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tvanwho

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  1. I got it to work .On closer examination, I noticed one of the black rubber washers was protruding a bit and preventing the coil ears from meshing with the rod end. I removed the bad washer and put in one of the red ones, and now it fits together ok. Why did Fisher go with skinny coil ears tho, they sure do look prone to breakage now vs the older coils with thick ears?
  2. I got a new GB2, 6 inch coil off ebay but it will not fit the GB2 I have. The coil ears are barely 1/16 inch thick and too narrow space between them looks like.My GB2 is one I got from Steve H, a while back. The coil ears on my 10 inch coil are quite thick by comparison. So, did I get ripped off or what happened? If I use brute force to make the ears fit the pole, it will break for sure looks like. -Tom V.
  3. how do I fill the hole with water as fast as I dredge out the gravels? If I wait till spring and higher water levels, I would be ok on this.
  4. I found some gold in a gravel area that slopes to the creek where we can pan ok. was getting 5-10 colors a pan and not the tiny points , decent size colors. There is flat bedrock at the base of the slope and then the large creek so I thought for sure the gravel was on top of the bedrock but its not. I dug right where the gravel meets the bedrock almost but I went down a foot instead of hitting bedrock right away. The gold got a bit coarser, one piece looks like an apostrophe and chunky. So, now what? Bring my mini highbanker there and wash the gravels? How deep is this bedrock? Maybe bring a metal rod and probe in numerous spots for it? I hit one larger flat rock but it looked like a flagstone from an old stone sidewalk. There are numerous old bricks in the woods next to the slope. I do have to fill in any holes I make same day. My hole had no water in it either even tho the creek is only a few feet away. Should I wait till spring when water covers this spot, then try to dredge the gravel with my big banker. I have both my big and micro bankers on wheels so easy to move around in my old age. I haven't posted much lately as these damn old age aches and pains make it harder and harder to get out and dig. At least I am still moving and not in an old folks home yet. How to fix my heel and ankle pains now? duct tape kinda helps and lots of pain pills. Had to put padded inserts in all my boots as there were none and my feets were screaming. I also made an odd discovery in another creek.I normally run away from spiders BUT took a chance.There were a bunch of baby wolf spiders running around this one patch of creek gravels. I have rarely found any color in this creek before. So, I stick my shovel in this spider infested gravel patch , VERY hard digging and the gravels are filled with roots. Then a horde of bugs come spilling out, millipedes, centipedes, pill bugs, carpenter ants, spiders. I go pan my gravel and my load of black sands like tripled and there was very fine gold with it, like 5-20 tiny points in every pan. I need to take my mini highbanker there too. A dredge hole was in the creek next to my gravel spot.I panned the persons tailings and got more tiny gold specks. Am also needing a 6 inch coil for my Goldbug 2, used is good, and am looking for a cheap Tesoro Lobo ST that works ok.Had to trash mine as it finally croaked, sure do miss it. -Tom V.
  5. Most likely glacial but does not account for the blue sapphire crystal I posted here some years back, a twinned crystal as Steve told us, an inch across the hexagonal flats. Found accidentally in my highbanker hopper. My map dowsing took me to the gravel bar for the gold, got hundreds of specks. Hope to get to the creek again this year as I finally got a chance to rent a place 1/4 mile from the spot. If I can just get the ok now. Being older now has its other drawbacks, with all these damn old age aches and pains and knee and ankle pains the worst. Hurts to even sleep some days, much less dig for goodies and get up and down steep hillsides. I almost got stuck in a creek last year, right knee refused to stretch to get up the creek bank 6 feet.Lucky I had my shovel with me, cut baby steps in the bank to get up it. Recently saw a new 2021 Ford Bronco with the Sasquatch tire package BUT was unable to get into the darn thing,too darn high a step, same issue with old legs, dang it...
  6. In gold mining books pertaining to the Carolinas, they constantly talk about saprolites, weathered loose bed rock, containing rich gold, that they dug out with only shovels.
  7. so, whats the deal with red dirt and gold nuggets anyway? My buddy and I found a rusty red/black gravel layer under 6 feet of dirt, and a layer of brown clay under it. 1st day we got 2 little nuggets, 1 bounced 3 inches when I dropped it into the gold pan. and it was half black on 1 side, and shiny yellow as the sun on the other side. Next day all we got was fines, so dunno if the bigger stuff was in the clay or what?
  8. No, I did not dredge this gold, a friend did so with home made 4 inch dredge. He hikes for miles up the local rivers looking for gold hot spots, dunno how, wish I had that much energy? But he was cash poor and I had some green, so we worked something out. So, 1.17 ounces of Indiana gold pickers to show off, NOT dust like I always get. -Tom V.
  9. Just wondering why the newer GB2 machines seem to have a meter on them now or is it my imagination? The knobs look different too? -Tom
  10. I recently was sitting in a parking area next to a fenced off swim pool in a public park. There was a wooden fence in front of me and I eyeballed something more yellow than it should be on a fence rail. I was about to drive away but decided to get out and see the mirage 1st. Hmm, whats this? A heavy gold chain laying on the fence rail with broken clasp and no markings!!! It is quite heavy,just no markings, eyeballing paid off, or at least it wasn't just my wild imagination. No detector needed. Should I take it to a jeweler or what? -Tom V.
  11. I almost threw out this tiny gold nugget while panning cons, thought it was a trash rock, but it caught my eye for some reason.Held it up close to eyeball and it was golden metallic yellow, NOT sand, and bounces an inch when dropped in my gold pan. I got it sluicing gravels with my home made electric 18 inch long sluice/banker, like 10 feet from the creek where I found a gold gravel deposit with my map dowsing . About the size of 2 pinheads side by side, dime for comparison, casts a shadow in gold pan... came from central Indiana near Attica....
  12. DUCT TAPE, apply 4 -6 inch of duct tape in front of heel, sole of foot, side to side, if foot objects, let it loose, and not soo tight
  13. my local detector dealer told me the Apex uses a built in lithium battery and a replacement costs a bunch of moola if it ever goes bad? He doesn't like them for that reason alone. Is this an issue or not? Main reason I decided not to buy one. -Tom V.
  14. Lobo does not have 9 volt batteries, only 2 packs of 1.5 volts batteries
  15. can we get together when the weather warms up perhaps? I have a 2 inch dredge and wheeled highbanker I don't mind sharing. I'd like to see your finds and go out digging too. I am retired now , living in West Lafayette, Indiana. I am sure its a bit of a drive to you but I have no schedule anymore, just need warmer weather and hope the virus ends soon? Can you post some photos of your Illinois gold, 1st I have heard of gold nuggets in Illinois? Send me a PM please. Thanks for the reply. Assays run about 40-100 dollars. I found gold and silver in Galena I had metal detected in SW Wisconsin some years ago. Assay revealed them. The lead was more valuable than the gold tho. 0.13 ounce a ton for the gold but 70% of the galena is lead.
  16. I was out at a creek in central Illinois where I had map dowsed for gold . We got a few specks of color but hours of hard work for not much yellow. Then I noticed blue clay lumps in the creek gravels , looked around for the source, and eyeballed the upstream creek bank wall. It was a VEIN of blue clay like 200 feet by 15 feet up the wall from the creek. I tried to pan some out after working it for 10 minutes in my gold pan. No Gold. Other spots in Indiana that have blue clay, it is loaded with gold, altho the gold rich blue clay is usually under creek gravels, not in a vertical wall. On Treasurenet, they say blue clay gummed up sluices in Nevada was it? Somebody had it assayed and found it was rich in silver which also gives it the bluish color supposedly? Should I go back to the spot and get some samples to send in for mineral assays? How much clay per sample, ounces, pounds? Where is a good assayer for not too much green? Thanks, -Tom V, now in central Indiana gold country and retired early...out of the rat race finally
  17. Might have it fixed? I put upper rod in my vise, clamped it down, had to use BIG wrench to loosen hard to turn camlock. Pulled S rod off. Noticed the camlock squeaked by itself. Noticed grime/grease on end of upper rod. Took light sandpaper and removed that. I remembered my squeaky garage door and how nothing would work until I got hold of white lithium grease in spray can. I found my can and sprayed the camlock down really good, put it all back together, and NO MORE POLE SQUEAK.. Will have to see if it holds up now?
  18. OK, I removed the LST control box and was able to cut and modify an electricians tool pouch by CLC Workgear at Rural King , and slide the Lobo control box all the way into it, cable out the bottom, pouch has 2 inch belt loop. I am swinging the coil and rod around but there is an awful squeak at the top camlock where the S rod attaches. Camlocks are as tight as I can get them. That squeak is VERY annoying.seems to be worst at the end of each arc as I sweep and reverse direction. what causes the squeak and how to stop it? As far as I can tell no Clean sweep for Lobo ST. I do have a 10 x12 but it is heavy. Prefer the 8 inch round or 9x8 coils. How do you ever pinpoint with a Cleansweep coil being so huge? Could be multiple targets under it?
  19. ok, thanks. I resurrected my 20 year old Tesoro Lobo ST. I modified it a little a few years back, cranked up a certain Pot inside 1/4 turn, was sposed to get more depth at the expense of more chatter and less accurate discrimination. I still could not get a coin past 8 inches? Well, stupid me, when I tested the machine this time, I happened to notice the black sand mode switch was engaged !!! This cuts depth in half in favor of more stability in Hot ground. I flipped this back to Normal mode, cranked Sens not quite to the Orange line, sudden air test depth boost to 10 inches on a quarter in disc from previous 7 inches. 11-12 inches with headphones. No minerals around central Indiana where I have now moved to West Lafayette to be closer to the Indiana gold fields. Black dirt. Hunt will be in tall grass but mowed, several acres in size, thousands of coins and tokens, hunt cost $35. They had issues with poison ivy last time but supposedly it has been heavily sprayed this year. Wonder if I should wear some lite gloves? I could possibly neck or hip mount the LST to cut my arm weight. The machine is VERY easy at pinpointing , VCO audio, fast sweep speed, and I removed the nylon ties I had holding the skid plate to the coil so it won't get hung up and rarely has interference with other machines. Plus this is the only machine I ever really liked and learnt how to use it best, despite no meter, not waterproof, hardly any bells and whistles. Should I use the 8 inch round or 9x8 coil for the hunt?
  20. big seeded hunt coming up in 2 weeks in central indiana and all I have is my old Headhunter Diver water machine. Thick mowed grass hunt. Should I get something with a small coil like an old Tesoro Compadre or Ace 250 or? Will I need my Garett Propointer or just eyeballs to pinpoint? And I do have tennis elbow right now, what to do about that as well? Wear a compression band around elbow and forearm? I know my Garrett Propointer sometimes picks up interference from the Garrett Ace 250 which would be bad news in a speed hunt. Any tips on competition hunting appreciated. Do I need headphones, full earcups or the little foam ones? Thanks. -Tom V.
  21. makes the fines worth catching too,almost... Am just glad I did NOT sell my 401K positions back in March, was down over 100K from Feb, now am up 140K from March. I put in for retirement Aug 4, sold my condo, closing Aug 15, trying to move to the gold fields of central Indiana. But finding a new place to live out of state in the virus epidemic is proving difficult? Any tips for finding a new rental house out of state when rental offices are all locked up? I don't wanna buy in case we get another recession /virus/market selloff part 2 this fall/winter. Keep my cash freed up for a housing bargain. I better find them 1/10 ounce gold coins I got 10 years ago at 60 dollars each. Wonder what they are worth now?
  22. cool, so don't ignore trash target sounds? wish I could find a used 2300 ? -Tom V.
  23. I can't really justify yet another detector.Heck, I just raked in 20 G's in stock market trading last 3 days.Might as well stick with that. Sounds like you guys are all dialed in for rings, good luck . I will stick with whats working for me ,for now... I did find a new gold bearing creek with my map dowsing, just 75 miles from home and we did get permission to check it out.Gold was there, a dozen specks anyway, here in NE Illinois. Will go back again in 2 weeks and try to find a richer spot. My first bonafide gold creek in NE Illinois in 40 years of looking. -Tom
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