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Ok, so I've done a search on the forum and the net looking for info regarding shaft materials for a metal detector.
Some background- After spitting venom for some time about the quality of Minelabs components (I've long said that I want their control box and would rather make up the rest of my detector from aftermarket parts and accessories), I've decided/realized that perhaps I've been a little too harsh on Minelab....
Reason being, I run big coils. I started off for a while using an 18" Commander DD, then I bought myself a 21" x 17" Detech SEF (which I still own), added to the collection with a 20" NF Mono Advantage, but for quite some time now I've been running a NF 25" DDX, and I understand that in all fairness to Minelab, the stock standard shafts and associated parts and materials were never designed to run such big heavy coils constantly.
First I broke a shaft lock and had to replace it with one I bought from Nenad. Then I broke that one so bought myself a whole new Minelab upper shaft and a Coiltek Carbon Fiber lower shaft. Not long after, the lower shaft split completely in a straight line from one end to the other which caused the DDX to flop around on the end and drive me nuts.
So........ I bought another Minelab lower shaft to replace it, only to then have the shaft lock on the upper go again ]
So, then I locked the shaft lock as best I could, and filled the bloody thing up with Supa-Glue, AND drilled an 8mm hole right through the guts of the shaft just above it, where the lower shaft passes inside the upper shaft, tapped an 8mm thread in the hole and inserted an M8 stainless steel screw through the whole bloody lot with a stainless steel Nyloc nut locking the whole thing together!!!! Sure, no longer height adjustable, but it's set to my height and is perfect for 'lil ol' 5' 6" me.
Thinking that I had outsmarted Minelab, Coiltek, Nugget Finder, and all of the Detecting gods in total, I then enjoyed some months of trouble-free detecting with my whopping great coil, and I must say I finally got to experience the pleasures of a stiff shaft, including I might add, finding my first 1.5g nugget erfect:
Then...............Last week what happens? The eye insert of the bottom shaft (the stem that is glued into the bottom end of the lower shaft and has an eye that pushes in between the coil lugs for the coil to pivot on) decides to fall out of the end of the lower shaft
I've supa glued the offending part back into the lower shaft today, which will get me by, but I'm sick to death of this stupid game, and I don't like the idea of continually adding more and more metal in the way of screws and nuts into the shaft equation so close to a large sensitive DDX coil. Has anybody else who runs a GPX with big heavy coils had any experience with Sandy Shafts and their compression fitting style shaft lock in a combined upper and lower set-up? Are they any better than Genuine Minelab shafts?
Thanks in Advance,
Deepseeker
Some background- After spitting venom for some time about the quality of Minelabs components (I've long said that I want their control box and would rather make up the rest of my detector from aftermarket parts and accessories), I've decided/realized that perhaps I've been a little too harsh on Minelab....
Reason being, I run big coils. I started off for a while using an 18" Commander DD, then I bought myself a 21" x 17" Detech SEF (which I still own), added to the collection with a 20" NF Mono Advantage, but for quite some time now I've been running a NF 25" DDX, and I understand that in all fairness to Minelab, the stock standard shafts and associated parts and materials were never designed to run such big heavy coils constantly.
First I broke a shaft lock and had to replace it with one I bought from Nenad. Then I broke that one so bought myself a whole new Minelab upper shaft and a Coiltek Carbon Fiber lower shaft. Not long after, the lower shaft split completely in a straight line from one end to the other which caused the DDX to flop around on the end and drive me nuts.
So........ I bought another Minelab lower shaft to replace it, only to then have the shaft lock on the upper go again ]
So, then I locked the shaft lock as best I could, and filled the bloody thing up with Supa-Glue, AND drilled an 8mm hole right through the guts of the shaft just above it, where the lower shaft passes inside the upper shaft, tapped an 8mm thread in the hole and inserted an M8 stainless steel screw through the whole bloody lot with a stainless steel Nyloc nut locking the whole thing together!!!! Sure, no longer height adjustable, but it's set to my height and is perfect for 'lil ol' 5' 6" me.
Thinking that I had outsmarted Minelab, Coiltek, Nugget Finder, and all of the Detecting gods in total, I then enjoyed some months of trouble-free detecting with my whopping great coil, and I must say I finally got to experience the pleasures of a stiff shaft, including I might add, finding my first 1.5g nugget erfect:
Then...............Last week what happens? The eye insert of the bottom shaft (the stem that is glued into the bottom end of the lower shaft and has an eye that pushes in between the coil lugs for the coil to pivot on) decides to fall out of the end of the lower shaft
I've supa glued the offending part back into the lower shaft today, which will get me by, but I'm sick to death of this stupid game, and I don't like the idea of continually adding more and more metal in the way of screws and nuts into the shaft equation so close to a large sensitive DDX coil. Has anybody else who runs a GPX with big heavy coils had any experience with Sandy Shafts and their compression fitting style shaft lock in a combined upper and lower set-up? Are they any better than Genuine Minelab shafts?
Thanks in Advance,
Deepseeker