GoodAmount

I’m sad to hear ML has lost the heart for making videos. I learned a lot from watching his channel and enjoyed his vibrant style. Another channel that may be worth adding to the list is Prospecting 101 For Aussie Gold Nuggets. While production values aren’t as slick as others, holy moly he’s found some gold over the last 40 years and is willing to share how he did it. Very likable and knowledgeable chap and the channel is much more than a beep-dig-and-gloat fest that many others are guilty of.

Most have already been mentioned, but my favs are: Vo-gus Prospecting Victorian Gold Hunters Goldfields Goose Digging with Phasetech Outback Gold Fever Gold Magnet Minelab Gold - there hasn’t been any new content posted for a long time, but the old videos are worth watching. Hope he’s ok. The Coffee Bush Kid - Mostly relic hunting but there a few prospecting vids in the mix.

I recently treated myself to a second hand GPZ 7000 after reaching a major milestone. It came with an X-Coil 17x12 and NF 17x13., but I also splashed out and bought an 8” X-Coil, which pretty much lives on the machine now - it’s surprisingly deep for such a small coil and super sensitive to the small stuff. Most of the gold I’m finding is between 0.02 and 0.1g (below is a pic of a 0.03g piece I found today), and it’s not uncommon to hit 0.1g pieces at 4 inches. Every so often I’m lucky enough to ping bigger ones at depth, like this 5g piece that rang out loud with that beautiful warbly tone at 10”. I knew it was gold as soon as I heard it. After I’ve gone over the ground with the 8” I usually put one of the bigger coils on and go over the ground again, occasionally hitting deeper pieces, but not as commonly as I would hope. I’m planning to get a 15” CC in the coming months to see if that makes any difference, but my gold take has quadrupled regardless since getting the machine, so I’m super happy! I’ve also been enjoying watching WestOzAdventures find deep gold in Western Australia with the Zed, for those who are interested.

I must’ve got a pair of pre-China-built AT’s. I bought them two years ago and I’ve been out boot scraping in them 3-4 days a week and they’re still going strong. My second pair of Rossi’s on the other hand suffered from the build quality issues you describe. There was a massive difference between pre and post China builds. The first pair lasted for years but the second fell apart within months. It’s sad to see high quality brands lose their edge when they succumb to the lures off-shoring manufacturing.

I wear Oliver AT45 boots. No metal, great toe protection for rolling boulders, high tops give a bit of extra snake protection and they cost marginally less than Keens. https://www.oliver.com.au/45-series-150mm-black-zip-sided-boot-45645z

If I make another DIY ebike I’ll probably go for a CYC motor rather than a Bafang. The Bafang model I’ve got uses only cadence sensing and it’s a pretty raw riding experience. CYC use torque sensing to deliver a smoother ride.

I converted my old mtb to an ebike and now use it almost every time I head out detecting. I used a Bafang mid mount conversion kit and 3D printed/lasercut my own battery housing. I live in a town in the middle of the goldfields, so I now only need a car when I head further afield. Even then, I pack the ebike in the tray and use it to get around once I’ve parked the car. It’s awesome!

Great, thanks heaps Phrunt!

No worries, thanks Dave. All the best for the trip!

Very generous Phrunt. Feel free to send dimensions of your favourite X-Coil I’d be happy to prototype a skid plate and send a sample to you to test fit. Photos from dead-on side and bottom views would be helpful too. My 3D printer’s build plate is 254x254mm, so best suited to a smaller coil like an 8” or small elliptical to print in one piece, but I’d also be interested in trying a larger coil and printing it in sections. (Doc, is this conversation getting too far off topic? I’m happy to start another thread if need be.)

I’m in Aussie land Dave - I live in the Central Vic goldfields. Happy to give X-Coils a go, but I don’t own one sadly. I’d have to find someone who does own one to take some measurements from. best, mark

…and the new coil cover fresh off the 3D printer.

This is the 9.5” Eclipse coil I’ve got. The model numbers don’t line up with yours, but if the profile shape is basically the same I should be able to make it work. I’ll post a pic of the coil cover when it’s 3D printed. I’m not really across the TDI or BeachHunter series, so I can’t offer comparative advice. I’m sure there‘ll be a thread on DetectorProspector that covers it though.

My VX3 came with a 9.5” coil that I suspect might be the same as yours Michaeldoc2u. It didn’t come with a cover and I remember at the time being p’d off with Whites for being so cheap. I taped a plastic disc to the bottom rather than spending a crazy amount of money to have an OEM part sent to Australia - it was an ugly workaround but it did the job for the short time I used the coil. I ended up buying a 4x6” prism plus an OEM cover and never went back to the 9.5” round. It would actually be nice to 3D print a cover, put the 9.5” coil back on my machine and go relic hunting again if I can get the design to fit on my printer’s build platform. It’s been a while since I’ve used the detector for that purpose. I’d be happy to 3D print a cover for you too if it works out. I’ll post a pic of my coil when I get a chance to see if it’s the same as yours, but even if it’s not the same model version, I can scale the digital model file to fit the dimensions of your coil and 3D print the right size. All I’d need is an accurate measurement of the outer diameter of your coil as a reference.

Looking good Doc. That’s a good sized build platform - you should be able to get some good usable parts off it if you can control warping. Has the part pictured there lifted off the bed mid print? What material is it? I ended up building an insulated box around one of my open printers to try and control the ambient temperature around the part. I’m getting better results with it. I also run PETG or PLA filament on that machine as they’re more dimensionally stable materials than ABS. I only run ABS in my Stratasys machine - it was designed specifically to use it.

I print with PLA, PETG and TPU (for flexible parts) on my DIY 3D printers, but mainly ABS on my Stratasys machine. The prints that come of that machine are resilient and hard wearing. 300C extrusion temps and a 75C heated build chamber makes the layers bond super well. I’ve been really impressed with how the parts have performed in the field. I’ve only used SLA parts as visual prototypes in the past, so I’d be interested to hear how newer resins hold up in the field. The early resins were brittle and not much good for high impact applications, but the process resulted in excellent appearance parts. There’s been a lot of development with them since, so I’m sure the mechanical properties are better now. Anyway, I like using materials that can be recycled and so far resins are a little way off being reusable.

I’ve never printed directly from scan data as I’m rarely replicating existing parts. I usually design new parts - but they may mate up to another existing parts, which is where scan data can be helpful as a reference. Mostly though, good old vernier callipers do the job, plus importing front, rear, side, top and bottom photos into the modelling software which can be scaled for shape reference. It usually takes a couple of modifications and reprints to get the final part right.

obj and stl are all I’ve ever needed and should cover it for most people printing with FDM and SLA machines ….but other options might come in handy in the future. Let’s see where it takes us 🙂

Hey Doc, I’ve measured up my coils and used digital modelling software to make the skid plate model file from scratch. The ones I’ve made are pretty simple shapes (circle or oval), so it hasn’t been too difficult. You could 3D scan an existing cover and modify the file using a polygon modelling software if that works better for you, but for me that would mean learning a new skillset. You could also take a 3D scan of the coil itself to use as a reference model to make a skid plate model around - I’ve done it this way before for other projects. I’ve made covers for my Sadie (obviously), Nel Sharp 5”, Whites Goldmaster DD 5x10 and Whites Shooter DD 4x6. The shooter was the trickiest because it’s not a pure oval. Doing it this way sure beats trying to source aftermarket covers for coils that are no longer in production. The only limitation is the build volume of your 3D printer - large coil covers would be more difficult given you’d need to patch the cover together from parts small enough to fit in your machine. Feel free to PM me if you’d like to get into more detail. 🙂

Awesome. Nominal thickness is 1.5mm increasing to 3mm around the leading edge. You might need a heated build chamber to keep the part from warping - ABS gets freakily hard to keep stuck to the build platform when printing flat parts like this. 🙂

Hi Doc, yes I’m using ABS. I didn’t expect it to hold up particularly well given it’s a fairly soft plastic, but it’s actually working out very well. The trouble with vac-formed covers is that the thinnest part of the moulding is on the fillet around the leading edge where the plastic has to stretch the most as it sucks over the plug (the deeper the plug, the worse it gets). But that’s actually where you want the most material to be when you’re scraping your coil over the rocks given it’s the highest wear area. 3D printing is great, given you can add material wherever you need it most and strip it out where you don’t.

None of my Whites coils came with coil covers and my experience of getting them was similar to Phrunt’s - they were super expensive for what’s effectively just a vac-formed piece of plastic. All my Coiltek and NF coils all came with skid plates. The one on my Sadie took well over a year to wear through and I scrub that thing as close to the ground as I can get it. I bought a replacement for it that lasted only 2 months - I can’t remember if it was OEM or aftermarket, but it was a total waste of money! After that I 3D printed my own covers for the coils I use most, designing in a bit of extra meat around the base perimeter. I’m still using the first ones I made - it’s been awesome. I’d still prefer to get a skid plate with every coil though, but it’s not the end of the world if I don’t.

It took me 8 months of heading out around 3 times a week to find my first piece of gold. I was originally using a Whites Vx3 which couldn’t handle the highly mineralised soil here in the Golden Triangle in Aus (sold to me by an unscrupulous dealer who was just trying to get rid of old stock), plus I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. It was only when I got a PI machine and started doing some more rigorous research that things started to change. Even then, that machine was defective and I had to get it fixed under warranty, so it was amazing that I found that first piece beforehand. Like Steve always says, if you’re in a gold bearing area with detectable nuggets and you’re still digging trash, you’ll eventually find a piece. And that it takes loads of time to learn what the detector is telling you. I reckon I would have eventually found gold with the Vx3 if I had have stuck with it in the right ground conditions, but geez it was hard work.

It sounds like you need something like the Caribee Pulse 65L. https://caribee.com/products/pulse-65l-rucksack I’ve got one and it fits all of my detectors without breaking them down, but I’d rather something smaller. I most often use my Caribee Trident and just put up with having any long bits stick out the top. https://caribee.com/products/trident-32l-waterproof-rucksack?_pos=1&_sid=c4d7371da&_ss=r (I have no affiliation with Caribee btw)

I’d be looking for smaller coils to make your detectors more sensitive to hit on tiny finds. My G2 was reborn when I put a 5” Nel Sharp on after using the stock 11”. So too my old GMT with a 4x6 Goldmaster Shooter after the stock 5x10 DD and 6” concentric - I can find very tiny gold with that shooter.