Today I MADE

Sorry to hear that mate.

Been wondering what had happened to you Ned
Glad to hear your alright
And great to see you back here and back at it

So sorry to hear aboit jess mate. Thoughts are with you

Sorry to hear about Jess mate, RIP Jess.

Sorry to hear AF
such a sad time

Very sorry to hear Aussie, always hard saying goodbye to a family member.

It is an amazing thing,the bond between man and dog--luv 'em.
Jaros 8.(

Sorry for your loss mate.
Mackka

Over the last couple of days- Russian Pirate Simple PI detector.


IT LIVES !!! The left pot is sensitivity, the right frequency control, which needs adjusting for bigger coils/resistance. Only works on my coils that are approx 400uH and up, although with resistor changes/deletions and/or more variable pots I reckon it could run any of my coils. Getting about 5 inches on a 10c piece with the spiral wound tesla, and 12 inches on small pliers with the 50x30cm square coil. Any more sensitivity and she overloads and shuts down, but I just realised I'm using TL072 and meant to be TL082- may make a difference when I get the right one.

Absolutely stoked with my first go to whoa PI build !!

That's a great project Tim. I can't wait to get the time for this type of thing. Perhaps next year

The sad thing is that I am yet to find a home made circuit capable of sensing sub, or even gram, gold. Down the track I will try the Goldscan IV, and I need to try some different coils designs e.g. basket weave.

Sounds good Scrounger, there sounds like there are a few other artists on here! Thanks for the well wishes mate on the mend now and looking forward to getting out again! Thanks Sandta for the kind thoughts mate

Aussie Farmer, sorry to hear the passing of your canine mate - Jess. Trouble is they don't live as long as we do, so we (dog lovers) are bound to say goodbye to 6+ in our lifetimes and it's always tough. Hope your memories live on for her in her pups, and your time capsule gets dug up in 100 years by someone who still cares. Cheers mate.

The coil I made for the Russian Pirate, I tried on the SurfPro(tacoma56 square-board). It gets a hammering signal on my 1.8g sample of flour gold at 5 inches! I thought my sample was 2.4g but I just re-weighed it, so I've been getting slightly better results than I thought. The coil is 6 inch, 3 rounds of Cat5 wire,twisted around itself, ends all joined in series. From what I can gather twisting lessens the self capacitance(?) making it more sensitive.
This is the Pirate.
Even though this detector doesn't have discrim, it will see a 5c piece at 6 inches- double the distance of my Tracker IV. !
I downloaded a free program from THunting to minimise pics for that site -it works excellent. This first pic was minimised. Something for our Mods to consider??
Also I have now worked out my PCB express and Sch Express programs (also free downloads), so here's a couple of diddles- I re-drew the Pirate board for DD option- haven't tested it yet, but I'm reasonably confident all the traces and components are right. Anyone thinking of making PI detectors, this is a good starting point to understand the workings of more complex machines. R13 and the pot I added near R3 are for sensitivity- I'm just about to work out where I need another pot(just replace R?) to make it variable frequency- hopefully then I can get it seeing gold.!!


And this is a super-simple IB based on Beau Schwabes inductive proximinty sensor- if you google metal detector circuit it's the utube vid in images about the seventh row down. I made this detector circuit ages ago with BC547/557s, but it was a bit unstable-I'm hoping the original 2n3904/6s will solve that. NOT TESTED YET EITHER !!

I like your dedication and simplicity..

this morning i poured these couple of gold bars i refined
for a client
and a free silver 1oz bar being the FEBUARY special
with gold returns
enjoy Humbolt

Today I have just tested my sheet metal brake and I am extremely happy. (still needs painting).
I can now start on a sluice and finish the tromel and head back to Reedy Creek. Unfortuneately still a bit to do but then that half the fun.
Regarding the bender it has taken 2 days from ideas gleaned from youtube.


Bob

nice one bob. i think i know the videos you mean. i built one a few year back myself. couldn't quite get the tight bend radius i wanted but if you stick to 1.6mm aly you can get away with alot more. good luck with the builds mate.

Today I made myself a seive.



Put it to good use at Blue Hill and Tuena later on

Nice work TFK! Have you seen how you can also attach hingable legs ( and handles ) so you can either rest it on an angle to throw dirt at, or even to shake it in the air. Nuggetnoggin on youtube has a vid showing the design