Making a Clevis for your Lower Rod and Searchcoil

[Sven]

Recently purchased a White's PI Pro at a really good price.

Came to conclude this detector is a deep seeker after hunting a local beach, it will find the tiniest pc. of wire I have ever dug..........

A couple days later I was dis-assembling the PI to give it a good clean, repaint the coil etc. As I was taking off the coil
the clevis started to crumble apart. Clearly meant it was time to replaced, due to old age and being in the elements all these years find gold and silver jewelry.

Looked for a replacement clevis, only way to buy one is to buy the complete lower rod with the clevis attached. With shipping it would set me back about $30.00. Being kind of frugal at the moment, decided to make a clevis.

It cost about $2.00 for the grey PVC tubing, two nylon bolts and nuts.

I just cut the PVC tubing to desired length, drilled holes for the bolts in the exact location as they are on the lower rod.
The holes were drilled one diameter size larger so larger dia. bolts could be used.

Heated up the coil end with a heat gun until it was soft enough to squeeze together with a bar clamp. Took it over to the sink and ran cold water thru the tubing and outside to cool the PVC tubing to room temp. Once the bar clamp was removed a hole was drilled for the searchcoil and the edges rounded off.

The clevis fits very nicely with a rubber washer on each side within the searchcoil tabs.

It's a lot stronger than the orig. clevis for sure.

 

[kered]

Neccessity is the mother of invention, i like it, i might tend to maybe fill the hollow end with epoxy or something to give it a bit more strength, just in case, although at the price you could carry a spare and even make half a dozen from a meter of pipe

 

[Sven]

The grey PVC plastic is very rigid, and strong found here in Canada. It's possible it's ABS.
They have building supply products here they don't sell in the US. I worked at a Home Hardware
Builders Supply when I was up in North Bay for 2 months, thought I knew my stuff. Wrong.
A new world up here, many products far ahead in building technology than in the US used in
newer homes.

Anyways, no need to fill the center with epoxy. I did slip a fitting into the lower rod where the screws go thru
to thicken the lower rod wall. One reason I did not fill in the clevis or rod is that when I bought the PI the
lower rod felt pretty heavy and thought White's made the lower portion that way to add some weight to keep
the coil from floating upwards. I was wrong, the solid White's clevis backed up sand within the rods hollow center.
That tells me water gets inside and has no where to drain out. The clevis I made is not fully flattened, there's enough room for any
water that gets in there to drain back out.

The new clevis, feels like it's strong as a tank.

 

[HRife]

Good job......I will definately be using that mod.

 

[silversmith]

Hey Sven, the US doesn't make anything anymore We allow the Asian countries to send us their cheapest crap for more corporate profit. And, I believe , it's going to get much worst. I would never believe Chevvys made in Mexico, but I hear it's going there. Congrads on your mod...looks good.

 

[BusDigger]

Saw this post prior to registering on the site....and thought how nice of a job you did fabricating the piece!

Smitty

 

[Mephysto]

Great idea! I think I'm going to copy it.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Clevis were constantly breaking and if you check around am sure one older dealer would have one in his misc. box...Very inventive mod but just a thought...

 

[vietvet]

Great idea!

 

[tractorman]

Just another great idea from you, Thank's , I'll be busy today as I've got lots a broken rods that need fixed. Thanks again