Straight shaft

[muleskinner]

Has anybody out there made your own shaft for your detector? My Minelab has an S shaft and is quite heavy to swing for a couple hours.
What I need is tube that has .750 inner diameter, aluminum would be nice. If you've built your own, some pictures would be cool.

 

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[Bridge End Farm]

I made one for my DFX, went to a scrap yard and talked them out of a piece of alum for it.

 

[Silver Fox]

Has anybody out there made your own shaft for your detector? My Minelab has an S shaft and is quite heavy to swing for a couple hours.
What I need is tube that has .750 inner diameter, aluminum would be nice. If you've built your own, some pictures would be cool.

I don't know how heavy the Minelab shaft is and the following may not be the solution but in the '80s I was in Las Vegas and left the detector in the trunk of my car overnight. The next day it was about 200 degrees outside and about a 1000 in my trunk! Seriously, it was hot outside and in the trunk. When I picked up the shaft by the plastic elbow rest it disintegrated in my hands and I was left with just the rod sections.

I was going to order an elbow rest from Teknetics but before I did so I visited a thrift store and they were selling a pair of elbow crutches (see photo below) for $5! They were the perfect replacement and I think they are made of aluminum. The slight angle is an improvement over a straight rod and maybe even an S-shaped one. There may be slight variations but they're mostly all the same.

 

[Sandman]

I was given a straight shaft for my Excal and I also tried one from Reilly's Treasure Gold. It was very well made, but I didn't like having the controls mounted under my elbow as the only advantage I saw was a better balance. I still had the weight and I didn't like having to take my arm out of the cuff and insert it again when I wanted to start swinging again.

Instead of putting up with the weight, I made a mount to hang from my neck with the controls on my chest. I don't have a pic on this computer to download but it is easy to make. I used a alum. tube 12" and drilled three sets of holes for where the ears of the control box and battery holder to attach with bolts. I used a camera strap to attach to the top of the tube and it hangs there perfectly with no weight on the shaft. You can use the S shaft or straight shaft without the controls.

 

[muleskinner]

Thanks for the replies, looks like I'll keep looking for the perfect solution. Like you said Sandman, it only balances, you still have the weight to deal with. I guess I'll persue the body mount idea.
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Muleskinner