First 90 minutes with the Excalibur11

[paul11]

As this MD is heavy I decided to put it in a Bungee Harness, this was ok but I have a bad habit of pushing the MD out in front of me to far so my arm is still doing all the work and carrying all the weight. After an hour my arm was aching a lot, anyway when I got home I adjusted the Harness and as long as I swing it close to me and let the Harness carry the weight I think it will be fine. I just need a bit of time to get things setup correctly. The Excalibur itself worked great, I used it in pinpoint mode and switched to discrim as I found the targets and it did reject everything it found. It really makes some strange sounds, I got a really high pitch sound that the discrim rejected so I dug it anyway and sure enough it was a new coin that now have tin in them. With the old coins it does not reject them so this is ideal, and to top it all I never saw any rust at all (luxury). Going out again this afternoon for another 2 hours or so and I hope to be better setup for it, so far so good.

 

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[paul11]

Paul, I just pulled mine out of the stock shaft. Most people use 1/4" plastic bolts for the control pod and the spring clip thingy for the battery. The handle is a handlebar extension for a bicycle. The heavy duty armcuff is from Plugger via Fleabay. I bought the aluminum tubing at welding supply house.
The angled handle helps balance the machine out to almost neutral and it hangs on index finger for perfect swinging setup. View attachment 1360893

Thanks I have got all the parts on order and I think I may have got the same handlebar part as yourself. How long is the shaft you used and I see you have everything mounted behind the armcuff, how is that for balance? I see a lot that have the handle and cuff over the controls, whats best?

 

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[adamBomb]

Thanks I have got all the parts on order and I think I may have got the same handlebar part as yourself. How long is the shaft you used and I see you have everything mounted behind the armcuff, how is that for balance? I see a lot that have the handle and cuff over the controls, whats best?

Look up the sizes anderson/plugger use and then measure/test to customize for yourself. Behind the elbow was 10x better than under the elbow. I tried them both. The under the elbow was no better than stock for me.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Behind the elbow has more counter balance, the length of the shaft is personal preference. I like mine longer as it allows a wider sweep which means more coverage per pass and less steps to cover a specific area.

 

[paul11]

Make's sense guys just need to find out the best length for the shaft.

 

[Fletch88]

These measurements are from lower rod end and should get you in the ballpark. Overall length is 43".

(Disregard all the extra holes, it is also drilled to fit a DualField machine)

 

[paul11]

Thanks Fletch the tube I have ordered is 1m or 39" so I think I will need it all. When I ordered it I was going to put the controls under my arm not behind it.

 

[paul11]

Think I better order a 1.2m to make sure.

 

[penzfan]

Good Luck paul. Nothing beats a nice custom homemade shaft for the Excal...

Think I better order a 1.2m to make sure.

 

[paul11]

Good Luck paul. Nothing beats a nice custom homemade shaft for the Excal...

View attachment 1361507

Thanks I do need to get this well balanced or else I will have to use the hip mount.

 

[paul11]

My 7/8" tube arrived today 22.2mm with 1.6 walls = 19mm ID yes, no not this one, this one= 18.5mm and don't fit. So I used part of it to make a hip mount so I can get out this weekend and not have a lot of arm ache. I have ordered another tube that will arrive next week.

 

[redcobra8u]

Paul, I mount the unit on my back (belt line). The headphone line is on my digging side and the power and coil wire on the swinging side. When I'm digging a target, I rest the unit against my side. Make sure to leave plenty of cord so you don't stress any connections. If the unit falls to the ground, there is still slack.

The photo is a velcro modification I did to prevent any stress on the wires. As Treasure Hunter correctly advises, this will cause you an expensive repair bill. I have 100's of hours on the unit set up this way. I found using the hip mount on my side caused too much contact with the unit after about 5 minutes. I also very rarely switch modes but I've perfected the behind the back technique.

 

[paul11]

Thanks that looks good.