Straight shaft

[Steve from Ohio]

I recently bought on E-bay from Bill, AKA ranchocarlsbad, a straight shaft for my Excalibur. I put it together this morning and found that his straight shaft is an excellent high quality product. I also got from Bill the clip on rest.

After putting it together, I noticed how well balanced the Excalibur had become. It was no longer the heavy, hard to swing machine that it was. I also appreciated the Minelab shaft lock that comes with it. It really locks in the factory coil shaft and does not move at all. Makes me wonder why Minelab does not redesign the Excalibur to have this type of shaft on it from the factory. What a difference!

I was out with it for a few hours this morning and found that I did not develop that sore arm that I usually get using the Excal. The Excalibur seems like a totally different machine with Bill's product. And I love the clip on rest. It makes laying down the Excalibur easy and keeps it clean especially when the ground is so wet lately.

I would highly recommend this excellent upgrade for the Excalibur.

 

[Bling]

iv got 3 of his( Plugger's) strait shafts and they are great! i use them on every detector i own.

 

[Dan-Pa.]

Have to admit our fellows are the most ingenuis when it comes to modding..I have an older Sov. modded on a Whites XLT rod and indeed greatly increases the balance and ergonomics..Minelab certainly makes super units workwise but when it comes to weighting and ergonomics certainly don't match the guts of their units. I would think retooling and patents may have a bearing on the above or the blokes down under must be powerful dudes. In any case we must remember they did make the X-terra series which was much lighter and better weighted but even those are being modded to a degree. I would think as long as mods are purely cosmetic and not internal should not conflict with the warranty provisions. One last thought an Excalibur is a water machine and once in the water the buoyancy should make up for the deficiencies rel weighting and ergonomics and if they would make a lightweight Explorer couldn't sell them fast enough. Certainly only my lowly opinions and Minelab does make superior metal detectors..

 

[David]

I just posted this on another thread here but relevant to this discussion also:

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?21,866247
"I have an aftermarket fibreglass upper shaft for my GP 3000 that keeps as much metal as possible away from the coil to optimise sensitivity. I think this same shaft fits on the Sovereign GT, Eureka Gold, and Musketeer Advantage straight shaft configurations. So wouldn't it make sense to try to get a fibreglass or plastic upper shaft for an Excalibur??

Someone should come up with homemade plans to make fibreglass or plastic upper shafts for different models of straight shaft configurations. Could be built at home with common sense, measuring, drill, and other tools. Any feedback or further ideas on this??"

(Maybe this guy on E-bay from Bill, AKA ranchocarlsbad could be approached to make a non-metalic straight upper shaft. This would be no problem for land machines because I already use one on my GP 3000 and it is very strong for large coils but on the Excalibur underwater machine buoyancy would have to be addressed.)