Built a Surf PI Kit, Took it

[1869er]

Built a Surf PI Kit, took it to the beach tonight.

I bought one of those metal detector kits from silverdog.... The Surf P.I..... basically a White's Surf PI. clone.

It wasn't necessarily easy to make... Putting the board together was actually easier than getting the DIY coil and housing and everything else working well together and in tune.... But finally I took it to the beach tonight for some testing. Actually this is the second night I've tried it, but the first time didn't work out so well, and I was getting false signals all over the place... Turned out that the coil was too flimsy, and was reacting to itself, every time I waved the coil around. I fixed the bugs and tonight everything was working great!

I mostly found junk, and a few clad coins, and a gold plated pin. Even so, I'm excited and very pleased with this MD. I dug the deepest penny I think I've ever dug at the beach. Salt water doesn't effect it at all for the most part. This detector is doing things my other detector, a White's MXT simply can't do at the beach, and seems to be going deeper as well.

I've never owned or used a PI detector till now... It still needs some work, but I'm really impressed with this kit. I'm glad its finally done... It only took me a year, working off and on here and there, plus I got stuck at one point, I thought a component was bad or something, and set the project aside for a while. I have a feeling I'll get a lot of use out of this new metal detector.

 

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[RustyGold]

Congratulations on all your hard work! That's awesome you built it yourself! If it finds pull tabs it will find the gold!
Best of luck!

 

[1869er]

Thanks Rusty Gold!

Here's a photo of it in its current state. It looks like a Barney Rubble machine right now, with the wooden broom handle shaft, and burlap wrapped + epoxied search coil.... but it works! Still need to get those pots for delay, volume, and threshhold installed in the PVC tube better and add knobs, plus a few other things. Also there's just a velcro strap locking your upper arm in place right now, and its not very comfortable, so a few adjustments still needed.

One thing is for sure... It will easily pick up a gold ring at around 12"-13.5" in the air. Better than coins and silver... I see why they say this machine picks up gold so well. A great addition for my night beach hunts at the tides edge.

 

[DrJoePrime]

I've been aware of Silverdog's project kit but my enthusiasm for this just not available...too many irons in the fire and the fire gets dimmer every year.

But anyways..curious how it does with small gold of about 1 gram. What's the lightest gold ring you have?

My White's surf PI+ had a very difficult time with anything under 2 grams. The White's Dual Field easily picks up sub 1 gram rings all the time however.

 

[1869er]

Joe- That's actually a really good question... I've read that the single coil Surf PI's do miss a lot of the smaller gold pieces... However I've also read that there are adjustments that can be made with the electronics that can give better results for small rings. I haven't gotten that far yet with this one though.

That test I mentioned above with 12"-13.5" inches was with a larger mens gold ring, it has a big stone in it so I don't know weight... but its definitely not a small ring, probably as much gold as a mens gold wedding band, I'd say. Unfortunately I don't have anything smaller as far as gold rings right now, so I'm not sure. I'll post any that I find though.

 

[dirtdigginfool]

1869er...that is awesome ! great job on getting it together, and then not being frustrated, and then working the kinks out! I wish you great luck with it! HH ddf

 

[1869er]

I think many people get frustrated trying to put everything else together once they finish the kit. If you search around the net, and youtube... There are many photos and videos of the Silverdog kits next to a coil sitting on a table detecting coins and jewelry in the air. But I've rarely seen many people with completed working field detectors only a few actually. Its tricky getting all the parts to work and be stable. It can be done though.


I actually have a second kit still sitting in a box. My thinking was to get this first one up a working as a beach detector... Then try to tackle a submersible Surf PI with the second kit, using what I learned with the first one. It might be a while yet before I try building that second one though.