The top square shaft in the detector body of the CTX3030 is removable. In total with the clamp for the lower section it's 21 and 1/2 inches long.
I've calculated that about 6 inches can be cut off the carbon fibre square tube and I would do this off the internal end to make the upper tube a total of 15 and 1/2 inches long. A total length of the CTX3030 upper section would then be 19 1/2 tp 20 inches down for 26 inches from lower tube clamp to end of battery pod(batter in place) and a length that in fact allow easier packaging for me, if I had the 2 section Anderson shaft.
Dismantling is relatively easy to do. Careful hand driven screw driver (not electric) . I have done this in the past myself so as to reduce the length and weight of the control box/handle of the CTX3030, that I posted back to Minelab to address the issue of the bulging control box display (Minelab's turnaround for this was nothing short of amazing and was all done within a week)
BUT
when it came to my re assembly and based on the experience I had with dismantling and reassembly of Explorer/Etrac products and their metal screws in the plastic bodies, I made sure that the screws went in with a little more care and placing them in with a screwdriver, locating the coarse plastic thread and hand screw and tighten only.
You need to ensure that the metal screws that hold the CTX3030 upper shaft are threading into the original thread in it's plastic. This helps to maintain the integrity of the thread and for any future dismantling and just ensure that the screws maintain an optimum resilience.
This should be the cast for most of the screws but nothing is always perfect. If you at least try to be careful with put the screws back in as best you can, you should get a good long term result.
I still haven't reduced the length of the upper shaft though I have only thought of doing so. Have needed to in the past because of a need to pack the detector smaller, but have not needed to of late.
Here's a reference to the upper shaft for the CTX3030 from the Minelab parts web site.
If you've not already seen it , you may also get an idea on how the parts of the CTX3030 are laid out , with this catalogue reference.
http://parts.minelab.com/8012-0048-p/8012-0048.htm
Maybe Minelab will sell you the upper shaft direct or through one of the dealers at a reasonable price for you to experiment with first. I say this because the upper shaft has "key way" holes cut into it at either end and that will need to be made to install and modified version into the original CTX3030 upper shaft/control box assembly. If it doesn't work out , you at least have the original shaft on hand.
All the best
.
David Di
