Doc

Jin, The reason why the Pro Swing causes back pain is because it is not made correctly to achieve its desired purpose. The basic concept is great. But the execution leaves something to be desired. The Pro Swing has an immovable attachment at the "D" ring. That is where all the problem comes from. You can not get a true transfer of weight if the implement transferring the weight at the point of origin of the weight being applied, is attached to something that would restrict the movement or interfere with the transfer of weight. This is what happens with the D ring on the Pro-Swing which is attached to the strap and top of the strut. The only place you can have an immovable point, to get a true redirection and transfer of weight is at the termination of the weight transfer, so in other words in the middle of the back like the Pro-Swing and the DALAS rod. Anything that interferes with the transfer of weight, which the Pro-Swing Strut being integrated into the harness at the D ring does, it transfers the weight to your shoulder and not to the termination point. So of course it pulls on your back via your shoulder, I have used the Pro-Swing for years with a lot of success because I modified it, and the way it is worn. First shorten the back panel so the wide belt fits right under your breast bone, NOT at the waist. Tape all adjustment points and the right left connection point. Second you must wear the Pro Swing high enough that you have a complete clearance of the shoulder strap off of your shoulder. When you attach the bungee to the "D" ring the side the strut is on must be so high that you can still put your hand on your shoulder and the strap does not touch your hand. Only then will you get a correct transfer of weight to the back termination point and not onto your shoulder. Look at the attached pictures. See how high the shoulder strap is? You can actually see daylight between the strap and my shoulder. Doc

Flak, those are tennis shoes. But I do have Crocs. I often slip them on to run to the mail box. Did I have Crocs on someplace in the video? Oh Lord. It would not surprise me. LOL Doc

Gang, here is a device invented by a buddy of mine in Australia. He really put a lot of work into it. This is about his 5th generation. I gave him some input on it and he made several modifications. Does it work? Would I use it? Is it over-engineered? Is it expensive? The answer to all of the questions is "YES." Is it practical? DEBATABLE. If you were going to swing the 19 inch GPZ7000 coil all day long. I'd say give it a go. However, I would suggest you have someone else along to help you dig. Because this is not the rig you want to be wearing when you are banging away at the ground with a pick and getting down on your knees. Also something that really freaks me out is that sharp metal leaf type metal right next to my face. So I would probably only use this on the flat, to try and avoid any possibility of suffering a slip and fall. I really admire the work and ingenuity put into this device. But for the average detector prospector, I would think this is a bit much too much. (CORRECTION: I should say for the average Detector Prospector in America. Because I have noticed a lot of the detecting in Australia the terrain is relatively flat compared to the gullies and ridges we deal with here in America. I had a good buddy visit from Australia and I took him detecting, literally within 60 seconds of getting out of the truck he backed into a cactus. Fifteen minutes later he was winded from walking up and down ridges. (He's a smoker.) 30 minutes later he turned his ankle pretty bad. He said "Mate you have to be a goat to detect over here.") By the way I took the picture with the entire pool in the background so Gerry and Michelle will know there is plenty of room for Michell's floating lounge chair and Gerry's little inflatable arm floaties. 😅 Doc

This was a Confidential Memo that I wrote to make a thorough examination of what the history of metal detector support devices have been, and what the positives and negatives of each design were. This was, in essence, my blue print to design a new device that addressed all the shortcomings of the predecessors of Metal Detector support devices. It is marked Confidential because until now the public has never seen this document. This is my process when developing a new product and determining whether or not there is a need, and whether I can "build a better mousetrap" so to speak. -Doc CONFIDENTIAL FOR YOUR EYES ONLY Common Metal Detector Support Devices, what they attempt to do. • Claim to redirect weight to alleviate stress on arms, shoulders and neck. • They attempt to do this by redirecting the weight to a larger area of the body, usually the waist. Why Common Metal Detector Support Devices fall short of their intended purpose. • Some units are too bulky and constricting. • Some systems attempt to mitigate the weight by directly transferring the weight to your waist without re-directing the weight. This means you have to wear a tight belt to keep your pants up. • You have to select a fixed size with no ability to adjust the length if it is not perfect. • Some adjustable systems do not give you enough of an adjustment and are too short to function properly. • Some adjustable systems pull apart even when they are adjusted to the longest adjustment. • Some systems require an adjustment to switch for right hand to left hand use, which is not secure and tends to come apart when used. • Most systems are designed to attach to the “D” ring of your harness or are dependent on being fixed to the harness “D” ring in some way. If you are unable to adjust the device to the perfect length, the system pulls on the “D” ring. This then transfers the weight to your shoulder instead of your waist. This completely defeats the purpose of the proposed advantage of the system which is to transfer weight. • Some “Over the Shoulder” devices are so large, heavy and cumbersome, most users find them unusable. In addition to which the “Over the Shoulder” device puts the bent support strut with “D” ring over your shoulder and right next to the side of your face. Not only is this distracting, but it could cause serious injury and a severe laceration if you were to fall and your face landed on that support strut. • Some systems do not come with a fully adjustable bungee cord or any bungee cord at all. How should the perfect Metal Detector Weight Support Device be Designed? 1. Unit should be easy to wear. It should be lite weight, minimally intrusive, and not make the user hot. 2. Unit should truly “REDIRECT” the weight NOT just transfer the weight “DIRECTLY”, so it is unnoticeable and very comfortable. 3. Unit should be fully adjustable for all size individuals without compromise for a perfect fit. 4. System should be firmly secured at any joints or areas of adjustment to prevent the unit from coming apart when being used. 5. System should be easily adjustable for right handed or left handed use, with the adjustment point being totally immune to separating when in use. 6. Support device should be completely able to move freely even when attached to a harness or “D” ring. There should be no impediments to unrestricted movement from the point of ORIGIN, where the weight of the bungee with the detector is attached to the “D” ring and where the weight is redirected to an unnoticeable area of the body where the weight redirection is TERMINATED. This design should prohibit the device from ever pulling down on the harness and transferring the weight onto the shoulder, neck, upper arms, or any part of the body other than the weight redirection termination point of the support device. 7. Support System should not pose a significant risk to the user. System should not be made of metal. They should be free of sharp edges. It should not be necessary to wear the system close to the side of your head. Direct weight transfer systems using a strait support rod should be avoided. If the weight is directed straight down. In a fall the force of the fall could drive the rod straight up causing injury to the user. 8. Support System should come with a fully instantaneous “On the Move” adjustable bungee support rig with multiple ways to adjust your detector to the perfect height. Bungee should be adjustable at the attachment point of the detector rod and at the shoulder clip and be ambidextrous. Bungee cord should be of superior material, Dacron Polyester UV protected Marine Grade with a 50% stretch. Either end on the bungee should be able to be attached to the detector. The bungee cord should be easily detached or reattached with one hand to either the “D” ring of the Weight Support Device, or to the attachment device on the metal detector rod. The DALAS™ • Detector Air Lift Assist System Features 1 through 8 listed above! CHECK!

By the way, I am getting the question, How Much? This is not carved in stone, so give me a little grace. I never know what Customs is going to whack me. The DALAS rod by itself, not including the strap which will be an optional accessory I am anticipating, $129.95. Yet another difference between the Hip Stick and the DALAS. You can buy three Hip Sticks for the price of one DALAS™. Doc

Let me first preface my comments by saying this. Chris Porter is a dear friend of mine. He has purchased many of my Swingy Thingy's over the years and bungees to sell with the Hip Stick when a customer needed them. There has been thousands of Hip Sticks sold, and detectorists love them. So they have helped the industry tremendously. However, Chris no longer produces the Hip Sticks and he sold the rights to Jonathan Porter. I was a dealer for the Hip Stick. These things I am going to point out are not a slam on the Hip Stick, they are just facts. The fact that things evolve is just historical innovation and development. We still have cars today, but they look nothing like the Model T. What does a car do today that a model T didn't do. They still get you from point A to B. The question is, how do they get you there? As you have said, "How is it an Improvement?" My Original Swingy Thingy is not as good as the Ultra Swingy Thingy. Does that mean the original is no good. No, it is still available. It just means the design has evolved and been improved. I have been through many improvements of the bungee cord. The Quick Adjust Bunge, then the Qweegle, now the Qwipple. So let me tell you the things that make the DALAS different than the Hip Stick and a significant improvement. So on to the IMPROVEMENTS of the DALAS™ over the Hip Stick 1. Every part of the DALAS has been custom designed with original parts. We do not use any existing items that we have tried to adapt to be used for a purpose they were not designed for. 2. The Hip Stick is notorious for the ball jumping out of the pivot, and to that end many people have tried to modify that short coming. The DALAS does not have that problem. 3. The Hip Stick is stiff and it can restrict movement when bending over. I know, I use to use one. The DALAS rod moves with you, you'll never know it's there aside from its amazing ability to transfer weight. 4. You must guess what length of the Hip Stick you need. If it's too short, you have to send it back to exchange it. I can't tell you the number of customers that had to swap out the Hip Stick for a different size because they one they ordered just was not working. Get it too short, and it pulls on the shoulder strap instead of transferring the weight. Too high and it's right next to your face. The DALAS is fully adjustable. There is no need to guess what size you need. It is fully customizable to your weight and height. 5. The Hip Stick connects directly to the "D" ring on your hydration pack or back pack. It is FIXED. It has no ability to move with you. It is FIXED at the "D" ring it is FIXED at the waist and those two points are joined by a straight inflexible tent type fiberglass rod. The DALAS has a unique SLIDE CLIP. It allows the DALAS rod to move freely up and down. It does not restrict movement because it moves with you. It does not use a straight rod do a direct transfer of weight. It uses ergonomically designed curved struts that redirects the weight similar to a block and pully system so you never notice the weight. It pushes the back of your waist band away from your body parallel to the ground. The Hip Stick directs the force at a 90 degree angle towards the ground. It works with the force of gravity to push your pants down. 6. The Hip Stick directly transfers the weight of the detector to your waist. You feel the force. This pushes your belt or waist band down. If it transfers the weight directly down, if you were to fall and manage to hit the bottom of the Hip Stick just right it would transfer the force directly up and could cause injury. The DALAS transfers and redirects the weight back. If you fall you would be hard pressed to figure out a way the DALAS rod would ever injure you because of the Slide Clip. The place the force is transferred to is your back. in use, the paddle pushes your waist band out and away from your back. If you fall on it, it does nothing but go back to the resting position flat against your back which does not transfer the force back towards your face. 7. The DALAS comes with a High Tech Bungee system. The Hip Stick has no bungee included. 8. The difference between what a Hip Stick does, compared to a DALAS rod does it like asking, what if I take a rope through an eye bolt mounted in the rafter of my garage and hook up a 500 lb load and try to lift it. vs What if I use a block and pully system that redirects the weight of that 500 lb load? It's a matter of managing the weight in a more productive and efficient manner. Other than that they are exactly the same. 🤣 Doc

It will probably be around 35 to 45 days. Slow boat. Thanks, Doc

Take a gander at the YouTube video. The first load is on the boat headed this direction. Instructions on how to put it together and the whys and hows. Explaining the unique design of the way it works. Thank you for your patience. -Doc

You know the vacuum cleaner actually as a red light green light. When you're vacuuming if the light turns red it means you are picking up dirt. I have never seen it turn red with the exception of when I dropped a glass jar of instant coffee on the kitchen floor. After picking up the glass I vacuumed up the crystals. I yelled at my wife. Hey something is wrong with this vacuum there's a red light than keeps coming on. She comes out to see what I'm talking about, and says, "You idiot, the red light just means you are picking up dirt, or coffee crystals in this case." I said, "Well why have I never seen it come on when you're vacuuming?" She gave me this look that would kill a snake and says, "Because I don't let my house get that dirty." (Apparently it's "HER HOUSE" I just am allowed to live here.) Doc

Damn, you might be right. Doc

Well I vaguely remember chores. But that is why I got married. Being the male chauvinist pig that I am, I thought your wife was supposed to take over all the chores your parents made you do. Otherwise, what is the point of getting married? I could have stayed in my parent's basement and kept playing with my Xbox. I mean we didn't have a basement and Xbox's weren't invented then, but still... 🤣 Doc

This is the old girl! And our 2 sons and daughter with their spouses and our grandchildren. Our youngest grandchild, Oliver was not born at that time. But here is Oliver helping Grandpa a couple of weeks ago celebrating my 75th birthday.

No it's legit. Everything I talk her into doing, seems to go awry. However we have gone to Minelab Partner conferences, once in England and once in Sardinia, and she really enjoyed those trips. She loves to sight see. I'd go to the talks and she would sit around and read and relax.

My wife is such an amazing woman. Before we got married she told me. I will work and help put you through college because I have no desire to go to college. Then I want to be a stay at home mom and be a professional house-wife. Well she has fulfilled that promise and then some. I live in an immaculate home. She is a mind boggling cook and a baker, and she loves going around the yard tending to the plants. Then she gets a bag and one of those grabber tools and walks the neighborhood picking up whatever debris has blown in. She is a bit on the OCD side when it comes to cleanliness. She actually loves the outdoors. She was from a small farming community called Morton Illinois. I always say I married a "farm girl." She says I did not live on a farm! I say, OK, then tell me what you did for a job for three summers when you were a teenager. (She worked detasseling corn!) I tell her only a farm girl would detassel corn We have three children and she gave birth to all of them naturally. Absolutely no drugs, she just did Lamaz. She is loving and family means everything to her. But she is tough as nails. Especially when you consider our second son weighed 9 lbs 13 ounces. The doctor was begging her to let him give her an epidural. She said no way, and if you say it again I will fire you. I said to the nurse, "She can't fire her OB right in the middle of giving birth can she?" The nurse said, "I have a feeling that your wife could do just about anything she puts her mind to." Doc

Is it a mono or DD. Better yet I need an ANTI-INTERFERENCE because it's bad enough that she made me mop she had to keep telling me how to do it, and that I was doing it all wrong. Apparently, you have to put the mop in the bucket and get it wet before you start swinging it on the floor. "Who knew?" Doc

My wife really isn't the Princess I make her out to be. I mean she is in my mind. She's a wonderful woman. 55 years with the ol' gal. However, every time I want to take her on one of my adventures circumstances are such that things go wrong and she never wants to do it again. I take her on a 3 day live aboard SCUBA Diving trip. She doesn't dive but I do. But I thought it would really be relaxing for her. Really great meals every day. Beautiful Ocean whale watching. She was sea sick for three days puking her guts out. And that was with a Scopolamine patch on. I've never seen anyone get sick with a patch! Then I get the toy hauler. I tell her lets take the dogs and drive North of San Franciso up through the redwood forest and we will camp at this really neat place right by the ocean. We will eat at great sea food restaurants. We will have a blast. So she loves the scenery, and enjoyed the drive. We get to the campgrounds and the regulators on the propane don't work. We can't run the generator, we can't lite the stove top, or the oven. We can't keep the toy hauler warm. It was freaking freezing being on the ocean with that wind blowing in off the ocean. We couldn't take a shower because we had no warm water because of no propane. That was the last time she went with me anywhere in the toy hauler. This was the first time after buying the toy hauler that I had taken it anywhere. Well people in the know said, "ARE YOU NUTS?" You never take a long trip in a new trailer! You have to do a break-in trip. Got to a campground in your own town, hook up and make sure everything is working properly. New trailers always have some bugs that need to be worked out. WHOOPS. Then there was the time when our daughter was a about 5 months old and I thought it would be fun to rent a motor home take our two older sons and go on a family vacation to California, Disney Land, Knotts Berry Farm, San Diego Sea World. The whole 9 yards. This was the motor home from hell! It's a long story, but just an idea of how things went. 80 miles outside of Las Vegas the door fell off the refrigerator. That was just the beginning. We get to a beautiful campground in Newport Beach. Some how on the trip over to California, by wife and my sons all thought it would be amazing to use the bathroom facilities while going 70 mph. Because isn't that on your bucket list? Taking a dump while going 70 mph? I get to the campground and it stinks so bad in the motor home I figure I need to dump the tank and add chemicals. They gave me 30 seconds of instruction from the place I rented this nightmare of a motor home. So I get the DOOKIE tube out and put it in the sewer and open the gate valve and the hose like turned over on itself and got a kink. The hose was really old. So I try to lift it to un-kink it and the DOOKIE tube splits in half and dumps DOOKIE all down the front of me from my knees into my shoes. And that was just the start. The compressor on the air conditioner blew up and blew the grill off the front of the motor home. Propane was leaking. I'm at a repair place in San Diego parked in the lot trying to see if I can get the leaky propane fixed, and another motor home backs into our motor home going 20 miles an hour and caves in the whole side of the motor home. Bottom line is, this motor home was so bad the rental company gave us a complete refund and made us sign a waiver that we wouldn't sue them. The details of this trip would have rivaled any Chevy Chase family vacation movie. Doc

So what should I be called now? "Mr. Mopperist?" 😁

I told her the pick is just to kill snakes. The nuggets are just laying on top of the dirt. 😁

Not going to happen Ron. My wife's idea of roughing it is staying at a 5 star hotel that doesn't have room service after 10pm. Doc

So my wife has no interest in metal detecting. She has no idea what is involved. However, she is happy to allow me to go "play in the dirt," as she calls it. I've told her that getting out and walking is good for my back. As I have told her many times "MY BACK' prevents me from doing some tasks around the house because... YOU KNOW! MY BACK! Well I made the bad mistake of letting her see me detecting. She "innocently" asked, "So that's it you just swing "that thing" back and forth. I said, "Well yes basically I mean you need to know where to look, what geological clues there are, things like that." With a twinkle in her eye she says. "interesting." So today she is cleaning the house and says, "OK Mr. Metal Detector, if you can swing "that thing" out in the desert, you can swing "this thing" here at home. I don't know why but for some reason "THIS THING" is really killing my back. 🤣 Doc

That would be a lanyard...

I can't guarantee that. But, being I am Catholic I can bless them with Holy Water if you think that will help? By the way St. Barbara and St. Anne (the mother of Mary) are the Patron Saints of Miners. We have a Patron Saint for everything. Us Catholics started this whole thing you know. That thing about "There's an app for that..." Us Catholics started that with, "There's a Saint for that..." LOL 😁 Doc

I know many of you have my small Nugget Stash that you carry your gold nuggets in. People love the convenience of a container that can be opened with one hand. On the other hand many prefer an old amber prescription bottle because it's just bigger and easily found in your pocket. So what about combining the convenience of one hand opening and the size and shape of a RX bottle? Introducing the new Nugget Stalker® Nugget Stash. I carry one to put my gold in and another to carry my Tylenol and Blood Pressure pills in. -Doc Available at docsdetecting.com or Ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/326106239673 (Nugget Stalker® is a Federally Registered Trademark in the U.S. and Australia. Gold Stalker® is a Federally Registered Trademark in the U.S. both registered to G.M. Lousignont "Doc") -Doc

Personally I don't know where they would go with technology above and beyond the GPZ7000. Not unless they added GPR which they already have that technology in their Mine Sweepers. People love the Zed. However, the one thing they do not love is the weight and the lack of discrimination. Minelab seems to want to ignore that the reason the GPX5000 has held on so long here in the U.S. is that the Civil War Relic hunters love that depth, but they want the discrimination. I think that the AXIOM and maybe even the ALGO Force may have stirred some thoughtful conversations. I've always wondered what would it take for me to give up my ZED? Well, it wasn't the GPX6000. However, give me another ZED iteration, but make it lite, make it have discrimination, and maybe a bit more visual feedback like the AlgoForce. It would be hard to imagine a detector that could out perform the ZED. The pure unadulterated power of the GPZ7000 and it's ability to find darn near all sizes of gold and find them deep, is mind boggling. When I got the GPZ7000 I went back to every patch I had ever found gold at. I had beaten these patches to death. I averaged 6 new nuggets a patch. I ended up with 132 nuggets in 3 months. The most memorable was 2.1 grams at 22 inches. So all I want is a machine that performs like the ZED that either has a free lifetime pass to a Chiropractor, or make it lite enough that I don't need a Chiropractor. Give me discrimination and some visual clues as to what might be in the ground that is giving me a target signal. And I will kiss my GPZ7000 goodbye. By the way, strangely enough the cover I made for the Manticore, fits the AlgoForce beautifully. So yeah, if they happened to design a new machine that would fit a cover I've already made that would be a bonus. (It would never happen.) 😁 Doc

The side of the clip has the groove, is the adjustment side. In other words make sure that the plain side of the clip that has NO groove is the side you attach to the rod of your detector. The side of the clip that has the groove is the side where the bungee should not be attached to anything. This is the end of the bungee that you pull up into the groove to lock the adjustment in. This is precisely why I designed the QWIPPLE clip with adjustments on both sides. May I suggest that you take the loop that you attach to the rod of your detector, on the side of the clip with no groove and put a piece of colored tape on the bungee down by the loop. So you always grab the right end to attach to the rod of your detector. Then use the other end to pull up into the clip groove. Doc