OK... Took the plunge... waterproofed my Garrett ACE350...

[Skippy SH13]

It didn't take that long, either.

I bought a wet box from a sporting goods store, used a thin sheet of Alderwood (had it laying around), a couple of strips of velcro, some pipe tape, and a few screws. The seal around the cable was done with plastic epoxy putty. It's meant to be removed later, when I find a more "temporary" solution (one I can readily use with a cable).

The impetus was MDing last night at a local park... has an AWESOME swimming area that doesn't ever get more than about chest deep, but is all sandy bottom.

A guy up at work told me he lost his gold ring there a few years ago.. and I got to thinking... 90% of this I won't ever even have to submerge the unit... but I'm not taking chances. Decided to buy a case, just for the day, basically, and I'm expecting to do really well in the area. I'm sure LOTS of jewelry has been lost there.

Will be heading out in an hour or so, but wanted to get these pictures up. To be clear, this is NOT a permanent solution (too heavy), but in a pinch, it works!

_Skippy

 

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[Skippy SH13]

And yes, I can easily hear the beeping through the box. It's nicely muffled. Won't draw too much attention.

 

[zman1403]

Good Luck.

 

[BigWaveDave]

I hope it works for you... good luck!

 

[RustyGold]

Good job! Great color! Love the orange box!
Best of Luck out there!

 

[Skippy SH13]

Well. Here's the report.
First... the finds.
1 Quarter, 1983
1 Toy Car, buried 2 inches into the sand... couldn't get at it with the shovel, finally gave up and used the Garrett Pro Pointer under water.
2 hours water searching... 25 minutes on land (see story below).

Second, How did I waterproof the Garrett Pro Pointer? Before I left, I simply vacuum sealed the thing, and then wrapped the ends in duct tape, so rubbing in the sand wouldn't cause a hole. WORKED AMAZINGLY WELL for a cheap waterproofing. Only thing I had to do differently, was to not vacuum seal it so much. The first attempt worked great... but I found after I depressed the button, the seal made it stay that way. Had to open the bag to turn it off. Second attempt, I simply didn't vacuum it out quite so much (would vacuum a little, test the button, and repeat, until the air was all out, but the button still worked). If in the future, you need a quick waterproofing for your Pro Pointer, I recommend vacuum seal bags and duct tape. Worked great.

3: I'm SO SO SO Glad, that I didn't bother to purchase the Garrett AT Pro. I'd considered it because of the ability to water hunt. Turns out. I don't like to water hunt.

4: The waterproofed wet box worked GREAT! I had it fully submerged to 2 feet at one point (Water up to my chest), and never sprung a leak. I had put a paper towel in the bottom of it, pressed against the plastic, to check, before I left. ZERO wetness at all. Had it down there for a good 30 minutes, with no problems. Now. For those water hunting with what amounts to a buoyant box, I recommend putting one hand BELOW the box on the shaft... Much easier to control the unit from that point. Was REALLY nice, though, that when I let go, the thing would just float beside me. Made it easy to shovel.

For what I hunt (primarily city parks) the ACE 350 is more than enough... SO happy I spent $30 to find out I didn't need to spend $640 for the AT PRo! That's not to say the pro isn't a great thing... but in my neck of Idaho, all the areas around me are less than 50 years old... with the exception of a VERY few parks, which have been more than worked over by the local clubs.

Now... tomorrow I get to crack that plastic putty off, and put the 350 back the way it was. Looking forward to that!

Oh... one last story. While I was out in the water, a gal came up and asked if I would help find a lost ring. platinum with a 3 carat diamond, just lost by her aunt who was early stage Alzheimer's. The Aunt was really panicked, and was talking about how she new she had it, as she was twirling it just a few minutes prior. A couple of the guys there confirmed they saw it on her finger, "While she was sitting right over there." The grass there is REALLY short. Not much of a place to hide a ring like that, but I wanted to help out.

25 minutes later, I'd scoured the area, and someone had the bright idea to call the husband (at home), and ask if the ring was on the nightstand. It was. I just laughed. What a funny thing that TWO of the people there confirmed they'd personally seen it on her finger! And THAT, folks, is why eyewitness accounts can be tainted by other's conversations. They were CONVINCED they'd seen it.

How funny. Went back to hunting after that, but it was worth the 25 minutes to have the story!

Skippy

 

[Skippy SH13]

Last follow-up, for those interested in doing the same thing.

I was SOOO glad I used "Plastic Putty," instead of just regular marine epoxy. I went to the garage today to return the ACE 350 to original function (expecting to have to chisel the way through that epoxy glob holding the wire in the box hole)... and discovered, MUCH to my pleasure, the plastic putty remained somewhat pliable. It was like a really thick hard clay, rather than working with stone. I simply took a putty knife and slowly pried chunks of it away. It literally peeled off the box in layers, and I was able to remove it in less than 4 minutes. Took another minute to remove the hardware from the wood, and put the ACE350 unit back on the arm. PIECE OF CAKE.

I then put the hardware in a ziplock bag, and put it into the wetbox. The Velcro holds the box to the wood backing. SUPER easy to undo. I like plastic putty!

PlasticWeld Epoxy Putty | J-B Weld

 

[BigWaveDave]

Congrats on the efforts.... you did well in meeting your needs with the waterproofing.

 

[Skippy SH13]

Yeah, total cost was about $17. And that's because I bought the wetbox from a sporting goods store instead of Walmart. I could have done it for less than $10, I think. And to have one readily available the next time I want to hunt... Yeah, that's a good thing.

 

[Papalittle]

must of been a pain having to open the case every time to press the buttons but at least you figured out that water detecting was not for you.

 

[Skippy SH13]

must of been a pain having to open the case every time to press the buttons but at least you figured out that water detecting was not for you.

It really wasn't a big deal. There's not a whole lot of need to press buttons. I think I opened it twice in two hours, and it was very fast. There are just two side clips. The first time, I opened it to adjust the sensitivity up and move it to all metal mode... The second time, I just dropped it back to Jewelry mode.

That was it. It was just TOO SLOW for me to enjoy. Moving through the water is molasses slow compared to the slow swing I like on land. I felt like I covered about 1/8 of the total space in the 2 hours (if that!). I supposed I would have Loved it if I'd been finding jewelry... but since there's only about 2 places around here I can water hunt... it just wasn't worth it.

_Skippy

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Water hunting is a totally different game. When I water hunt the hunt is usually 4-8 hours.... It is slower in water but I'm using 15" coils and the amount of jewelry found makes it well worth while....

 

[Skippy SH13]

That's really the key - time invested must equal something in return. I think the sand is deep enough in the water where I was hunting, that the jewelry would sink well below 12" in a matter of weeks. The likelihood of finding something that deep is small.

I was using the DD coil, but the water was murky, too. I'd have signals, but they always seemed to bounce to iron... Is this normal for gold & silver underwater? I didn't think so, because the one quarter I found was a solid signal...

Water hunting is a totally different game. When I water hunt the hunt is usually 4-8 hours.... It is slower in water but I'm using 15" coils and the amount of jewelry found makes it well worth while....

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

That's really the key - time invested must equal something in return. I think the sand is deep enough in the water where I was hunting, that the jewelry would sink well below 12" in a matter of weeks. The likelihood of finding something that deep is small.

I was using the DD coil, but the water was murky, too. I'd have signals, but they always seemed to bounce to iron... Is this normal for gold & silver underwater? I didn't think so, because the one quarter I found was a solid signal...

Can't say, I use excal, it nulls on iron and then will tell you if there is gold above or by the iron. With my 15 " coil I sometime dig targets as deep as 20" when in all metal..

 

[Skippy SH13]

Wow. That's deep! But with a 15" coil, that makes sense... are you detecting in clear water? If it's murky, how do you dig/ just by feel?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Wow. That's deep! But with a 15" coil, that makes sense... are you detecting in clear water? If it's murky, how do you dig/ just by feel?

On east coast of Florida you can't see your feet, I locate target in center of coil, place my toe at back of coil in center and that is where I start my scoop and scoop forward. If your detecting in water you want a goid water scoop, min of at least 8" or wider..