Cracked coil, need some thoughts

[nappy]

Hello detecting enthusiast,
Just received my first tesoro today via ups. It is a used eldorado at what seemed to be a reasonable price of around $250. Thanks be to on line auctions. While inspecting as I massaged it from it's double packing and into it's final detecting form of assembly, I decided to take a peek under the scuff cover. Never owning a tesoro, I was surprised to see what appeared to be half a coil full of black epoxy that was cracked in multiple places. Crumbs!..duped again! After the initial shock I went ahead with some testing. Wow, works great. I tried some air tests and took it outside with some coins for a minute to mess with the discrim. and ground balance. Made a hot lap around the yard and heard some inticing beeps among the trash while discriminating everything below zincsters, but at 15 deg. had to keep moving. Please take a look at the coil pic. and let me know what you think. Should I seal the crack with something to keep moisture out and run it till it pukes or till I get the 12x10 I've read so much about? Is this something I need to worry about? Thanks for your time and comments. nappy

 

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[Shortstack]

Hey, Nappy. Here's what I would do. I'd clean the epoxy side of the coil with a clean cloth and some rubbing alcohol. Then, scuff the area around each crack lightly with a scruff pad (the plastic kind for kitchen use). Clean again with alcohol and cloth. Next, I'd put a narrow bead of acrylic caulk on each crack as well as around the edge of all of the coils openings and the outer edge. Immediately put the coil cover on and set aside and let the caulk "set" for a few hours. Then, have fun. This method would make use of the coil cover as a reinforcement to resist any flexing of the coil.

An alternative would be to get some tubes of thin super glue and flood the cracks with it and set the coil aside to setup over night. Then install the coil cover and have fun. THIN super glue would be better than thick because it would flow into the cracks a lot easier.

Have fun with the Tesoro no matter what you decide to do about the coil.

 

[boogeyman]

What I did with an old bounty hunter a long time ago... Place masking tape along the sides to make a small wall. Float some fiberglass resin over the whole thing till it's about 1/8 " deep. pour carefully and use a pin to pop any small bubbles. Sand the edges smooth. This repair worked, and was still in use after I sold it. Hope that helps!

 

[rmptr]

It should be fixed to keep dirt, and especially moisture out.

There are threads here regarding brushed on boat epoxy and also pickup truck bedliner type products.

...I'd rather not see that cracking, but all is NOT lost...

Repair it, and purchase a 5.75 trash coil.

R M P T R

 

[Sandman]

Coating the bottom of the coil with Marine Loctite epoxy works great if you don't already have any water inside the coil with some black sand. However it is best to just get another coil from Tesoro to have piece of mind and confidence in the coil.

 

[nappy]

Thank you for the ideas and suggestions. I did some more air tests and think the coil is operating fine. It even picked up some things that surprised me, i.e. a small gold stud earring and back separately @ 2-3 in. with sens. at 8 and G.B. set for air test, in the computer room. It must have been quite an impact or environmental fluctuation that damaged it. I tried tweaking it a bit to see if it was weak, but it didn't flex much at all. Having read your ideas, I agree it definitely needs some protection from moisture. I think I'll mix up some two part epoxy and see if it looks thin enough to feed in to the cracks. If it does I'll clean it up, scuff it and patch it up. Thanks again for all the great input. nappy