bush13st_beav3r
Full Member
- Apr 22, 2013
- 224
- 50
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I recently got in to metal detecting about a month ago, I live in Wichita ks area and when I havnt been detecting because of ill weather, I've been researching... I found I could make my life easier if I had a pinpointer, well...propointer is king, but I ain't got money like that... My sons more important....but I do have a few old stud finders, couple broken am/fm radios and some time..
..so I tore in to my first stud finder...Its a Pittsburgh stud/volt sensor from harbor freight....think it was 15$, but on sale for 10 and I had a 20% off ad on my side so it cost me 8 ...it has a switch on the front to go between volt stud and metal mode...I thought ok...no work necessary..go to metal and give it hell...no.. the internals aren't really set for pinpointing a coin in an inch of dirt....even lightly shaking it set off metal...or holding it against your arm...(assuming iron in the blood...unless I have microchips in my arm I'm unaware of...). Anyways, I tore it apart...noticing it had 3 potenceometers, 502;503;202 ...I then saw the two coil ferrite rod...it was glued in place, I knew I needed to move it and cut the slack out of the leads from coil to circuit board.
First I cut a hole in both sides of the plastic making a round hole that I would be able to fit some PVC or hard plastic tubing...I had an old funnel around that was heavy duty plastic so I cut off the tip and fit in on the bottom plastic and set in the ferrite..so I bassicaly justangled the rod as perpendicular to the board as possible and waxed the wires firm to the board
I epoxied the rod down into the plastic funnel tip and started to test it in dirt...I just got a plastic bowl, a bit of dirt from outside and put a penny in...it was a bit finnicky stil, so I messed with the two pots associated with each coil 502;503 and marked their positions w a marker and turned each clockwise until I was happy with its stability, I then sealed it up and hot glued the tip on securely so it could go in dirt n keep goin..
I plan on getting another stud finder, taking it apart and then making my own coil with ferrite rods out of them... I've seen a couple interesting ones made, but what Id really love is a schematic of the stud finder itself so I can remove the nonnecessities...
Sorry, I didn't think to take ongoing pics, I figured I'd break it instead of make something that actually works in the field as good as it does... I have pics now, its not the prettiest bell at the ball, but she works good...
..so I tore in to my first stud finder...Its a Pittsburgh stud/volt sensor from harbor freight....think it was 15$, but on sale for 10 and I had a 20% off ad on my side so it cost me 8 ...it has a switch on the front to go between volt stud and metal mode...I thought ok...no work necessary..go to metal and give it hell...no.. the internals aren't really set for pinpointing a coin in an inch of dirt....even lightly shaking it set off metal...or holding it against your arm...(assuming iron in the blood...unless I have microchips in my arm I'm unaware of...). Anyways, I tore it apart...noticing it had 3 potenceometers, 502;503;202 ...I then saw the two coil ferrite rod...it was glued in place, I knew I needed to move it and cut the slack out of the leads from coil to circuit board.
First I cut a hole in both sides of the plastic making a round hole that I would be able to fit some PVC or hard plastic tubing...I had an old funnel around that was heavy duty plastic so I cut off the tip and fit in on the bottom plastic and set in the ferrite..so I bassicaly justangled the rod as perpendicular to the board as possible and waxed the wires firm to the board
I epoxied the rod down into the plastic funnel tip and started to test it in dirt...I just got a plastic bowl, a bit of dirt from outside and put a penny in...it was a bit finnicky stil, so I messed with the two pots associated with each coil 502;503 and marked their positions w a marker and turned each clockwise until I was happy with its stability, I then sealed it up and hot glued the tip on securely so it could go in dirt n keep goin..
I plan on getting another stud finder, taking it apart and then making my own coil with ferrite rods out of them... I've seen a couple interesting ones made, but what Id really love is a schematic of the stud finder itself so I can remove the nonnecessities...
Sorry, I didn't think to take ongoing pics, I figured I'd break it instead of make something that actually works in the field as good as it does... I have pics now, its not the prettiest bell at the ball, but she works good...
