Alluminati

While you wait for others with more experience to chime in, take it into the shade. Pyrite will go dark while gold will still glow.

Ah that sucks if it is the last show of the season. The tunnels and the gold bars appear to be authentic. I hear ya, it would be hard to leave that site after seeing what they did. One thing they have going for them is the difficulty, on the other hand, I don't see why the Government as you say doesn't just source their own divers. So if the bars where planted, that would be an outright fraud that would ruin these TV shows for sure, on the other hand, do you think they really discovered it, or were they sold the story by local government which allowed them to make the discovery more akin to a ribbon cutting ceremony? I will give them the benefit of the doubt for now, they are putting the time and research in, have the resources of a TV company behind them. The other guy, I forget his name seems to be a career treasure hunter/researcher so it may very well be legit. Part of me wonders if I will miss making fun of Todd Hoffman getting fatter every year, but really he needed to go. I got tired of seeing this propped up "gold miner" get opportunity after opportunity laid out for him because of the TV show, not very realistic at all. Basically Todd and Jack failed back in season one when they sold the airport and only found 14 ounces of gold. (Remember them running a sluice box with no riffles? Feeding 28 people 3 meals a day?) Yet year after year, he comes back fatter with newer trucks, more leased vehicles burning enough gas daily to run a small town. Its enough to turn anyone into a tree-hugger, seeing that fat slob tearing up mother nature for his own personal profit, it makes gold mining look very bad IMO. He's been going broke for 8 years now, enough already lol. I understand that a lot of those areas have been mined before and are not natural. In these times when the bulk of the population is heavily regulated in what they can do with land, they could try and appear a little more humble. I do appreciate them having the Beets family on there. I'll admit I was starting to question Tony's ambition when he started taking on that dredge project, to see it up and running is very impressive. I enjoy the technical side of mining very much. White water gold also has potential if they can keep the drama down and the gold up. I wish they would just feature experienced miners and focus on mining specifically, rather then the drama and growing pains of amateurs. Maybe they will have some new characters in this season.

These shows don't usually make any progress, however I was watching "Treasure Quest Snake Island Season 3". I won't spoil it for you, they make a pretty good find. I'm not sure if there are anymore episodes in this season, I hope they don't do a cliffhanger until next season. Nice to see that Jeremy Whalen and friends make a good find like that for the show. (I'm not as familiar with the rest of the cast, Jeremy is the recurring character that has been swinging the Minelab in previous seasons.)

For the record, when I die, you all have my permission to dig me up, just be sure to fill your hole after. I have a friend that gets really excited about churchyards like this. He figures that everyone used to go there to socialize on Sundays after church. Most likely there was at least some trade going on and of course the odd wedding etc. Good luck on your hunt today.

I didn't get the impression he was digging around plots. ?

I agree with your view from the foxhole lol. The only slight tweak I might make is to lower the tone break for med/high from 19/20 to 18/19. This would just keep small silver coins (half dime etc.) and all the pennies in the high tone. Gives a bit more of a buffer for a sloppy swing etc. Oddly enough IMO the 50 tones inst enough tones if you want to run a "vocal" mode where all the conductors are smeared together like the Deus. 50 tones is a step in the right direction though. (Consider that a lot of users don't get audio overload with Deus 99 tones) By having a "seamless" transition between TID numbers, the amount of "tones" or conductive ranges becomes subjective. Example to me a Deus with 99 tones has 4 ranges. Iron, medium low, medium high and high conductivity. Basically 3 nonferrous bins and a iron bin. So even though the Deus has 99 or the Equinox has 50, I can kinda only tell these 4 ranges when out in the wild. (Iron, low mid conductor, high mid conductor, high conductor. Sure you or I can hear the difference between a 22 and a 24 TID when they are side by side, but can I remember the tone out of 50 or 99 from yesterday, or last week? Also the 99 Deus tones and to a lesser degree Equinox 50 tones allows you to feel the shape of the target better then just a "boop" sound. Garbage is more variable when you walk around it, but good targets are tight. Its like you say when I stopped hunting specific numbers my success improved quite a bit and I became more consistent hunter. Looking back at what I just typed, I might consider doing a 4 tone option, put a tone break at around 10 to have that distinction between big and small aluminum, foil vs tab etc.

I thought I would post a bit of an update tonight. The first picture shows the fit of the pod onto the DragonPlate.com Kevlar tube. The fit is good. As it turns out I didn't have to file any of those fibers that I glues in the 9mm hole that the pod bottom plate fits into, because I dry fit it a few times as the epoxy set up. The second picture shows the handle offset to the left for ergonomics. Basically I used the factory shaft to find the angle I was comfortable with then tightened everything down including the coil. (You have to push in the Little silver button to be able to twist the factory shaft and set lengths in between preset holes.) I then set the detector on the floor and used a square to measure how much the pod was leaning over and also the angle the coil was tipped, just to keep everything the same. (The top corner of the pod rested on the square, I then measured down lower from the square to the shaft, this gave me a measurement to replicate on the new shaft. Hope that makes sense.) I then setup the new shaft with masking tape around the end where the yoke goes, also a bit of tape on the yoke side of the joint. This served two purposes, to put pencil marks once I set the angle with the square and to keep the excess epoxy that oozed out from making a mess. Gluing the yoke in was pretty straight forward. I sanded the stub of the yoke and the inner part of the tube a bit. I mixed the epoxy and inserted the yoke lining up the pencil marks. I wiped off the excess epoxy, then carefully removed the tape so that I didn't loose the offset from the pencil marks. So far I am very pleased with how things are progressing. This weekend I hope to get a bit done on the arm cuff. I forgot to mention weight. I weighed it the other day but I kinda forget what they weigh now. The Kevlar shaft is lighter by close to half I think, but don't quote me on that. That is just shaft vs shaft with nothing else attached so the difference between before and after inst huge overall. That being said, I think it does feel like it swings nicer, probably due to a higher center of gravity now. I'll know for sure once I get the arm cuff on there.

Well he certainly sounds like a Canadian, ?that's a good link, he has some other good videos too i'll check out.

Thanks I will check it the video, maybe I'll look into the book too. I suppose I'm not all that disappointed, I get to find a little gold right here in the way of jewellery.

That is cool that your kayak has a provision for mounting the trolling motor. I was not able to get one locally with a squarish transom like that, though I did get one that holds a milk crate in the back. I will use your feedback about the lbs thrust, I will get at least a 30 lbs trolling motor. I'm not sure what I will do about the battery, as you have found they are heavy and tricky to get the balance right. I was thinking about looking into a lithium battery from an E-bike or something. That drill setup is very interesting. You are making me thing that I may not even need a trolling motor. I usually only paddle 15-20 minutes away so a couple of drill batteries plus a spare could do me for a day. I had to google those things, they are neat. Steering with the drill attachment could be done with just a rudder I suppose, you got the wheels turning now. Your kayak looks small, but it has the right transom and the price was right, easy to transport too, just watch the capacity. Adding those sponsons actually helped the capacity by a decent amount, they could be mounted as outriggers if further stability is needed. For a regular boat I think they take the volume of water displaced if you sunk the boat to the point of water spilling in then divide that by three. Dont quote me on that but its a useful guideline in these situations were every pound of capacity is needed. For your kayak you could measure to the flat part at the top rather then the neck part that you sit in as that doesn't add to the flotation. You could just fill it with water then add on the displacement of the noodles. (Then divide by three) I came close to getting a square transom Sportspal this year with an outrigger for security, but decided another sit on top kayak was the way to go again. The canoe would have been easier to casually throw gear into, but it was longer, more money and needed the outrigger to have the comparable piece of mind of the SOT kayak. The SOT kayaks are self bailing if they get swamped or flipped. I'm talking worst case scenario here but I like to feel prepared if the situation turns. Things can get serious real quick in the water, you can feel pretty insignificant out there. This will make for a fun winter project.

It would be nice to see Fisher consolidate their single frequency lineup into two machines and perhaps take their multi frequency from the CZ-21 and stick it in a newer platform. It should have a digital display, waterproof to 30 feet, adjustable recovery speed and priced $150 less then the Equinox 800. That would at least make them a few bucks taking some of the market back from the Equinox. Innovate. I guess it's possible that Fisher has just grown too big to worry specifically about metal detectorists, they seem to be in the business of selling electronics to retailers, which is kinda a different thing if you know what I mean. Would fisher even do better as a company if they did have an Equinox beater? Its a weird way to think of it, but accounting makes for some weird decisions from our point of view I suppose. They have that Carl guy at least who probably knows as much about the behind the scenes tech as anyone, so I like to think if the opportunity comes up for some new tech that isn't already riddled with patents, he is the guy to recognize it. Perhaps that is what they are doing with the Manta. I wonder what Minelab could do with the Manta as far as bringing it closer to being a real competitor against a VLF discriminator. On further reflection, the Manta doesn't necessarily have to discriminate as well as a VLF to carve a very nice niche for itself at FIsher. I myself would trade off the ability to put a TID number on a coin if the Manta had reliable ferrous/non ferrous ID with the most of the depth and sensitivity expected of a pulse. That would make for a great water machine for me, I would pay $800-$1500 US for it. I know the CZ-21 is $1,800, but what can I say? Times change. That is probably why I've never seen a CZ-21 in the wild, it's more money then the Excalibur for no particular reason that I can see.

The Ender 3 would be a great choice, essentially the same as what I have, (TronXY) Mine has two Z motors which probably doesn't matter much one way or the other. Actually a single Z motor would probably be easier in the long run, as long as it works smooth and doesn't bind. My dual Z motors can come out of sync easy when changing filament while the power is off. It has to be checked before every print. You won't have this slight annoyance with a single Z motor. If you can tinker, there is tremendous value in these printers as the quality is on par with a $2,000 printer. I did upgrade the hotend to a E3D V6 so that I could do these Nylons and PETG on a regular basis. It's hard to take a picture of 3D printed parts, but ya the quality is pretty good. There is a bit of roughness on the bottom side overhang due to not being able to use a fan on Nylon, but otherwise these are very serviceable parts.

I printed off an extra yoke, PM your address and I'll send you one.

Before you know it that place will be hammered out.

The hole for the pod is fixed up/ I didn't have to sand it at all, I just pushed the bottom plate on for a custom fit. I also printed what I think is the final yoke out of black nylon. I'm too tired tonight to glue it on and have to work a bit tomorrow, so it'll have to wait until tomorrow night. I don't want to rush it, I want to set the handle tilted in a bit.

Gah! ...and to think I was worried about 0.525mm difference in drill bit size lol. It looks worse then it is. I cleaned up some of the fibers and soaked the rest with epoxy. When the epoxy started to setup I test fit the pod again to kinda mold the loose fibers a bit. I also put a tiny amount of epoxy on the top of the tube, behind the arm cuff. Earlier I was debating whether or not to drill at least one hole to use the factory arm cuff. Now I know I don't want to drill any more holes in this tube without the required equipment, whatever that may be. Possibly a diamond drill bit of some sort or maybe just a plunge router with carbide teeth, assuming you could get them in the required 9mm diameters for a reasonable price. I actually do have some diamond core bits, but I think 1/2" is my smallest size, if someone had a 3/8" they could mount it in a drill press. If I had to do it again, I would for sure go that route.

I thought I would update as I make progress this weekend. The shaft is now cut to length @ 42 3/8", or 1076mm. This length is basically between the 1st and 2nd hole on the factory shaft. The length is based on my height and an all round compromise for land and water detecting. Based upon my research, getting a clean cut on the Kevlar was going to be difficult with any kind of toothed blade, so I went with a wet diamond saw. A tile saw specifically. After protecting the tube with painters tape, I wrapped a sheet of paper around the desired location and traced a line around the tube. The cut was then made free-hand. A "chop" style miter saw with a diamond blade, or some sort of guide on this saw would have made it easier then cutting along a line, but ultimately it was just two cuts which turned out OK. I lightly dressed the edges with some 400 grit, but this is basically how it came off of the saw, so it's a big relief having this part done. Next I will drill the hole for the pod. This part is slightly frustrating because despite living in a country that is supposed to use the metric system, all the local hardware stores only really carry imperial bits. I have a 3/8" drill bit here which is 9.525 mm, a bit bigger then the 9mm hole on the factory shaft. I was planning on dressing the hole and the top of the tube with epoxy anyway to keep any fibers from fraying, so maybe this will bring me back down closer to 9mm. Also the wall on my new tube is thicker and the stub on the plate is angled a bit, so maybe that will help to wedge it in there. I briefly thought about printing my own bottom piece for the pod with my own stub(s) at whatever size I wanted, but I would still have to deal with clearances and potential trial and error for fit, so I will go with the factory plate for now.

Lithium batteries help, a clever coil design could potentially make it happen.

?

Right on man. I use them for detecting as well. I just got a new one this year and haven't properly rigged it out yet, always looking for ideas. That is a great opportunity for magnet fishing, good idea. I also want to detect more of the smaller waterways around here as I believe that these were the streets and highways of the fur trade era. I would love to find a canoe dump full of relics and silver, or even just stumble across unknown swimming holes etc.

Maybe sometime you could start another thread about your kayak trolling motor project, it sounds interesting. I pondered doing it myself a few times.

Nokta needs Minelab to do it first do they can copy them.? I'm not sure I understand what you mean by GPZ technology, but I suppose a lightweight PI/VLF combo would be neat.

No worries

I use far east i3 style printers made from 2020 v-groove aluminum extrusions with wheels. There isn't much that I print 100% solid. Slic3r has a setting where you can have areas under a certain size printed solid then use infill for everything else, that is useful for most things. Those little white Nylon washers though, I will probably print them solid, there isn't much room left for infill anyway once I make the wearing surfaces thicker. (The test washer above just has 20% infill and 1mm walls)

Sounds good Steveg, I will make the adjustments tonight. Thanks! It is designed and printed this orientation so that I don't need support material. I couldn't break the polyethylene Excalibur version in my hand so it should be strong enough. The orientation doesn't actually matter if you're getting good layer adhesion. While the layer lines look like a good spot for something to fail, pieces that I have intentionally broke in the past didn't fail at a layer. They broke just like injection molded parts. The Nylon alloy 910 I am going to use has a 8,100lbs tensile strength, 32% elongation, 72,000PSI modulus and has a Shore hardness of 85D. (Made in U.S.A. by Taulman) A little overkill never hurt anyone. ?