them dissipate then not bothering to go through the painful process of scraping back and trying to get a signal to improve to an identifiable definite response, when a target is at three + feet it can take a lot of digging before the signal becomes the real deal!!

I cant say I've dug many really deep targets in comparison to shallow bits but what you explain above is exactly what I've experienced. I remember once using the 10" on the zed at a pushed site. I changed things up a bit and decided to try general/difficult with a low sensitivity (cant remember exactly - but my fav sensitivity is rarely over 6 - many times at 1 or 2). The machine was dead quiet. I then heard a very faint groan, which after a couple of swings confirmed that something was there. I'm positive if the sensitivity was higher it would have introduced ground noise and i would of missed it. Long story short, I dug down 3 feet and came across a steel bar. (wasn't surprised as the area was full of junk) A few lessons i learnt from that experience.

1. The signal didn't improve much until a bit of ground had been removed.

2. Little coils can punch quite deep if the ground type allows it.

3. The biggest lesson was air tests are useless.

After digging most of the way down (say 2 foot) the target was blanking out. I then wanted to remember what the initial target sounded like to pull me up. To my surprise it was a loud response at ground level compared to the faint repeatable (easily missed) groan at the start.

On 4/10/2021 at 7:33 PM, jrbeatty said:

- and an SDC as well Trent. One coil type does it all? 

Hopefully, I'm going to trial a 26" Z DOD spiral soon on deep, unpushed big gold ground,, just to compare results with the 22" Z CC.

Seems odd that i put my order in for a 22" spiral ages ago after seeing Dave test one here in AUS, only to be told that the maker wasn't happy with the results. I got offered the 20" instead. Either the new owners don't give a stuff what they pump out or they're smarter at making coils. It will be interesting to see how the bigger 26" goes. Do you think on deep gold the zed with a 26" will be any match for those prototypes you guys swung 30 years ago? Especially that big ass bismark coil.  

Thanks to James Beatty for mentioning this Russian site that shows pictures of the 6000"s internal circuit board.

https://md-arena.com/razborka-minelab-gpx-6000-chto-vnutri-ochen-dorogoj-novinki/?fbclid=IwAR2q9Cll560LUXoC0arxPr8zDALHI-5LLDM0S5zCeLUJYs--_d9KraNCIq0

I was reading the comments (translated) and noticed that Steve and his comrads are held in high regards in Russia as well.🙂

Quote: The circuitry of this device and me, too, "amazed to the core"! Made "very good" (really good, no kidding!), BUT why done - absolutely incomprehensible! (SIXTEEN (!) IMPAD / Pirates "In one bottle" !!! IT'S COOL !!!) It will be interesting to know what The "result" of using this technology in real search? I think that Steve Hershbach "and his comrades" will discuss this device and will experience "the full program" - this is their "theme".

Having just had the LCD sceen replaced I was surprised that the actual cost was only $120 for the screen. (The whole job cost $287 which consisted of replacing the screen and postage to send it back) 

Will dropping a detector have any other adverse effects, like breaking solder joints or upsetting other internal electrical components?