Shaft creak

[Dirt Poor]

I have enjoyed all of my Tesoros, but only ONE has never had shaft creak, and I suspect that's due to the sand that's gotten in the shaft joints. That's the Tiger Shark. But the uMaxe's I have and have had, have developed an annoying "creaking" sound when swinging. This sometimes is right out of the box new. If you over-tighten the plastic shaft locks, they will break(snapping-sound) internally, and then you're worse-off than you were before. That is the ONLY complaint or problem that I've ever had with a Tesoro. Any quick-fix suggestions? Thanks..

 

[SkiWhiz]

Oh boy do I know that Tesoro creak. Its an easy fix.... wrap a couple of layers of plumbing pipe tape on the upper rod up at the control housing then place the rod back in tighten the cam lock and you'll never be bothered with the creak again.

P.S. I am happy with Tesoro detectors and am not one to complain but while where on the subject my main beef is I have had a few Tesoro's that was very very hard to slide the shaft into the middle rod to adjust the coil height. I believe the problem is there are times when they get a bad batch of shafts (not perfectly straight). The creak is a easy fix and I think nothing of it but it is very annoying to have to pull almost as hard as you can to adjust the coil height. It takes alot of sanding to get them to slide easier.

 

[CladJunkie]

Yep my lower rod on my Sliver Umax is a bear to get in and to slide.

 

[Monte]

First, the easy one and that's the binding caused by sand or grit. It's not only the beach/water units that can suffer from those challenges. I have friends who do a lot of desert ghost town hunting. They don't regularly maintain their detectors, they set them in loose dirt, and they also do a lot of screening and there's enough wind at times they blanket their nearby detector with crud. There have been a few times when I was asked to help clean them (like once a year!) but they were bound up. They were also filled with dirt and sand and grit, and in the speaker grills, and the rod adjustment holes, and around the rod-mount sections.

The only things you can do to keep up on these problems are two simple steps. One is to try to keep such contaminants from getting into the rod fittings or other small opening, and the second it to clean them regularly. Not once a year, but after each beach hunt or other use where you were likely to encounter sand and grit.

As for the 'creaky' rod issue, I hadn't had a real problem with it until the Tej

 

[SkiWhiz]

First, the easy one and that's the binding caused by sand or grit. It's not only the beach/water units that can suffer from those challenges. I have friends who do a lot of desert ghost town hunting. They don't regularly maintain their detectors, they set them in loose dirt, and they also do a lot of screening and there's enough wind at times they blanket their nearby detector with crud. There have been a few times when I was asked to help clean them (like once a year!) but they were bound up. They were also filled with dirt and sand and grit, and in the speaker grills, and the rod adjustment holes, and around the rod-mount sections.

The only things you can do to keep up on these problems are two simple steps. One is to try to keep such contaminants from getting into the rod fittings or other small opening, and the second it to clean them regularly. Not once a year, but after each beach hunt or other use where you were likely to encounter sand and grit.

As for the 'creaky' rod issue, I hadn't had a real problem with it until the Tej

 

[Dirt Poor]

WOW! Thanks to ALL of the replies. Tomorrow, I'm off work and I will experiment with your suggestions.

 

[101numlock]

teflon tape worked on my vaquero. Awesome tip! crazy how different it feels now without the little wiggle in it

 

[Dirt Poor]

Well...I'm ashamed to say this, but my machines haven't creaked since starting this thread. Now the bad part...I haven't been digging! I will implement the good suggestions though.