GeoBill

This happened to me over a year ago when I posted that I was looking for an equinox. Unbelievable offer to sell me one with outside email address. I responded to the outside email address and asked that it be posted in the classified here and I would buy it. That was the end.

Hard to tell from the picture. The surface looks polished or 'slickenside' like what you might find in a fault zone. There also appears what might be a somewhat flattened orientation in the broken surface in the first picture. I have some similar looking samples that were boudins in serpentinized ultramafic dikes in Franciscan fm which is most likely the local rocks in your area.

I wonder if the original poster asking re gold nuggets and lead "trash" is referring to their typically being found together in modern streams and rivers. When working crevices or sniping when I'm finding lead I know I'm in the area of the active channel that is also likely to carry gold - a good sign. Detecting away from active stream channels I will usually ignore iron but on bedrock adjacent to or in the rivers I dig everything. While not as heavy as lead, iron can also be an indicator of where the gold may be. Along those lines, hoping this next year will be great with reworked stream bottoms and lots of new catches full of heavies .

5 hours ago, Jeff McClendon said:

If you look at ALL of Serious Detecting’s used detectors selling on EBay USA, you will see similar issues with all of their current Minelab black coil photos. I think there are at least five listings. Unless they got all five detectors from one person on a trade-in who applied some kind of really weird coating to random areas of those coils............Nah

Yeah, it is just their recent posts for "slightly used" 600's and 800's. Strange.

I agree that the current 600 deal with the wireless headphones is very tempting but I'm really hoping to move into the 21st century and get an 800, replace both the 20+ year old Sovereign XS-2 at the beach and the V-SAT for gold (well not completely into the 21st century, much to my children's dismay I still use a flip phone).

Here's another one. I haven't seen this in any of their other ads showing the bottom, or from any other ad from other sellers.

Looks weird to me? But I'll go with your experience!

I'm still looking for an Equinox 800 and have been cruising ebay. Serious Detecting has several "slightly used" 600's and 800's with the images of the bottoms of the coils with white material exposed. Where the white isn't exposed it appears to me that the bottom of the coil is just covered with a plastidip or spray bedliner like substance. I know nothing about the Equinox and I'm guessing that the white is the internal expandable foam that holds the coil wires in place? From the images the coil bottoms don't appear to be worn to expose the white, is this a quality control issue?

Are the bottoms of the Equinox coils generally exposed like this, with no hard bottom, or are these coils an anomaly. 

This image also shows a coil cover/skid plate, but several of the ads don't indicate that a cover is included.

You might try emailing Todd Marshall at centrevilleelectronicsnw@gmail.com. I think Todd was the lead repair technician at White's and now does warranty and repair work on White's detectors. He has answered my questions in the past. He also has an online store with some White's parts. The website is https://centrevilleelectronicsnw.com/

Cheers

Bill

Norm,

I was very saddened to read about your ALS diagnosis, and Jason’s note about his struggles with MS. I have enjoyed reading many of your posts here and on other detecting sites, and I am sorry that I may never get to meet either of you in person. My heart is lightened some because I believe that for both of you, while your diseases may in the end take you, I don’t believe that they will defeat you. I think that Harold Kushner framed it well, I can’t remember which book or the exact quote, but essentially that no man at the end looks back in regret and wishes he spent more time at work with his nose to the grindstone, that it’s family, friends, and spending time with, sharing, and doing the things we love. From your and Jason’s posts I believe that you have done and will continue to do very well in that regard.

Stay strong. Our prayers are with you.

Bill

2 hours ago, kac said:

If that was copper or tin slag it can be an indicator of a house burning. Found a lot of slag near foundations of structures that were burned down. Either case slag is a huge pain to detect through to find anything.

Out here, following the many California wildfires, I have been completely amazed buy the photos of rivulets of molten aluminum flowing away from the melted rims and engines of burned cars. Slagged aluminum usually has an oxidized surface but in those pictures it is bright and shiny. Had to be very hot fires!

You didn't mention how heavy it is. If it feels relatively light for its size I would guess aluminum campfire slag. That would also fit with the somewhat botryoidal texture.

-bill

On 1/23/2021 at 6:23 PM, Tom Slick said:

In 2019 I sold my White's V3i that I had bought new in 2009. It was one of the original "Vision" versions before White's was forced to rename the detector. I sent it in to White's and had it updated to the V3i version and expected them to change the decal but they didn't so it still had Vision on it. After having it for 10 years, I just knew that White's would have to be releasing a "NEW" top of the line detector so I thought I'd sell mine before it was no longer White's  "Top Of The Line". Well we all know what happened next. Wish I had kept it. The V3i with a BigFoot coil is a killer Clad & Jewelry machine. For now, my C & J detector is the DFX with BigFoot. 

Tom,

If you really miss that Vision/V3i, Centreville Electronics has a reconditioned one on their "used" website:

"Vision Upgraded to V3i - Batteries, Headset, Manual, 1 Year Warr. - $800" Has the Vision sticker!!

https://www.centrevilleelectronics.net/used.htm

Can't say that there are ones I've regretted selling, buying is another story 

22 minutes ago, Cascade Steven said:

GeoBill:  Where would I find Reg's coin settings for the TDI SL?  or could you list them here?  I'm also curious what coil you used?  Thanks for the help.

Here is Reg explaining how changing the ground balance can enhance the identification of coins

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/whitesgoldmaster/my-tdi-or-sl-chart-again-t865.html

and I believe that this is Reg demonstrating the process

17 minutes ago, Cascade Steven said:

GeoBill:  Where would I find Reg's coin settings for the TDI SL?  or could you list them here?  I'm also curious what coil you used?  Thanks for the help.

Steve has an article here on using the TDI for coins, I think based on Reg's work. There is also a video on Youtube by I think Reg also showing this. I will look for the video and Reg's writeup and add to this.

On 3/12/2021 at 7:59 AM, eclipse said:

Reverse engineered one TDI SL couple of years back. Nothing really special.
Didn't bother to put it back together parts and board still in boxes.

If you're looking to unload the parts I might be interested. 

Thanks

Bill

2 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

Would you mind explaining what a White's bhid is?

I'm assuming Beach Hunter ID model. About 10 years old I'd guess. Here's link to reviews referring to issues with coil float. For $100 would probably be a good deal.

http://metaldetectorreviews.net/detectors/12-1-beachhunterid.html

After a rather long hiatus (knee replacement) I finally was getting out to do a little detecting this weekend and found that my pinpointer had decided to go on a walkabout. Over the past few months I’ve directed several forum members to opportunities to purchase a TRX and now I needed to find one for me. Not an easy task. There is a used one on Ebay right now with bid already over $200 with five days yet to go…..

OK, to the point of this post. Searching around I did stumble across a site selling TRX’s for $55 ea for a lot of 10 pieces, with about $150 for shipping (~$70 ea). Normally I would just move on assuming that this is more Alibaba/Aliexpress knockoffs but I decided to do a little more looking around. They list a fairly wide range of detectors and brands, including a number of MineLab models. My understanding has been that MineLab is very aggressive in shutting down dealers carrying counterfeits.

Doing some online searching I didn’t find specific mention of counterfeit TRX’s, though plenty of discussion of Whites detectors, particularly the GMT. The Goldbug 2 and GPX 4500 were also quite popular.

Here’s my questions. Do you think there is a possibility this may be a legitimate dealer? Last fall just after White’s announced their closing there were some dealers who were discounting their inventory before Garrett said they would be covering warranty issues. Does MineLab truly aggressively go after dealers selling counterfeits? How much mark-up is there on detectors, and could this be a dealer who is not following the pricing “covenant” or functioning as a middleman to smaller dealers?

I will admit that prior to retirement I might have thought about taking a fly at these just for the hell of it, I’ve certainly taken bigger gambles (and losses) on gold stocks. At worst I may have been able to unload them as fakes that work as well as other pinpointers that sell in the $50 range – or just another bad stock investment.

There’s always that risk when we buy anything used on EBay, Craigslist, Treasure Classifieds, TreasureNet , etc.,(i.e. the TDI SL I recently bought that wouldn’t ground balance and hopefully can be repaired), and I question the number of “new” gpx4500’s I’ve been seeing pop up in ads lately (really, how many people are going to buy one and then sell it unused at a significant discount?).

Well, I’ll keep looking and hopefully a reputable dealer will find some hidden in their stockroom.

Here's another USGS pub on the northern gravels

Gold-bearing gravel of the ancestral Yuba River, Sierra Nevada, California

https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp772

This is a GIS based map of the "hydraulic mine pits of california" - has many unnamed small occurrences: Some you probably never knew was there.

https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/571976c2e4b071321fe22947

You can use different base maps.

When I left the USGS in 1995 I was at the time working with Warren Yeend on expanding the Tertiary Gravel study beyond Nevada County. One of the big unanswered questions is the primary source of the gold in the Tertiary Gravels? There have been proposals that there was a similar suture system to the current Mother Lode to the east that has been too deeply eroded: Garside at UNR (and others - some Aussies I can't remember) have proposed a possible source east of the current Sierra Nevada. For the Yuba/Feather area was it simply very rich pocket type occurrences like the 16:1? Lots of other proposed explanations.

Rich Goldfarb and Erin Marsh at the USGS in Denver took over much of this work, bringing in several grad students to work in the Mother Lode, but unfortunately the USGS lost its focus and any significant ore deposit research has long gone by the wayside.

1 hour ago, GB_Amateur said:

At the time I post this there are still 3 days remaining on this auction and already the bidding has reached $61.  I bought one of these (new) a couple years back for $10.  (I may have had to pay shipping but no more than $5.00 for that.)

I guess if you have a White's detector and need a battery holder you don't have many choices....

https://www.centrevilleelectronics.net/parts.htm frequently has the battery holders in stock (currently "Temp" out of stock), and https://centrevilleelectronicsnw.com/shop (northwest) has them in his store for $19.95.

What they say about a fool and his money!

There does appear to be a run or hoarding of Whites though. Before Christmas there were many of the TDI-SL both new and used on E-Bay, CraigsList - now nothing for quite awhile. On one of the Australian boards there has been discussion about how difficult it is now to find any used Whites detectors over there. Maybe they're becoming collector's items? WooHoo!

3 hours ago, karelian said:

GeoBill I have not turned the machine back into a Tdi Sl, just yet. Have been 'playing' with it as a SPP. I'll put the PCB back and attempt the adjustment just to see if that is the fix. If the fix works I'll keep it as the SL, but keep the spare SPP PCB for a rainy day..  Sorry for the slow response.

Thanks Karelian. No worries. I actually bit the bullet and sent it in for repair. Hoping that it can be fixed as the few minutes I got to play with it were quite fun. I first took it to a local park to try Reg's coin settings and the first three targets were dimes at 6-8 inches. WooHoo! Then it was pulltabs, nails, assorted junk, all sounding exactly like the dimes. Took it home and tested in the yard to find the GB issues. Really appreciated the light weight and balance.

Appreciated all of your posts about the SL - hoping to try your battery setup. Great posts on coil comparisons!

Bill

I recall that there were several people here who were looking for the TRX pinpointer and not finding them in stock anywhere. I was just looking at the Centreville Electronics website and they have them listed in stock for $199 with 2 year warranty. I was able to add one to my cart so it appears real.

https://www.centrevilleelectronics.net/newunits.htm

Cheers

21 minutes ago, mh9162013 said:

I refuse to support White's as a company, but since they're out of business, I've considered buying a TRX. If it has good closing closing ranges (at least compared to the Carrot), I'd probably get it over the F-Pulse. Or maybe I'll get both, then compare, then sell one. But I'd rather just buy one and save the money.

I recall that recently there were several posts here from people looking for the TRX but not finding any. I was just looking at the Centreville Electronics website and they list them in stock for $199 with 2 year warranty -

https://www.centrevilleelectronics.net/newunits.htm

Cheers

21 hours ago, Gold Catcher said:

Thanks for sharing, Rob. Very nice!! And yeah, I love the Two Toes crevice tool too and have it always with me. But probably unlike you, I had to pay for it 😉

Gary does make great stuff! That's probably my most frequently non-returned loaner item. Buy them 2 at a time because they're frequently sold out (OK, I admit I have been known to lose them myself). I also really like the Huntley Spoon he makes.

Check his online store: Honans Mining Supply

On 7/20/2020 at 6:01 AM, karelian said:

Thanks, ROD I'll give it a go when the PCB goes back into the Tdi Sl later in the year. Looks like the only trim pot we can work on ourselves. The source of the problem? Perhaps the solution.. Good info so thanks again.

Hi Karelian;

Did you end up trying adjusting the pot to see if it helped? I just bought a used TSI SL (ebay - less than year old - included receipt) that sounds like it has very similar problem. Won't ground balance. All tones high with GB off, all tones low with GB on with no variation with change in GB setting. Interestingly with GB off a US quarter does not register, but with GB on does. With GB on, putting the conductivity switch to low coins, nails, pull tabs, all are quiet. Switching to high all produce a low tone (including now the quarter). Same with several coils.

I welcome any suggestions on possible fixes.

26 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Your speculation is every bit as good as mine. The 24K blows the AT Gold away as a nugget detector, and I kept my 24K when I let my Gold Monster go. The AT Gold is the better general purpose detector. White's had the half sine patent and others. Whether they do anything with any of it remains to be seen.

Thanks. Interesting read.