Joe Beechnut OBN

Sorry I just seen this return post. It looks good except the coil to endcap, I have a extra double endcap I can send for free to replace the one.. If you need. The coil to endcap cable looks dangerous, but it could be a bad picture.... Also.......for sure fill the tub, set the detector in the water.. submerged , turned on the machine, put the head phones on and listen for at least a hour. I'm guessing you will get EMI which will make it hard but listen for the machine to act crazy, like falsing or stopping. Its going to be hard in the house, so If you do take it out in the real world......... I would go slow once under. Any abnormal falsing, or it acting stupid ..get it out of the water ..pull the head phone endcap and check for water. I might recommend having some DeoxIT D5 around just incase you need to clean the board fast. My opinion, change that coil fitting out this winter or sooner. Other then that I think you did a great job.. You will find the more you work on it the easier it comes as you learn.

We recently lost this read only part of Findmall.com https://archive.findmall.com/read A great loss for many of the old masters writings were there.

Something that really helps.. Gel ear pads.. Video is 11 years old but will give a good idea. I use aquaseal to put on the one's I listed. These listed fit all head phones, not perfect but very close. There are many other types out there but I like the ones I have picture below the best. They last about 3 to 4 years with heavy hunting. And remember all of this info is at least 10 years old.

Great Pictures! And Enjoyed the write up! Spots like that are really tough, but fun for you just never know what will come up.. Good Luck!

Sunglasses needed!! Very Nice!

Really not bad at all, they are fairly large, wearing two pairs of reading glasses makes it easy...small is ear bud wires.. thin as hair. I'll never do another one of those.

Dave, I'm not sure on that for I have done several different things at once to the machine. The one I am using now is pictured below. I have done several others over the years, for others, and no reports of more or less noise. Below the repaired is .24 (4 lead) 20gauge cable....., the next round is .28 (4 lead) 18gauge shielded.

Like the idea of thinner... less resistance. I'm working on a design and now testing. Reducing the amount of noise you get in rough waters or when you hunt right at the water line. And this is with the Minelab Excalibur. The amount of noise reduction has been amazing. It allows me to hunt right in the splash and extremely rough waters with little to no noise. So far having the machine at a different position, protected by my arm, when hunting (in one swing direction)...then removal of all, except one control knob seems to reduce the noise to less then 5%. Then with a shorter sweep of the coil, or coil control, it's almost silent. I do have a few more changes to do on the next go-round, which I have started building another machine. I want to run the coil cable inside of the shaft and make it a straight shot, coil to control pod. And the next coil has a new cable which is shielded.

Boom!! WTG TVR

Couple of beauties! Always good to see the effort pay off with the scale shot!

Got into a very old beach this past weekend. Little surprised to see someone has been hammering the place fairly good. Looked like they were working a trough, "Low area" close to shore and maybe cherry picking? For there were several deep signals left ... So I dug all.. Was using the Fisher AQ PI.. One Gold Ring, and 8 more Silvers.. couple V Nickels and a transit toke from Washington DC. The wedding band is brass, the silver came up clean for this location and uncommon to find these dates, so that area I will be watching close. These troughs in time can slowly move into un-hunted areas.

You need to find the two piece type, the top handle part is glued to the mount. There are a few other brands that have them just like, I seen on Amazon. Stay away from the real cheap ones, I tried them several years ago. Very easy to break. The brand I used was Avenir. Also you can pull the top part of the handle off and replace with a strait piece from one of the curved stock minelab excalibur blue shafts, cut it to fit.

Strange looking and more then likely dated 40's to 50's? Most of the coins were in that period.

Yes, chunky design with a bird on it? I'll get a better picture later. Those surprise waves can be a disaster. I've lost one gold ring with one a few years ago. And almost lost this one too.

If it cracked in one spot just a matter of time for the full cable to has issues. Patching is just buying time and could possibly cost you the coil or machine if you do not catch the next crack/leak in time, since you submerge your machine. Saltwater loves to leach into the coil or control pod............ thru the cable and destroy. Good Luck, and that is a cool fitting.

Out with my buddy Mike in rough waters the other day. Eight silvers and One Old gold marked ... "Sept 29-99" Silvers in bad condition due to being submersed in the bay for many years. Being able to hunt "IN" rough water with a silent running machine allowed me to pull very faints targets normally not heard unless the water is flat. Conditions were 16 to 18 mph winds, choppy water. No falsing while swinging and no noise with the water slapping the machine at any level. I did notice after a few hours hunting I was getting a little noise at the end of my swing (right).. but realized it was from me getting sloppy with my swing. Coil control can really affect the performance. Mike and I over the years have talked and shared ideas on how to improve the xcal ........... this idea finally came to light...Stealth Xcalibur More changes are planned, working on another coil for it right now.

Love the Plat! And nice haul on the silver!

That looks Great!! My first couple times looked ruff! On the length, I would go with a little extra, I have one that goes straight down the shaft, no wrap. My latest I went with a foot extra... The machine pictured I've had out once, semi rough water. Silent, no falsing with water hitting the coil wire / pod and swing fast..... Taking it out Tuesday in Very Rougher waters, see if my idea works. The board is isolated from the outside surroundings.

Sorry to see the issues Cuda and good to see your back in business. I do think those that wait for the New "AQ" version will be much happier since there is no external battery wires and battery. The New version will have 4 drop in 18650 Li-ion cells. Very clean design.

It stays in, you need to cut the top off of the heyco pigtail (you took off) and screw it back on so when the epoxy is poured in, the heyco acts as a anchor to hold all in place. That make sense?

Thanks You! Replacing is not to hard, they don't look bad (O-ring) but maybe in the near future?

AQ...I know it is close... everything has been silent of late other then what Phil , owner of Myers, said the other night. When Jeff mentioned the mumbles, that is a Virginia Beach, Grave digger max "Phrase", He uses it a lot when he comes off the beach ... Mumbling to himself about,... not finding gold. Max, named Kenny (Corrected Denny), the Mumbles Man, for Denny found so many gold chains a few years ago.. He gives everyone else the mumble because they can't find any... I guess you might say, "Mumbles" is Virginia Beach Pirate talk.. And these are from Max's youtube video's, which he no longer does many on beach hunting.

Checking in to see your progress... Me...... Building a excalibur since I am unable to get out. Something I have talked about for some time, changing the pod around and eliminating most of the controls. Also made a couple 3s Li-ion batteries for it..12.6 volts.

That's a Very nice one!

Years ago when I use to make the 2.5 hour trip to OC MD to find gold, two different trips I got silvers (2). Both were clean as if they were just dropped. Both after different storms... One was a 1963 Rosy and the other a very worn 192? Peace dollar. I got the peace dollar find on video. My theory is, the ruff surf tumbles them around so much it's like being in a tumbler. These were found on the lower part of the beach, but when Sandy hit there were coins in close that got pushed near the boardwalk. So any place is possible.