GotAU?

I would have bought one from backwoods, but it’s not listed there including in the digging tools section, so EBay instead😒 But that’s not your fault, Jeff Bozo can use the money for a split microsecond’s worth of fuel for his new superyacht. Oh wait, that is Amazon. Well they don’t need our money either!

@kac Ken, just ordered one on EBay, am looking forward to trying it out. It looks like a very nice tool, and I’m happy to support the effort! One suggestion though, wish you had your own website to buy directly from, EBay doesn’t need our money! 😉Thanks! -Anthony

I like that idea, will have to order an extra to keep one in my truck for whenever we are somewhere and I didn’t take my regular gear. Could also make a great snowball and slobbery dog ball atlatl!

Thanks for posting it. Guess we should wrap the whole thing in aluminum foil. In addition to ice cream cover coil protective tape and shaft spin locking o-rings, there’s another receipt to submit to ML for reimbursement! 😁

You’re probably right about external interference, remember Simon’s photo of the way the interior of the 6K cases are hand painted with a shielding coating? Interesting about the Sun’s effect on drilling!

It would be interesting and bizarre if your more northern latitude was causing the issue due to the recent geomagnetic storms the Sun is causing this weekend. There have been some great Aurora Borealis lights further south as a result, and we are going to have another CME (coronal mass ejection) hit the Earth on Sunday as well… https://www.spaceweather.com/

Happy with mine I got from you Gerry. Partnered with the smaller Coiltek elliptical, it’s the perfect machine with the means for finding what we have here in So Cal, even if there’s a lot of trash not even a VLF can discern. And bullets too, lots of them!

Makes sense Jim, sounds like you did a thorough job with the 11 also. I guess the one thing you could also say is that there were no smaller nuggets there that either coil could have picked up better than the other. Interesting results though, a nice little patch!

What about a little sister Gerry? Maybe there’s a bratty one out there that just doesn’t want to be detected? That’s a nice find for sure, from what it looks like possibly similar to some smaller ones found by others out there… 3hrs out for me! 🙂

I have both coils now too and besides the better ground handling and smoother threshold with the Coiltek, I have not done a sensitivity type of comparison. In order to do a valid test for that, one would have to try out both coils on the same targets under the same conditions- grid an area with one of the coils marking the found targets, and then grid the same area again with the second coil remarking the found targets. Then dig up the targets measuring what they are, how big, and how deep each was buried.

Did I read this correctly, were the targets found with the 11 just marked for the Coiltek to refind, or did you dig them out first when finding them with the 11? Confused because it implied you dug up 18 nuggets with the 11 first. Seems like it would have been a good test if you just marked the targets without disturbing them on the first go around.

Great story- and nice find!

No idea if the testers mentioned it or even if they thought it was a reportable issue, I’m sure they would have noticed it though. As far as getting the O-rings to work, you have to tighten up the lock ring pretty much hand tight to get the o-rings to engage between the two parts to work. It’s a simple fix to try…

Just received my Gold Pit scoop from Doc today! It was kindly offered as a prize. It looks like it will work very well for separating and trapping heavies in the bottom pocket of the scoop, making it much easier to recover. I think it will also make a good quick grab sampler for dry panning too. I like the blue color one too- contrasts well against gold and won’t be easy to lose in a grassy area. Thanks Doc!😁 i

I’d think that that was a bit of money to lose back then, nice find!

Field testers?! You mean like Gerry? Hold the orders, Axioms are out of date already! The new ins are the 8000s! 🤩🤩🤩 By the way, where’d he go anyways?🤔 Hope he didn’t choke on one of those 8000 nuggets!😉

Solved it, the o-rings work really well to keep the shafts from spinning so easily:

Here’s a simple fix for the 6000 twisting shaft issue- just put a 1/8th inch thick dry O-Ring inside each of the locking rings. When you twist the locking rings, the o-rings compresses and tightens up between the shaft locking ring and collet keeping the shaft sections from spinning as easily. I used these two sized o-rings (in inches): 13/16 x 1-1/16 x 1/8 3/4 x 1 x 1/8 Fully unscrew each plastic locking ring and separate each rod, leaving the plastic locking rings in place on them and put the o-rings on. Be sure the o-rings fit snuggly but not too tight around each rod as shown below. Then insert the rods back in place and reconnect the threaded locking rings with the o-rings between the two parts. The o-rings will slip between the plastic collets and the ring wall as you screw on the locking ring. When the locking ring gets hand-tight, the o-rings will provide more locking force between the rod sections so they can’t spin as easily.

And maybe also send the receipt for the pipe wrap tape to Minelab for a reimbursement? 😁

You could do this to help preserve it:Robert’s Detectors idea with 10mil pipe wrap tape. First full day out including scraping drywasher piles, etc. Much better than duct tape as it doesn’t get sticky and leave gunk even in 100 degree F heat in full sun.

I am not sure about a locating tab on the Equinox - I’ll try when I can locate some clamps here in the US.

Interesting indeed- the tables have been turned in the Minelab vs. the Airplanes interference war! And when it becomes available for the dealers to demonstrate online, there will be some used Axiom deals out there! 😉

Just read that applying heat with a hair dryer softens the glue on the Equinox clamps to remove them, have you tried doing that with the 6000 ferrule? May be easier and cleaner than cutting a graphite rod- that scares me from a previous experience!

I was afraid of that. So besides other coils, I guess we can’t easily use custom rods for it either. It looked pretty solidly inserted into the box/cuff. I am going to try out some o-rings, I think they may help when you tighten up the lock ring…

@phrunt Hey have you tried this? Put snug fitting dry O-rings on each of the rod ends and reinsert them. They may compress enough to help keep the rods from spinning.