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Not finding much on beach performance on the orx, only bit I saw was some videos was some guy in the UK on a gravel beach and some deus videos with poor performance and god knows what khz they were using (guessing the highest they could based off the falsing and inability to gb them. Very frustrating to get honest comparisons and tests on any machine. Are people just complete twits or they always show a bias on machines? What ever happened to apples to apples?

Get an acid test kit, pretty cheap and easy to use. basically scuff the ring across the test stone to leave a mark. Use a part of the ring where it is least noticeable like an edge. Next start with the 10k solution put a drop on the mark and see if it disappears, if not then go the the next solution up 12k, 14, 18. The lowest solution that clears the mark is the karat. Good gold and silver don't typically tarnish and won't have any patina (sign of copper) nor would they bubble as a plated piece does. Gold should be similar on the vdi and maybe a nudge lower than a aluminum square tab.

Have you used your ORX in the salt? Curious how well it does. The Tejon is pretty good on damp sand and dry sand but there are areas that is impossible to gb. The AT Pro tends to light up in the 50's in many of the beaches here though does a bit better in the wet with the big coil and better with stock in the dry sand. AT Pro tends to hit if your lucky 8" down in the wet with stock coil and forget about hearing any small targets, smaller than a dime.

Hit a park that used to be an estate then run by Nuns for many years then turned over to the town as a park. There is approx. 10 acres or so and most of it over grown so I figured I would hit some of the area that has been flattened down by the winter before it grows back in. Surprisingly there is tons of stuff there and doesn't seem to have been detected on. In just a few passes in a small area I found a really old remnants of a button with no marks, handful of pocket change, 18k gold earing .037oz and this old dime in pretty descent shape. New stuff dropped is probably from people sledding down the hill side.

Here we have one town where digging is prohibited and glad I checked. Most parks, dog parks, public forests are pretty safe to dig, always fill in your holds and don't leave any trace. In the North East here there are some historic sites that you can't dig. As far as farms I seek permission, there was one I asked that is city owned and the board said no even though it was in a hat field. Mainly because there are many hacks out there that leave the places a mess. Most the parks I dig I go even if it's crowded, people don't bother with ya usually and if they ask just say usual pocket change even if you find something cool. That is usually enough info to keep them happy. Many times I talk to the greens keepers because they often have some cool info on the area like when it was re-loamed, if it was a farm at one time etc. If your personable enough and don't look like you just robbed a bank or is trying to dig up a body people generally find it interesting. Even get some leads to help them find lost jewelry. Some private farms it doesn't hurt to get a couple buddies and offer them a couple bucks to go digging for the day.

Some old farms, wooded areas that used to be farms and for parks and really heavy trash areas I use my Tejon as it picks up on tiny jewelry really well. Tejon has a relatively slow recovery speed but separation is really nice. Iron an can slag is no issue for it but the smaller concentric coil is a little small in the big open fields.

I got tired of putting my pinpointer in my pocket so I snagged a piece of Velcro 12" long x 2" wide, stuck them back to back and made a quick strap for the holster. Even holds my digging gloves.

I'll try to find out more, my guess is it would do a bit better than the AT Pro with stock coil and guessing it could hit a quarter ok at 12" Last year I picked up the 1805 Reale at 14" down with the AT but could barely hear it. Friend of mines MX Sport hit it about the same but a little less steady signal but that could have been his settings. I'm torn between getting a MAX and be able to use my coils or go for something really light and easier to poke around the woods with less wires to snag up. Also seeing the ORX has a beach mode it might be a good general purpose machine for me in the North East. Thanks

If those were the comparisons posted here they were on the AT Gold with small coil and machines tested at different frequencies so comparison is not useful. Thanks

I hit various areas and in the big fields been using the AT Pro with a Nel Big 17x15 coil. Buddy of mine just got the AT MAX with stock coil and goes just as deep as the Pro with the big. How does the ORX compare to the MAX? Does it have an All Metal Mode? I like the idea of something super light and the choice of frequencies as the AT Pro doesn't find really small gold targets with it's low freq.

Update on the ring, did an acid test for 10k gold and nothing dissolved, tried the platinum and the line dissolved so guess the ring is platinum. Using the loupe that came with the kit I took a good look at the diamonds and they don't seem to be refracting light just reflecting and there is some contaminants in them so they could be real! Next step is to find a jeweler and get a worth tossed on it. Amazing what I thought was a junk ring might be worth some serious $$$

Is a good idea, doubt Garrett will adapt it. They seem to lock their designs down and maximize part usage across machines, this is really good for costs and tooling but can inhibit improvements/features in some cases.

A little late chiming in here but wanted to suggest that for powder coating you can pick up the powder cheap at harbor freight. Using an ordinary heat gun, simply warm the metal up and dump the powder over the piece and shake off the loose powder. The warmer it is the more powder will stick. Once that is done simply continue to heat the part up until the powder turns shiney and starts to level then let it cool down. I used this technique on a laser cutter control panel that I mounted a dsp controller, power switch and safety switch. As far as needing plastic parts you can cast your own out of urethanes. You can use rtv silicone to make molds in ordinary plastic containers and do gravity pour for the urethanes. This is handy to duplicate parts so you don't destroy the original. I often use parts I print out on my 3d sla printer as masters to make molds from. Casting materials available from a few sources but I use Smooth-On for much of that stuff.

You mean the Pointer?

For the amount you may get your might want to hang on to it as a backup. I still use my Tejon over my AT Pro and if it dies then I'll move on. fun factor for me on the audio only is still better than any VDI.

I don't belong to a club and use state maps to locate areas to detect on. Double checking with the town once you find possible places to go is a good idea. Unfortunately it can be tough to find public parks that are good with digging as there are many twits running around with big spade shovels tearing the places apart. I'm up in the northeast and much of my detecting is in MA so I use this as a starting point: http://massgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/OnePane/basicviewer/index.html?appid=47689963e7bb4007961676ad9fc56ae9 It gives me info and property lines along with property owner if I want try to contact for digging such as farms. As far as dealers I had used Seriousdetecting.com and Kellyco.com both have treated me well. If I come across a small dealer I would prefer to toss them my green stamps as I like to support the little guy when ever possible. As far as kellyco your best bet is to get on the phone with a sales rep as they answer their emails very slowly compared to Seriousdetecting who contacts back very quickly. As far as pricing both offer free shipping on orders over $100, both have same MFG minimum pricing on most if not all items as do just about the majority of dealers. I think Amazon tends to be pricier on some items mainly because of the JBNMM fees (Jeff Bezo Needs More Money) imposed on the merchants. Ebay is similar in that aspect as well.

Majority of the dealers sell machines for the same "Low" price as allowed by the manufacturer. I have used different ones and one off ebay that has a regular online store. All treated me well. I would look for who has free shipping and make sure you don't get tagged with a sales tax if your a cheap sob like me.

Are there people selling the blank pcb boards or have the image so people can etch their own? Wouldn't mind building one and make it waterproof for pond hopping and maybe hit some beaches.

Good place to start blasting some hip hop ? Gives me an idea of planting trampolines in the local park.

Actually see someone detecting, looks like they are digging every pull tab out there!

I know it isn't plated, I've done plating and this being in the salt the smallest scratch it would have bubbled. Way too heavy to be aluminum or silver. Kit should be here end of week or early next month or when Amazon decides to torture me on delivery to try to entice me to waste $100 a year for their stupid prime ?

Learning VDI machine brand to brand is more learning the features but going from a VDI to audio only analog is much different and takes some practice. Neither are difficult. I think much of the brand loyalty is from customer success in the field which is more likely luck of being in the right spot at the time more so than the machine being used. This weekend my buddy swears by his whites and left the field we were hitting and not 10 feet from where he left off I picked up the 43 quarter. It wasn't his MX Sport or my Tejon but the fact that he didn't swing there. Of course I didn't tell him where I picked the coin up because that would end in some sort of heated argument hehe

Ordered a test kit, will find out in a week or so.

Hit an old field that got picked clean pretty much. Some of it is still frozen and there is tons of trash. Managed to find a 60-70's remnants of a cub scout pocket knife and 2 coins, ones a 1926 wheatie in poor shape other is the 43 quarter.

Does the person with the most thumbs up get the golden pull tab award? ?