WHITES...TDI..PI What about it ?

[Keppy]

We hear nothing good or bad about White's new.. TDI .. i have seen some used one's for sale i wonder could it have been a dud a loser ?

[extractor]

I love mine. 2 year transferable warranty . My guess the guy didn't have the time to learn how to operate it.

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi,

You simply are on the wrong forum if you are interested in the TDI. They are hanging out elsewhere. Google TDI Tech Forum.

I run a "pay-to-mine" operation at my gold mine at Moore Creek, Alaska. The location has mixed hot rocks that severely impede the performance of regular metal detectors. As part of the operation we want to provide detectors for our visitors that do not have their own. These people by nature have little or no detecting experience. We chose to get four TDIs because they are affordable and because they are a pickup and go machine. A bonus is they come with two batteries so we can always have batteries charging while people are using the machines. I was happy to find some stock settings for the TDI that worked well at Moore Creek. I could basically set the detector for somebody and as long as they did not touch the controls it worked well. Just turn the detector on and go.

Still, experience counts for much and novices have a tough time finding gold nuggets, just due to lack of basic detecting skills. We have found in the past that regardless of the detector used we are happy if novices can just find any gold at all metal detecting during their visit. So I was very pleased that half a dozen new detectorists found their very first nuggets metal detecting with the White's Pulsescan TDI. The unit is not only very capable but also quite easy to operate and so really the only task left to the novices was to get over a nugget.

And that is the bottom line - these people all had little or no experience and in each case were able to find their very first gold nuggets with a metal detector using the TDI. Does it compare to a top end Minelab? No, but you can find gold with it. The TDI was never intended to outperform detectors costing over three times as much. It was aimed more at "bang-for-the-buck".


Mike B & Karl E of Anchorage with TDI Finds


Close-up of Mike and Karl's Gold


Moore Creek visitor Pete W from Paducah, Kentucky. Pete hunted hard with the Pulsescan TDI but was having little luck. I was out with him at one point and was sitting nearby when he got a signal. He started to dig with his scoop but the target was deep, and so I cam over with my pick to help. I scooped a pretty deep hole, but when he checked the target was still in the ground. So I dug some more and out popped a really good looking nugget! A very nice piece weighing .27 ounce that put a huge smile on Pete's face. I did not measure the depth but I was impressed by it. The TDI did a good job getting this one.


Close-up of Pete's Nugget


Moore Creek visitor Jens S from Hupstedt, Germany with nuggets he found with the White's Pulsescan TDI. The larger nugget is .62 ounce and the smaller .37 ounce. Jens found the smaller nugget first within ten minutes of turning the TDI on for the first time.


I was doing some bulldozing at our gold mine at Moore Creek, Alaska to stir up some nuggets for our visitors. I got to one little knob of gravel and after I flattened it out I thought "that looks like a good spot". I had not done any detecting in a couple weeks and figured it was about time. So when I got the dozer back to camp I got the White's Pulsescan TDI out and headed to the location. A guy had just come into camp as I was leaving and so I told him to head up the same way.

I got to the spot and started detecting. First down one row and up the other. After about ten minutes I got a nice signal, and dug up a great .31 ounce specimen. It is a little section of a quartz vein with a nearly solid gold core of gold running through the middle.

I turned off the detector and headed back to camp. The other guy was now just arriving and asked me what was wrong. I told him nothing was wrong, but that I'd got my nugget and so was done. You should have seen the look on his face! Poor guy had been looking for gold for days and I walk right out and find a nugget in ten minutes.

We had an 82 year old gentleman in camp that week who was not having much luck detecting so I gave the specimen to him to take home to Florida.

Some friends visited the mine in the fall. Bernie and Chris P from Soldotna, Alaska are both avid detectorists, having racked up many pounds of gold at Ganes Creek, Alaska over the years with the White's MXT. But they were ready for something different. Chris in particular wanted to find some nice specimen gold. She can outhunt most guys but this was her first time using a PI detector. They hunted Ganes a week, and then came over to Moore Creek. They both did well, but Chris outdid Bernie with this really nice 2.07 oz. gold/quartz specimen she found with the TDI.



We had three days of pouring rain and although a couple other detectors temporarily failed all the TDI units came through with flying colors. One unit was strapped on the back of an ATV and the guy driving did not know that as he went through mud puddles the tires were throwing mud all over the unit. The control box was literally cased in mud, but the unit worked just fine after I cleaned it up.

This is not a sales pitch for the TDI. I have a GPX-4500 and have used Minelabs for many years. But I also think the TDI is a capable unit. I like being able to hip mount it and I like having the built in speaker. Coils are waterproof so it is nice for working around water. The fact it can use my Minelab coil collection is a huge plus. The very first nugget I found with my TDI weighed 1.93 oz so I easily paid for my TDI and then some. The TDI complements my GPX and allows me some options in situations where I may not want to use the GPX. The fact it shares coils means it is also my backup unit should my GPX go down for any reason. Anyone who wants a ground balancing PI unit without spending an arm and a leg should give the TDI a hard look.

Steve Herschbach
Moore Creek Mining LLC
website http://www.moorecreek.com

[Jim Hemmingway]

Another fine post Steve, and you can see the satisfied users who visited at your facility. Beautiful photos, I only wish we could see more. It's a beautiful site to spend some time with friends detecting, I think you would agree.

Question: With a 5"X 10" DD, or nearest size what kind of nugget size does the TDI respond to? I seem to recall JM's fairly recent article in W&E Treasures indicating something on the order of 2.5 grains (flat nugget) with the 12" Dual coil.

Steve I had to return here and modify this post. Another question. This past autumn when in the north country, I was in an area littered with pyrrhotite. A low conductive iron sulfide that blocks VLF signals. Will the PI's see through that type of rock? Thanks,

Jim.

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Jim,

PI units are not that hot on tiny gold and you usually need a nugget weighing several grains to get a signal at all and you need to be right on top of it. I have both a TDI and a GMT. If the areas I want to hunt is known to have nuggets measured in pennyweights or grams I'm using the TDI. If I'm in an area where all the gold is likely to be under half a gram I'm using the GMT instead. From half a gram to a gram it is a toss-up.

I'll try a piece of pyrrhotite and get back to you.

Steve Herschbach

[Jim Hemmingway]

Steve,

Thanks for helping me out, that clears it up nicely. I hope you have some pyrrhotite handy, otherwise don't give it another thought. Later,

Jim.