Swing Arm Alternatives

[phrunt]

10 minutes ago, Doc said:

But where are the pictures.  You know what they say, if there are no pictures it really didn't happen. 😁

I didn't have my phone with me 🙂

I intend to use it on all my future gold hunts so we'll see how I go.

[phrunt]

I've now sorted my swing arms out how I want them, the first attempt I showed earlier in this thread I've abandoned as a spare, it was using PVC pipe that's now black, along with a fiberglass white ski pole end for the handle, and the normal GPX style attachment method.

It works well enough, but I felt it could be better.

I didn't like the White ski pole handle I fitted either, so I made another one, this time using carbon fiber tube, a black ski pole rather than white and the same GPX fittings.

It's in the centre of these, I like it a fair bit better than the White one so I'm going to fit it to my GPX 5000.

The original GPZ one is at the top there with its dodgy rubber connection thing that breaks, I'll put it on the 6000, maybe with the lighter detector it won't break on me and I can use one of the Chinese pin pointer/swing arm holders with it on there to make it a good fit.

And the Doc's version at the bottom, I also used a carbon fiber rod for it, I made it a little shorter as I think that felt more comfortable for me, maybe my arms aren't long but it's just about 70cm full length, the ski pole handle and pile adapter I made at the bottom out of PVC to connect the carbon fiber to the mount for the shaft made the middle one a bit longer but it's using the same length carbon fiber rod.

All in all, I'm now happy, I like Doc's one the best, followed by the ski pole one in the middle, and the stock GPZ one comes in last.  The carbon tube makes them feel so light but tough.

And of course, I'm going to use the little Chinese shaft mounts as I like them best on the round shafts, while they do fit on the round bit of the GPZ shaft they're too low down then to be effective and pull the swing arm in too close to the control box for it to fit properly so on the GPZ I'll use Doc's mounting system which seems the best fit.

This is Doc's one on my GPZ using the carbon shaft.   If I later decide I want a longer carbon shaft I can cut that one and add to the length, but that's unlikely as I'm happy with the size so far, or I could just move it further up the shaft.  I'll have to cut off the rubber straps though on the Doc one, they're way too long and stick out and annoy me 🙂

I've still got enough bits and pieces left to make another couple so I may do some different size ones, or even a telescopic one by modifying the Doc one's pole so I can extend it out if I want it longer.

These are the key components to making a cheap easy one.

Now to tackle the Hip stick and make a better version of that, I don't really like it in its existing form but I'm sure I can sort something out to make it likable for me if I want to try tackling swinging a bigger coil in some open ground and of course if I do I'll document how to make one here with the required parts to make it cheap, and easy for anyone to do.