F350Platinum

That's a good padded bag, bought one 3 years ago and use it to carry my detector(s) when traveling. Great price, about 50% off. It will fit 2.

Gotta say that it might make some people nervous in some places, it looks like a rifle bag. 😎

Just now, DWerk said:

A pipefitters dream.. 😛Real nice job and making it shorter makes it easier to carry in any backpack..

Thanks, you can vary the balance by using the third shaft or the second. It's a tad heavy and the grip is thicker than I'd like but it was a fun project to build.

Finally finished my mini WS-6 Master.

First off, I bought a Golden Mask style shaft for it, it came with a steel arm cuff and foot, poorly and unevenly drilled holes for the zinc bolts (all the fitment hardware is zinc 😵), and possibly a missing bottom shaft aligner.

The shaft is carbon fiber, not the thickest I've seen, but it's fine for me. It has 3 sections which make it the longest detector I own, here it is next to my stock D2 fully extended:

Yeah it's that long. You'd probably have to be Shaq or even taller to complain about it. Fully extended it's almost as tall as me (6'1). I could probably use it to search storm drains if they didn't have iron. 🤣

I disliked the arm cuff, so I replaced it with an Anderson cuff for Minelab FBS detectors, it's powder coated aluminum. I used a single stainless bolt as the second hole was drilled improperly, and put 3M Extreme tape on the flange before I tightened it. 

I have a single zip tie on it to prevent rotation, but it probably won't.

Next obstacle was a foot, I bought a Nokta Universal Bipod.

Again secured from rotation by 3M Extreme tape. It folds forward and is very light.

I secured the WS-6 puck holder to the mount using a single zip tie, it will not fall off.

I think I learned that here from one of our other intrepid rural engineers. Gotta replace that zinc screw however, I'm sure it will rust fast. I will probably replace all of the hardware.

Completely compressed the detector is a little smaller than my stock D2:

I understand now why the 3d section position holder was omitted, it allows the coil to be rotated to the side to put it in a backpack.

The biggest obstacle I noticed was the coil yoke, does anyone understand the XP coil securing concept?

Xp coils come with a plug of sorts that goes on the wingnut side of the coil. The coils only come with one washer, and the reason for it is simple:

XP puts all of the rotation pressure on one coil ear, nearly eliminating ear breakage. The plug fits in a hole on the wingnut side, and pushes the coil against the single washer on the bolt head side. This keeps the bolt straight so it does not break, and puts enough pressure on the coil so it can be made difficult to rotate.

I've tested this concept with a Lyman Trigger Pull gauge. The amount of pull on the shaft in order to move it has to be greater than 5 pounds, or the coil will flop. Not so much the 9" but definitely the 11 and 13" coils, which is why you don't want to use two washers - one on each side - to secure the coil. I can pretty much guarantee bolt breakage or flop.

This shaft came with two washer/grommets, that equals floppy coil. Most washers are made with EPDM or some other such compound, and they are slippery. Slippery x 2 = floppy coil or bolt bending and breaking. 😎

I found a solution to this as well, I went to my local Ace Hardware, and bought 2 hard black nylon washers and a press plug to hold them together, inserted it in the wingnut side of the yoke, and used the standard XP bolt and plug to hold it all together.

Below is a photo of the assembly, you can see how it pushes the coil left to put pressure on the single washer/grommet, keeping the bolt straight.

This can be tightened almost as much as you want without breaking a bolt, I'm getting 8 pounds of pull before the shaft moves, that's really good for people that don't like to spend all day adjusting the coil! 🤪

Yes, I'm crazy. 🤣

I removed two of the zip ties on the cuff, they aren't necessary anymore.

The whole thing weighs 992 grams, that's about 2.19 pounds, a little heavier than the stock D2, but smaller and longer, and far more secure to use. The twist locks are aluminum with rubber grips, probably the second best thing to the carbon fiber 😀 I prefer camlocks. 

it may not be totally practical but it was a lot of fun figuring all this stuff out!

🍀

Looks like that spot is winding down a bit. 🤔 Still got silver, and I haven't found a silver thimble yet 😀 your relic count is good!

Got more wind coming, maybe some more will be uncovered. 👍

Great job!

26 minutes ago, Lodge Scent said:

Just out of curiosity, I hunted with the Offset at 40 for a while. of course it made every target above the Disc sound like a silver.

Hey Lodge,

I'm going with witchcraft 😁

I turn iron volume as low as 6 depending upon how much "big iron" there is. Relic is worse with big iron. 😵

I've put disc as low as 35, haven't seen a need to change it. You'll get mid tones on most things below it anyway, I think they picked that number for a very good reason, hope someone who documents IDs will come up with it. 🤔

The only problem with Tekkna is searching a place with lots of non ferrous junk, as you see a lot of it looks good, I turn audio filter up to 5 to identify most aluminum, and lift to ignore large objects.

5 minutes ago, Josh Cousteau said:

I use it, and like it.

They have a military discount too- which is nice.

Hmmm, didn't know about that... 👍

It's only good for first year, but thanks. 🙂 I've been on it for a few years now.

21 minutes ago, COYOTE said:

Does anyone use something like this to get property lines and owners to be able to get access to their properties?

Thanks

Yep. I use it all the time to track hunts, save locations and photos of finds, and it does help to know the name of the owner if they happen to show up. 😀 

Most owners use PO boxes or mailing addresses, there are no phone numbers.

I also use an app called REGRID that gives me more accurate property lines for free.

I may switch over to CalTopo eventually, because they allow you to overlay historic topographic maps and Lidar is built in now...

...And it's free. They are going to add photos to it soon.

5 minutes ago, JCR said:

Thanks @F350Platinum.  All this kind of thing is new to me.

No problem, I was just passing through. 😀 Stuck inside, it's raining. 🤣

19 minutes ago, Soky72 said:

JCR, can't get the link to open, can you repost? Also do you need to load each individual update or does the most recent capture previous updates?

Sometimes a YouTube link is difficult, JCR's link has to be copied and pasted.

Embedded video:

4 hours ago, rvpopeye said:

horse bling

Glad you're getting out RVP,

Sometimes the "horse bling" can be very old, in my case a lot of it has been from the 1700s. If be interested in a pic if you haven't um, recycled. 😀

If the road has ditches on either side and they're not full of water that can be a good place to look albeit somewhat awkward. I'll hunt the sides more than the middle.

Very nice finds Jeff, congrats.

I had a very similar experience a few years ago. Got two silver quarters, then some nails, then a '42 Walker, all in the same hole.

The 34 on my Equinox 600 was unmistakeable, so much so I called it before I dug it. Only half I've found so far. Returned to that spot later and dug a silver ring from the same spot with more nails. I think by then I had the Coiltek 10x5.

It's great to go over a place you've been before with a new machine or even different settings, I think I focus more.

Someone could put a WS6 Master together with those headphones, that's a great deal for them. For all intents and purposes the WS6 is a fully functioning Deus 2.

3 minutes ago, markinswpa said:

F350 thanks for the link. I lost the bone conductors I had last year so will give these ones a try. I hope they pair with the legend. I had a pair of headphones that would not. Mark

Hope they work, they will pair with the Equinox for sure. 🙂 

🍀

6 minutes ago, Geologyhound said:

So, were you using Tekkna or relic when you found the stud?

Tekkna. I don't think I would have found it with Relic, Tekkna falses much less. It was in the trashiest spot.

I run Reactivity at 2 usually because the response is so fast, and 3 tends to miss stuff that is deeper.

The decorated top of that stud is tiny!

3 hours ago, DigInTheSand said:

Hello F350.  Great to find your post!  I need some help please in understanding how to use an AfterShokz bone conduction headphone with the Eq.800.  Unfortunately, I find that over-the-ear phones make my ears too hot, especially in summer and I do not like phones that stick in my ears.  The manual (pg 54) really confuses me and so my questions are:

1.    Do I also need to set up and use the WM08 Wireless Audio Module (pg55) with the Bluetooth bone earphones? OR

2.    Do the bone earphones connect directly to the EQ800? (That’s going to be fun to figure out).

3.    The manual says, “Bluetooth technology has a high audio latency of 100 ms.  This can make it difficult to visualize the exact position of a buried target if you are detecting with a fast swing”.   (Not good – I need all the help that I can get)!

4.    Will the audio be loud enough for beach detecting?

Many thanks for your time, Jane

Yikes 😬

Hi Jane,

If you bought true Aftershokz headphones instead of the ones pictured above, AFAIK they will pair with the Equinox, but they sadly will not work. 🫤 You will hear tones when passing the detector over a target, but it will not be near or at the right time, causing you to dig in the wrong place.

APTX-LL Bone conduction headphones have a delay of ~40 ms, not 100. The item I posted above is using APTX-LL. They are the only bone conduction (and actually more "air conduction") headphones I have ever seen other than one by Panasonic that is no longer made.

Aftershokz are not APTX-LL. I wrote the company a couple of years ago hoping to interest them in making some for the zillions of people that own an Equinox, I have a 600. They of course told me that it was interesting but then ignored it. Meh.

Sorry to disappoint you, as a matter of fact I was one of the first to make this mistake when I started about 3+ years ago. 😬 Luckily I could return them. There are options like the SoundBlaster on-ear headphones that I use quite successfully:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08QRQMLVY

These are loud, very loud, and last 20 hours. They are great in hot weather. If the band is uncomfortable wrap it in athletic tape.

As for using the item I wrote about above, you could maybe use them at a calm lake or river on the off season, but definitely not at the beach in the summer, they're not very loud. I may bring my Equinox to Myrtle Beach in April and try them there, but I'm pretty much a Deus 2 guy now.

Do yourself a favor and search for "bone conduction" using the magnifying glass icon here, and you'll see all the stuff related to it. Put the words in quotes for best result. 🙂

HTH, GL, HH 🍀

Thanks for this post, GB.

It further illustrated to me the scarcity of the 1803 draped bust half dime I found recently, with a mintage of only ~38,000.

Thanks also for calling attention to Photograde, I was able to place my example in the bottom two grades 🤣

The hole obviously seals its fate, but I think it the most rare coin I've ever found now. That alone is enough for me.

I know I'm still on the "up" part of the Bell Curve, I hope it lasts a while. 🤔

Just now, DWerk said:

I have never had the clock appear at any setting that appeared Large if that is what you mean by blown up. My problem with the clock on Ver 2 is that it no longer keeps proper time...

No I'm saying a function or selection or unknown set of key presses makes the clock inaccurate. Most times it's fine for me, especially if I'm using only one program, then it's not. "Blown up" is kind of a programming thing 😀

I was just out in my yard testing Tekkna with my new WS-6 rig:

Golden Mask shaft with the WS-6. Arm cuff is an aluminum Minelab FBS detector cuff using only one screw. Because there is so much Carbon Fiber, it's still 2 pounds, but it's a lot longer than the standard D2 shaft and is a little shorter when compressed.

You tall folks would love this:

And this is shortened:

I walked around my yard and was reminded that low tones do not just go to iron, they are just "low", but not the same.

Honestly I can't see missing anything with it. 🤔

If you like quiet all the time with only a tone when you find something good, them Tekkna is not for you.

Instead of just bashing it, use something else.

30 minutes ago, Zord said:

micro tiny silver and gold coins and relics.

I'd say this is some pretty tiny silver. 🤔

Found both pieces about a foot apart in an extremely trashy field, not just iron.

 Here's what the field is loaded with, I didn't dig any iron.

On 3/5/2024 at 2:22 PM, rvpopeye said:

I've been searching the various dirt roads here , that are all very soft right now. Rain moving in as I type. Mud is better than ice so I'm good. 

I don't think I'll have enough time to cover the whole fairgrounds before moving on. I just clocked a couple more hours on it though.   Still have the perimeter trail and .......so much more.

It's funny how a place you think isn't all that big is... Well, big. 😵 Some of the "small" places I'm hunting still can't be covered in a short time. 😀 

I'm lucky to have the proximity and time, I usually won't detect until 2 days after a rain.

18 minutes ago, palzynski said:

Personally I use the SENSI FT iron volume default setting at 7 

I keep it at 7 or even 6. Remember that Gary Blackwell likes to hear something in the headphones.

I also use Relic a lot, and sometimes get tired of the loud noise on a good target. It also falses much more on iron than Tekkna does.

On 3/4/2024 at 9:19 AM, rvpopeye said:

And YES 350 , I put WD 40 on it after use ! 😏  (those teeth are nastier than a bluefish)

Take care of your gear, and it will get you more Zincolns. 😎

4 minutes ago, rvpopeye said:

 It's kinda like the biggest fish in the lake. When you catch it , there is still the biggest fish in the lake.

Even after you and Chase have scoured the place....there's always gonna be more ! LOL 🤔

Do they all get turned over in the fall ? 

 

It's kind of exciting this year, the farmer mentioned he's going to "rip" the fields, he said the "ripper" digs 14 inches down.

Remains to be seen, most farmers don't do it because of regulations. 🤔

If so, I'll find out just what the "never hunted out" myth is all about. I have lots of places that are hunted out.

6 hours ago, Valens Legacy said:

Wish I had time to hit some of the farms around me, but I am glad to know that you are out there saving our history.

When I get back to the states I am going to try to hit at least one good place, but for now I just have to stick it out a little longer in Australia. I think that the bug zappers that we use in the states are causing reincarnation of flies and other bugs down here. That is the only explanation I have for all the bugs here.

Good luck and stay safe on your next hunt. 

Thanks VL,

It wasn't a big deal for sure, but it told me that Chase and I found most of the stuff. I'm glad I got one more thing.

Again I was pressed for time, not only rain but a guy stopped by with his Equinox 800 with a 15" coil wanting me to show him how to use it. 🙄

I told him this field was not for an inexperienced user, not only to keep him from nighthawking it, but also that the 15 was way too big. I showed him a few things but I think it was going in one ear and out the other. 😀 

Sorry about the bugs, they'll all be waiting for you here when you get back. A lot of them hatched out here this past week 😵

Wow Lodge,

That's a nice assortment of old. 👍 Looks like you have an interesting site to hunt!