usmcscorpio, and cougar14,
Please contact me, if you are interested, as I do believe I can help you both with your fatigue/pain issues. I am the owner of Steve's Detector Rods, and a sponsoring vendor here at TreasureNet, and I have literally dozens of very satisfied customers who have purchased one of my shafts, WITH the optional counterweight system, who will attest to the fact that counterbalance DOES work, and DOES eliminate the pain and fatigue caused by swinging the Equinox with one of the larger coils.
It may seem counterintuitive to "add weight" to a "light machine," but I have many customers who were once skeptics, who have now turned adamant believers in the counterweight system, after experiencing the difference counterweighting will make. There is a solid foundation of physics underlying this discussion -- which explains WHY you are experiencing pain/fatigue, and why counterweighting addresses the issue. Cougar14 -- you are right on the mark, in terms of bringing "fulcrums" into the discussion. YES -- it's that heavy coil, at the end of a long lever, with NO weight at the other end of the shaft, that results in the nose-heaviness, and subsequent pain and fatigue. I have explained this at length in other posts here, but the bottom line is that at the end of that long lever (the shaft), gravity acting on the weight of the coil,
using leverage to its advantage, means that you have to counteract all that leveraged weight with your arm/wrist/shoulder, in order to keep the coil floating just above the ground. It doesn't matter HOW light you make the machine; with one of the large (relatively heavy) Equinox coils sitting out at the end of a long shaft, with NO compensating weight at the butt-end of the shaft, you are going to feel it. And the only two ways I know of to reduce the leveraged weight of the coil, are by a.) using a sling, OR b.) by adding a bit of counterweighting. Every ounce of counterweighting you add, allows gravity to act in YOUR favor, exerting a downward force out at the
butt-end of the shaft. And since that downward force, at the butt end of the shaft, OPPOSES the downward force of gravity acting on the coil end of the shaft, the result is a SIMPLE, ABSOLUTE REDUCTION of the amount of opposing force that YOU have to add, with your arm/wrist/shoulder. It's really that simple. No matter how counterintuitive it might be, it's a fact, and it works.
For more information, please check out the blog post on my webpage (under the "What's New" tab), that talks all about the theory of counterweighting, and my counterweight option for my shafts, at
www.stevesdetectorrods.com/blog/index.php. You can also read the words of many customers who attest to the effectiveness of my shaft, and the counterweight system, in terms of improving the Equinox's ergonomics and eliminating pain/fatigue, under the "testimonials" tab on my website, at
www.stevesdetectorrods.com/testimonials.php. You can also read the words of many satisfied customers, within my "shaft" posts here on T-Net, as well as several other detecting forums.
Finally, if you'd like to speak with me directly, for a one-on-one consultation, I'm pleased to do so, either by phone, or email. Just send me a PM here at T-Net, or an email to steve@stevesdetectorrods, and let me know that you'd like to chat. I'm always happy to help.
Thanks!
Steve
www.stevesdetectorrods.com
www.facebook.com/stevesdetectorrods
email:
steve@stevesdetectorrods.com
