Twisting Loose Lower Rod FIXED!

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

My Equinox 800 lower rod wiggled and twisted right out of the box, disappointing Minelab . With the twist lock at full lock it barely had any bite on the lower rod, the only thing holding it together was the snap pin in the hole. I saw where one guy's snap pin hole busted apart after minimal use. So I decided to fix mine vs the hassle of returning to Minelab.

I had a pack of brass sheets (shim stock) from my local hardware store, look for the small display of brass metals many have, small diameter brass tubes, flat stock, and packs of this shim stock. I measured my lower rod with a pair of digital calipers, then measured the small diameter end of the middle shaft, the lower rod was .007 inch undersized. So I used a 1 inch wide strip of the .003 inch thick brass sheet. You can easily cut it with scissors. I trimmed the length so that when wrapped around the lower rod there was a small gap e.g. not butted together or overlapped.

I rounded the corners then rolled the strip around a 1/2 inch diameter hitch pin from my lawn roller to bend the strip into a round shape. Anything round about 1/2 inch will work. I found the spot on the lower rod where the twist lock pad had been rubbing and wrapped some blue painters tape about 3/8 inch above this. Slipped the brass shim onto the lower rod a few inches below. Applied a few drops of super glue to the lower rod in the area of the twist lock pad, you want to make sure both ends of the brass shim are glued down. Then slid the brass shim up to the painters tape stop into the super glue, rotated back and forth slightly to spread the glue. I positioned the shim gap 90 degrees to the twist lock pad so its not clamping onto the gap. Wiped off the excess glue, then tightly wrapped some blue painters tape around the brass shim to clamp it to the lower rod until the glue dried, a few minutes. You don't want an edge of the brass shim sticking up.

Result - Its a very snug fit, I had to gently rotate the lower rod into the middle shaft and it was snug all the way up to the third snap pin hole where I have mine adjusted for overall length. The twist lock now has a death grip on the lower rod!

 

[BigTony]

Charles, oh ok, I think I follow your post.
You placed that shim so it would help the lower lock grab and hold tight.

Good job.

Tony

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Yes Tony. I just re-assembled my 800 and its solid head to toe, heading out in a few minutes to do some detecting.

 

[pacer]

My Equinox 800 lower rod wiggled and twisted right out of the box, disappointing Minelab . With the twist lock at full lock it barely had any bite on the lower rod, the only thing holding it together was the snap pin in the hole. I saw where one guy's snap pin hole busted apart after minimal use. So I decided to fix mine vs the hassle of returning to Minelab.

I had a pack of brass sheets (shim stock) from my local hardware store, look for the small display of brass metals many have, small diameter brass tubes, flat stock, and packs of this shim stock. I measured my lower rod with a pair of digital calipers, then measured the small diameter end of the middle shaft, the lower rod was .007 inch undersized. So I used a 1 inch wide strip of the .003 inch thick brass sheet. You can easily cut it with scissors. I trimmed the length so that when wrapped around the lower rod there was a small gap e.g. not butted together or overlapped.

I rounded the corners then rolled the strip around a 1/2 inch diameter hitch pin from my lawn roller to bend the strip into a round shape. Anything round about 1/2 inch will work. I found the spot on the lower rod where the twist lock pad had been rubbing and wrapped some blue painters tape about 3/8 inch above this. Slipped the brass shim onto the lower rod a few inches below. Applied a few drops of super glue to the lower rod in the area of the twist lock pad, you want to make sure both ends of the brass shim are glued down. Then slid the brass shim up to the painters tape stop into the super glue, rotated back and forth slightly to spread the glue. I positioned the shim gap 90 degrees to the twist lock pad so its not clamping onto the gap. Wiped off the excess glue, then tightly wrapped some blue painters tape around the brass shim to clamp it to the lower rod until the glue dried, a few minutes. You don't want an edge of the brass shim sticking up.

Result - Its a very snug fit, I had to gently rotate the lower rod into the middle shaft and it was snug all the way up to the third snap pin hole where I have mine adjusted for overall length. The twist lock now has a death grip on the lower rod!

http://www.coolidgeamps.com/pics/shaft.jpg

Charles, thanks for the tip. Outstanding solution to a problem a lot are having.

 

[dbado1]

Good thinking! Thank you for posting your fix!

A general precautionary statement for all twist lock shafts...make sure your twist-locks are kept tight or the snap pin will wallow out the hole in the shaft and your shaft will develop "the wobble".... by no fault of the manufacturer.

Dean

 

[goodmore]

Any water hunter will tell you that twist cams are a problem waiting to happen. Usually they seize up. Minelab has been in the business well long enough to know it too. The design and implementation is flawed. Especially going to the one button clip. Let Minelab off the hook if you want to. Me? I sawed the twist cams off. Replaced with better ones. 24 bucks. Problem solved. Of course I am quite good at doing it. I have been doing it with Sovereign shafts for over a decade at least. Yeah Minelab knows. But so does any manufacturer that uses them.

 

[dbado1]

Any water hunter will tell you that twist cams are a problem waiting to happen. Usually they seize up. Minelab has been in the business well long enough to know it too. The design and implementation is flawed. Let Minelab off the hook if you want to. Me? I sawed the twist cams off. Replaced with better ones. 24 bucks. Problem solved. Of course I am quite good at doing it. I have been doing it with Sovereign shafts for over a decade at least. Yeah Minelab knows. But so does any manufacturer that uses them.

I agree with you, goodmore. The twist locks are flawed. But, if a guy isn't going to replace them, they have to be kept tight. I'm not a water hunter and it's obvious to me what happens if sand gets in them.

Dean

 

[BigTony]

Best of luck Charles!

You are a terrific long distance hunting buddy....ha ha ha

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

So Charles,

Do I want an 800 to complement my XS and CTX?

Chris

 

[RichW]

Nice job.

 

[dewcon4414]

Just as easy to replace the single spring button with a double.... and it wont mive either.

 

[TinCanBeach]

Excellent solution with professional quality outcome. Great job Charles!

 

[sgoss66]

Any water hunter will tell you that twist cams are a problem waiting to happen. Usually they seize up. Minelab has been in the business well long enough to know it too. The design and implementation is flawed. Especially going to the one button clip. Let Minelab off the hook if you want to. Me? I sawed the twist cams off. Replaced with better ones. 24 bucks. Problem solved. Of course I am quite good at doing it. I have been doing it with Sovereign shafts for over a decade at least. Yeah Minelab knows. But so does any manufacturer that uses them.

goodmore,

I totally agree with you. In "digging into" the problems with the stock shaft design, I concluded pretty quickly that the twist-lock cams are a big part of the issue, and thus I am working on designing a much better cam-lock option, for making Equinox shafts. Working with the carbon-fiber company I deal with, when I first approached them about needing a clamping system for telescoping carbon-fiber tubes, their first suggestion was a twist-lock cam system, and spring clips -- in other words, the same design as Minelab's EQX shafts. I told them "no way," and began working with them on a custom design. What I can't understand is this -- why would Minelab go the "twist-cam" route? How much more could it possibly have cost, to utilize a much more robust cam system -- even if it were something similar to the CTX design? Ten bucks per machine?

In any case, I agree with you -- if you or I can figure out that twist-cams are insufficient/inadequate, ESPECIALLY on a machine with solid beach-hunting capability, then CERTAINLY Minelab knows, too...which begs the question...WHY?

Steve

 

[D&P-OR]

Keep working on this Steve.----I KNOW you are going to come up with a good product (solution).----------Del

 

[dbado1]

Any water hunter will tell you that twist cams are a problem waiting to happen. Usually they seize up. Minelab has been in the business well long enough to know it too. The design and implementation is flawed. Especially going to the one button clip. Let Minelab off the hook if you want to. Me? I sawed the twist cams off. Replaced with better ones. 24 bucks. Problem solved. Of course I am quite good at doing it. I have been doing it with Sovereign shafts for over a decade at least. Yeah Minelab knows. But so does any manufacturer that uses them.

goodmore,

I totally agree with you. In "digging into" the problems with the stock shaft design, I concluded pretty quickly that the twist-lock cams are a big part of the issue, and thus I am working on designing a much better cam-lock option, for making Equinox shafts. Working with the carbon-fiber company I deal with, when I first approached them about needing a clamping system for telescoping carbon-fiber tubes, their first suggestion was a twist-lock cam system, and spring clips -- in other words, the same design as Minelab's EQX shafts. I told them "no way," and began working with them on a custom design. What I can't understand is this -- why would Minelab go the "twist-cam" route? How much more could it possibly have cost, to utilize a much more robust cam system -- even if it were something similar to the CTX design? Ten bucks per machine?

In any case, I agree with you -- if you or I can figure out that twist-cams are insufficient/inadequate, ESPECIALLY on a machine with solid beach-hunting capability, then CERTAINLY Minelab knows, too...which begs the question...WHY?

Steve

Questions like this have come up many times and the only answer that I can think of is because the developers (ML and others) are designers and engineers and not end users. If the designers were users of their own machines and used them (even tested) in the environments for which they were designed most of these problems would not exsist. The other obvious answer is... "because that's the way we have always done it and cost". I think that, in the end, the bean counters have more say than the designers.

Dean

 

[sgoss66]

Dean,

You are probably right. A lot of the final decision, in many corporate situations, does come down to the "bean counters."

Del,

I believe I will be successful, in the end; THANKS for the vote of confidence!

Steve

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

My custom 'death grip' shaft lock, no snap pings required, no twist lock pads no cams just death grip.

 

[dbado1]

My custom 'death grip' shaft lock, no snap pings required, no twist lock pads no cams just death grip.

http://www.coolidgeamps.com/pics/shaftlock.jpg

http://www.coolidgeamps.com/pics/shaftlock2.jpg

Nicely done!

Dean

 

[dewcon4414]

Nylon bolt .... and nothing moves either if you are going to put one in there. Thats how all my Xcals are put together..... nothing moves.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

So Charles,

Do I want an 800 to complement my XS and CTX?

Chris

Likely yes. If your sites are pounded to death and no longer productive yes. To clean up those coins sitting straight up on edge that are invisible to the XS yes, I dug 3 Saturday. For the potential of a bit more depth vs the XS e.g. going out and hunting at max depth (EQ settings will be important) again I say yes. If you are getting older and having difficulty swinging the old 5 pound Minelabs yes. Detecting is supposed to be fun, being in pain is not fun.