Ideas on how to waterproof a cheap detector?

[RustyRelicHunter]

I found a Discovery 1100 at a yard sale today and bought it for $10! I have seen posts by other hunters who have put the electronics in a waterproof plastic box (one called it an Otter box). Can this be done with the Discovery 1100? How and how much would it cost?
I might try it since it was so cheap that I will not be out much money if the box leaks.

Russ

 

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[gollum]

By the time you expend all the materials and labor, you could have bought a good used water detector.

The biggest problem you will have with making a nonwater detector into a water detector (besides waterproofing the box, the coil, and the electronics), is that the cheapo was never designed to work in water. So, even a waterproofed cheapo will give you crappy results.

In a word, what you are doing is trying to make a silk purse from a sow's ear. Putting lipstick on a pig. You get the point.

Best-Mike

 

[DaChief]

There are several older posts on this site on how it is done. It is not clear where you are from but if you are thinking of hunting salt water with the discovery, it won't be effective. The electronics in that machine are set up for salt water. They will work in a limited way on wet salt sand with the sensitivity reduced if that is possible on that machine and they would work best on the salt beach in dry sand. If you are in a fresh water situation, it would do o.k. in and out of the fresh water I would think if you can waterproof it. You may already know that the coil is waterproofed so you can hunt in shallow water without the waterproofing as long as you keep the control box dry. I have seen things as simple as a heavy duty gallon sized zip lock back over the controls to protect against direct water splashing. Not submersible that way but pretty well protected.

A cheaper way to waterproof it in some manner would involve the lock top plastic freezer storage containers. They come in varied sizes and can be found in Wal Mart, Target and most grocery stores. With one of those and some types of sealers to protect the opening where the coil wire will have to go out the box, you can do a fairly good job at water proofing. There is an example on the posts about varied brands of detectors. Here is a link to an example of how someone did that with an Ace 250 by Garrett. Read the full post because on down in the responses he tells where he found the container and late shows the results of a hunt.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,100210.0.html

I have never attempted a waterproofing but I am sure you will get some links soon to some of the older posts by people who have. Treasure Hunter is one of the members that has some history with it.

DaChief