Where is Old Beechnut?

[UncleTom]

Good to see you still swing OBN!

 

[Wild Willy]

Wow! Simply amazing. My old mind could not comprehend some of the things you did. Keep it up.

 

[OldBeechnut]

Last hunt I got gold was in late Dec........... 3 Gold with the Fisher AQ....

Two gold rings stained bad from the nasty water of the bay, school ring emblem came out clean

Hunted the spot a week earlier with the excalibur, very bleak.

Need to get back out, water still a little to chilly for this old body.

 

[Odanscoils]

Many Thanks for the kind words. And Thanks Tvr...
One of my on going projects has been to set my Excalibur up to where I can hunt rough waters in the Bay. Several years ago I ran my Excalibur from inside my drysuit, it was Amazing how there was very little noise when hunting in close where the water was banging, then even out deep when the detector was submerged in rough water it was (Almost) silent. And this is the pod inside my drysuit. So it got me wondering what if I removed the SS knob shaft that contacted the saltwater, would that help? .......So I removed all except one, the on/off threshold knob. And I made a special knob for it to insulate it from the saltwater and this knob is rather fat at the base, I found that it is easier to fine tune the threshold with the bigger base knob. Then I ran the coil cable inside of the shaft to the pod , the pod was painted with 844 Acrylic ESD shielding, then covered with the carbon fiber wrap. So far I am very happy with the results, My hunting I rely on being able to hear the super faints of all metal, with the above and a few other modifications this is now possible, so far in any conditions. The other day I used one of my regular modified Excalibur's and the noise difference is incredible.



View attachment 18335
All of the settings of the removed knobs ... full volume...In the All metal setting...Sensitivity (Between) 8-9 (Hot) ..Disc (1)
View attachment 18336

Thanks to Carolina & Tvr for turning me onto Steve's detector shafts.. cam lock.. View attachment 18337

The knobs base sets on a Silicon O-Ring, and for right now the allen set screw is coated with aquaseal until I can get a shorter one that will be counter sunk into the knob then sealed with aquaseal. As a double precaution, on the brass potentiometer shaft that the on/off controls, it has a plastic sleeve to keep from being grounded thru the SS shaft.

View attachment 18338

The battery setup for the Stealth Excalibur is a 3s 18650 Li-ion battery, Samsung 3500mAh , which should get me over 60 hours runtime.

The second battery is the one I made for the Fisher AQ, with a audio cut off, the AQ is one loud machine when it gets near your scoop, so I cut the audio off when digging.

View attachment 18339View attachment 18340

Thanks for looking, Good Luck and Be Safe!

Awesome. Incredible finds.
Love the Excalibur mods.
Hopefully Mom is doing better.
Great idea on salt water ions causing interference.
I'm assuming it's a back feed kind.
Almost a capacitive effect through the pots ?
I've seen submersible mods for Explorers.
Any information or knowledge on that ?

 

[OldBeechnut]

Awesome. Incredible finds.
Love the Excalibur mods.
Hopefully Mom is doing better.
Great idea on salt water ions causing interference.
I'm assuming it's a back feed kind.
Almost a capacitive effect through the pots ?
I've seen submersible mods for Explorers.
Any information or knowledge on that ?

Thanks you!

I could not hunt with a stock excalibur after using mine for years now. When I worked on stock machines I would have to go out and test them, pure torcher.

Mom is in a much better place now. And Thank the Lord for his open arms!

Yes, saltwater havoc, not sure if I posted this before but years ago I ran my excalibur from inside my drysuit, the difference was apparent.

Capacitive effect through the pots ..You know I would almost say yes? And I would almost say just one of the pots, the sensitivity.

Yes on the Mods for the Explorer' series. Not me but several here on the beach forum and a few of my friends.. I did drop a Sovereign into a water proof bag and hunted with it some, but the bad was adjusting.. going from one area to another, like water to wetsand..you had to deal with what it was set on..or readjust and that required one to go to the drysand, pull out the body, adjust ..seal all back up and go. Best to go with a regular machine setup for the water.

Just a guess but Virginia Beach Max was one of the first to do the explorer in a water proof box..

 

[OldBeechnut]

Friend of mine explorer in a box

 

[Odanscoils]

Friend of mine explorer in a boxView attachment 23009

I say a custom made water tight enclosure
With normal button functions.
Was in my old phone which I lost.
Hopefully I downloaded it to my computer.
I'll try to find it.

 

[Odanscoils]

Hmm
He's still got it posted.
Now if I could just get my son to print it.

Waterproof Minelab Explorer II

Thought I would post this here in case anyone was interested: The head unit was removed and fitted into a custom 3/4" Plexiglas frame. Then the front and back were made by vacuum forming plastic from custom molds. The front plastic cover is flexible which allows me to still use the buttons. It...

metaldetectingforum.com

 

[Odanscoils]

Thanks you!

I could not hunt with a stock excalibur after using mine for years now. When I worked on stock machines I would have to go out and test them, pure torcher.

Mom is in a much better place now. And Thank the Lord for his open arms!

Yes, saltwater havoc, not sure if I posted this before but years ago I ran my excalibur from inside my drysuit, the difference was apparent.

Capacitive effect through the pots ..You know I would almost say yes? And I would almost say just one of the pots, the sensitivity.

Yes on the Mods for the Explorer' series. Not me but several here on the beach forum and a few of my friends.. I did drop a Sovereign into a water proof bag and hunted with it some, but the bad was adjusting.. going from one area to another, like water to wetsand..you had to deal with what it was set on..or readjust and that required one to go to the drysand, pull out the body, adjust ..seal all back up and go. Best to go with a regular machine setup for the water.

Just a guess but Virginia Beach Max was one of the first to do the explorer in a water proof box..

Sorry about your mom.
Seems the hardest to let go.
Fortunately she's in a Better Place.

Still have my mum.
Fortunately my mom had me very young.
Hopefully she'll be around many more years.
Hopefully not outlive all her family like grandma.
Women live Long in my family. 100+ usually.

I would be very happy to see many more of your adventures.
Hopefully when I'm finally allowed to retire.
(Could have went 4 yrs ago by age)
I'd love to bring the wife and grandson to go diggin with you. Maybe I'll actually learn my Sovereign GT.
I bought my dad years ago.
Sadly he only tried it twice up in Alaska with my lil brother before he passed. Never understood it.
About 20 hrs on the machine.
I'm just getting into it now.
Anyway.
Please share with us your adventures.
Obviously you are light-years ahead of me anyway.

 

[houndawgg]

nice video.

Last hunt I got gold was in late Dec

View attachment 22985