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microsniper

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  1. On 6/20/2023 at 10:34 AM, mn90403 said:

    Ok, that is small f------ gold. Not the smallest but small.

    Why do you need to turn the coil up?  Just lay it down and wave the scoop over the top.  I guess he wants to put all the little nuggets on the smooth bottom?  When he does that you can't hear them unless they are moving.  Detectors work off of the change in signal and not the constant interruption.  If you hold it there it doesn't sound off.  It is a good lesson in pinpointing to make your scoop pile.

    What makes a pinpointer work differently?

    Quote

     

    Yes that was torture watching the recovery!  I thought the same thing..     However, after recovering some "really small" pieces myself  with the Axiom, I can kind of understand why he chose that method.

       The top of the coil doesnt seem quite as sensitive (to me) + the added thickness/shape of the scoop makes hearing the tiny tiny ones difficult to hear.  (not so with SDC).        

    Iv experienced this many times now.  When i originally pick up the smallest discernible targets they must be practically touching the coil and then when i go to recover them with the scoop, i cant hear them and end up throwing them back, and starting over.   Might have to customize one of my scoops for dinky dink recovery🔎 ...

    • Like 1
  2. Thanks Simon,I did see someone had a bunch of sdc coils on ebay a couple weeks back....      I did end up talking to someone at MinersDen Australia and they said yeah we got one, but because of the distribution agreement they have with minelab they couldnt send me one🤔  Also since mine is the 1st gen they said it "might not fit".    Im more motivated now than ever to take the darn thing apart and make a new housing for the electronics..... (now that I have an Axiom in the kit...)

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  3. Thanks Norvic, im intrigued, i dont think I would have thought to approach  the set up like that.   There is way more variation in how the audio reacts to changing those three setting than I would have expected.   (or compared to GPX 4500)  I dont have any experience with the 6000 yet.   What do you think about the clipped threshold Im experiencing?   If I crank up the threshold to get the faint but smooth buzzing mosquito  its too loud and dampens the sharpness of a target.    The difference happens between 17-20.  16-17 having the clipped audio response to a target breaking into the threshold.      I guess im attempting to replicate the sound profile of my gpx threshold.   Also I havent been able ,thus far, to run up the sensitivity higher than 4 for any length of time to see how that changes the threshold quality....  its really fun to be learning a new machine

     

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  4. Congrats and good luck Ed!   The day I received my 1st PI ( Gpx 4500)  was the turning point for me being able to find nuggets!   I think partially it was psychological... it boosted my confidence knowing I had a capable machine, made me focus and dedicate more time and energy which in turn equalled more and more finds.    

    Keep us posted on the AXIOM!

    • Like 2
  5. Hey, I recently overworked my SDC and broke the "coil yoke adapter".      I contacted Minelabs service department  here in the USA and inquired about purchasing the part and getting it sent to me so I could get back up and running.   After talking to the very helpful Tech, they said that unfortunately it would take months to order the part, and basically would not offer any solution except for me to send my unit in for repair.  $375 for a new coil assembly +  1hr labor +shipping....     As well, they would not sell me the coil assembly.  hhhmmm     I was a bit disappointed as I have had good experiences with the service department there before.  

    Seems like overkill to send my unit back for the replacement of a simple part.  As well, Im not sure why they wouldn't sell me a coil assembly if nothing else.

     I watched a video from Miners Den Australia of a tech replacing this exact part, so I know its available and not a tech only repair kind of thing.    Sooooo.....      Would anyone here know of where and how I might obtain this very rare and hard to find SDC part called the "coil yoke adapter" and its  associated O ring?   

    I tried to epoxy the cracked parts but it does not take, maybe im using the wrong kind of adhesive?  Any advice on a possible fix would be welcomed😃

    -----

    As a side note:    It was a perfect opportunity  (excuse?) to try out the Coiltek kit and 10x5 coil which I purchased as soon as I got off the phone with Minelab....  I tried it out and its great!  I prefer the coil being centered on the shaft for poking fwd and back and while scrubbing the coil up a steep bank.  Its just as or more sensitive, stable, and capable of a coil.  (found some tiny shallow pieces and one .3 at good depth).     I just would like to be able to put the machine back to stock at some point...

     

    Cheers!

     

     

     

     

    SDCpic.jpeg.b8f44fee4f75e9a14d8526f76fe939ca.jpeg

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  6. thanks yeah, ill look up the cupeling, i once tried it with portland cement and some weird low grade galena/gold ore....   maybe with some upgraded materials (and safety equipment)   that just might be the ticket..     

     

    Heres a few Jewelry shots for ya, cheers!   Hope to do more gold soon...fullsizeoutput_25f.thumb.jpeg.1c6a9dfa47690e832d0ebbc5c94dd4ce.jpegfullsizeoutput_261.thumb.jpeg.636d875c1f97a6fc13e7f4fd63c21aba.jpegD6D64FB6-5E80-4B09-9880-620DE74B59E4.thumb.jpg.0d46e6851cc490c01be6503a2f54f508.jpg fullsizeoutput_1f7.thumb.jpeg.5ce8b81d3ec827613d3085a3cc937775.jpegfullsizeoutput_25d.thumb.jpeg.0f9dc613306b91dae0a115a888aacdb6.jpeg

    • Like 4
  7. 1 hour ago, sjmpainter said:

    I’m planning to do the same thing for the same reason this year. 

    My question is what part of the refining didn’t work for you?

    I am assuming you have melting equipment molds for rough cast and a roll mill to produce the finished stock?

    Are you smelting with borax to remove impurities? Are you  annealing the gold as it work hardens in the rolling process? 

    Any jewelry Smith in your area should be able to make stock for you but it would be nice to figure out making your own.

     

    Hey, yeah I have all the necessary tools, rolling mill, etc, crucible, fluxes, borax, etc.   So far each of my batches (ingots/ round stock) have turned out brittle when worked with a hammer, or rolled in the mill.  I have been melting silver and gold and making jewelry for years with few issues.   Only when I use the rough little nuggets from southern arizona does it seem to be a problem due to quartz or iron inclusions (I am assuming)  which are not fully removed by the borax and fluxes.   I have tried, a variety of fuels/temps, fluxes, pouring into water, slow cooling, quenching, annealing,  ran the same gold multiple times though the process....  always brittle.   I have not tried grinding to a powder or aqua regia or electrolysis.... yet... haha..                   

  8. Hey All,  Iv been trying to locate a Refiner here in the USA that can process a small batch of placer gold (2oz) and fabricate some 18/22k jewelry stock.     I am an amateur jeweler and have tried many times to smelt my hard earned gold into some usable material and have not had any luck thus far.     So, I know I can send it off to a refiner and get generic stock back but the point is to use my own gold for some special pieces.      I know someone else out there has gone down this road before, and i would so appreciate a lead on  a reputable refiner/fabricator.    

     

    cheers!    

  9. FIXED!!!   Ok, so I finally got around to doing the coil repair.   Not the most professional soldering  but it got the job done. 

    Items needed:

    Soldering iron and solder

    Plumbers flux

    wire snippers/strippers

    Liquid Tape and fine -cheap paint brush

    dual wall heat shrink tubing (two sizes.  one the same size as coil cable, and one size larger)

    Optional:  Jewelers glasses, third hand tweezers.  Made it much easier to see and hold things in place.

    60453660733__4A54C959-4A53-426E-B220-FF2926B18018.thumb.jpg.6db20d6ecb307ce7e182b927e2055851.jpg

    IMG_3602.thumb.jpg.152aa35c17268a81d9487fe6197bdee4.jpg

    Six very fine wires and two shielded wires in the center.   I stripped back and separated the two inner wires first, making sure to leave a  little bit of the plastic shielding on each side so they would not make contact while soldering.  

    trimmed all wires to about the same length so they would all line up when soldering. 

    Then Fluxed all the wires, tinned them very carefully with a touch of solder.

    IMG_3604.thumb.jpg.08b70223690838dd9616ae4bd0775766.jpg

    (I could have done a better prep job and taken more photos but i was motivated to just get it done before dinner)

    I soldered the innermost wire first (to establish the length of the other wires and because its strong and held every thing together)

    Then soldered the surrounding red wire.

    Trimmed and soldered all the others.  

    Painted Liquid Tape on all soldered areas, and put extra around and between the two inner wires.IMG_3605.thumb.jpg.4099ecf2a34d7148275077fd2d196e7c.jpg

    I finished it off with the dual wall heat shrink tubing..... and Viola!  The coil is back in action!!

    IMG_3607.thumb.jpg.ebc323fc3c97ef7a2dfcbb9042f0c0dc.jpg

    I dont think I would trust it to be submerged in water ever again, but it seems to be bomber enough to take some rain or a quick splash.

    Im sure I could have taken more time and done a cleaner job but it seems to work just fine.   Ill test it out in the field and report back if there are any sonic anomalies, bump sensitivity, etc...      

    Thanks again for hooking me up the connector Steve!

     

     

     

    • Like 8
  10. UPDATE:    Minelab just replied to my coil repair inquiry.   "Unfortunately there is no repair for your damaged coil. They (the repair techs) are unable to perform a  repair or replacement of the coil plug connector."   

    Sooo...    your on your own if you damage the connector, which in my opinion is too easy to do.   I was actually worried about doing just that when i first bought the EQ. 

      Ill update as soon as I get around to performing the fix with the new connector. 

    If anyone has more tips/tricks or product recommendations to use for this fix please post them. 

    In the mean time here is the last batch of EQ600 nugglets (before the accident) that were found by my competition.....I mean girlfriend,  and I :biggrin:

     

    fullsizeoutput_24a.jpeg

    • Like 6
  11. Hey all, I just found my coil connection sheared off at the control housing. (oops, and bad timing as I was just headed out!)  Luckily no damage to the control housing connection but the other end was bent and broken right off... 

    I sent some photos to minelab to asses if they will fix it or not but still waiting.    I was wondering if anyone knows if its possible to buy this connector anywhere?    If minelab wont fix it then I will end up splicing one on myself and hope for the best (minus the water tightness of course) .   Any help would be so appreciated!  

    fullsizeoutput_247.jpeg

    fullsizeoutput_246.jpeg

    • Like 1
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  12. On 10/7/2019 at 9:13 AM, mn90403 said:

    Micro,

    I'm glad you posted it here on a forum where everyone appreciates the Nox's abilities but we sometimes don't stretch it like you did!

    Could you tell us a little more about your 'technique?'  I mean did you rake and detect, micro-swing, gully or side hill and was the patch big?

    Mitchel

    the "patch" as I found it, was on the side of a gently sloping hill.  I had found one bigger piece (gram+) previously which was deeper than say 4-6" with sdc. I returned with a 12"evo  on the 4500 and didnt find anything else.

      When I went back this time, i just scraped a few inches off of where Id found a smaller piece and found another, then another.   So I just used my pick and scraped back a few more inches in every direction.   As it turned out, the tiny pieces (which most id missed with the sdc) were within the top 2 inches, nothing deeper (or nothing deeper than I could detect) and no bedrock in sight.  

     I was hunting a narrow parameter of signals (0,1,2,3) ignoring everything esle (but hearing and seeing 0 through40).   Signals were bouncing all over from iron and hot rocks which I removed if I could isolate them without digging too much.   Moving the coil really slow to pick up a solid tone, or id# and then giving it a little wiggle from different directions to lock on seemed to work.       

    I really dont know how big the patch is haha, but what I found was  spread out within about 15'x10'.     If I had known this was the case, I would have brought a rake and pulled off the rocks first, detect, then scrape back an inch or two, repeat, being methodical and going slow.     I'm sure that I missed a few with my sloppy procedure, and not allowing or investigating -3,-2,-1....     and also not playing around with the settings to get it dialed in better..     Sure did enjoy not having to chase false signals and ground noise though!     

      

    • Like 3
  13. 13 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

    I am not aware of any difference between Park 2 and Field 2 other than the presets. Set identically, performance appears identical. The same with Park 1 and Field 1.

    If in an area with little or no ferrous trash dig negative numbers, like down to -3. Gold in mineralized soil will read negative at times as the ground ferrous content skews and overwhelms the nugget non-ferrous reading. This is highly dependent on the nature of the gold and the soil but definitely something to be aware of and experiment with.

    Ok, yes, thanks,  that makes complete sense.    Ill have to dig a little deeper into this one.. 🤔   now I cant wait to get out again! 

    • Like 1
  14. 12 hours ago, Noah (FL) said:

    Congrats on the nuggies!!!  And thanks for sharing the success with the 600.  Steve wrote about its effectiveness but definitely cool hearing of others success with it!!!   Definitely post your settings as it’s always informative seeing different folks ways of setting up and running detectors!

    Thanks Noah!  Ok, settings for that day and place.  Northern AZ.  lots o hot rocks, ironstone, black sand..  Id been over the spot previously and gotten (most) of the larger pieces in the poke, and the trash out of the way....

    Field 2

    Sensitivity 17-20

    -9 to -1 blocked out with everything else accepted

    2 Tones

    Tone break at 0

    Iron bias 0

    ground balance manual

    Main concern was the hot rocks and iron ground.  Recovery speed of 3 seemed to help.   I dug nothing but 1,2,3's. not really concerned about missing anything but the smallest microscopic pieces.       Dug  1 shotgun bb, and 1 small sliver of lead.  ( wish that were more common!)    Most of the hot rocks came in 6-15 jumping to high unstable numbers. which I just happily ignored 😁.   The nuggets were 0 to 3 locking on a solid 1or 2. with a  solid high tone. (in the two tone mode).    I really should have slowed down and experimented with some other settings or modes as it would have been a perfect test ground...  although it was too fun to just watch for a 1 or 2 and dig!    It could have easily been BB Hell though I know....

              Question:    Anyone think Park 2 would have been better in any way?   Not sure of the weighting of frequencies (?).. but im plenty satisfied with the tiny pieces I found using field 2.     What else could be different between these modes??   

    When I get a chance, Ill take both machines out and get some comparisons on in ground targets, all i need to do now  is find another patch...doh..          

    • Like 1
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  15.  

    15 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

    I appreciate you posting that. I have been trying to convince people the 600 is nearly as good as the 800 for gold nuggets, but since the 600 lacks that magic “Gold Mode” does make people skeptical. You are officially now the “Equinox 600 Nugget Master”! :smile:

    My Tips On Nugget Detecting With The Minelab Equinox

    Haha!  Thanks Steve, Im going to have to share that lofty title with my GF who found half of them!    In fact, thats why I "HAD" to get an 800... so maybe id have an edge....😜

    • Like 5
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    • Oh my! 2
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