I'm back and with a F5 question.

[Mike Hillis]

The new girlfriend and I had a falling out. Real sweet girl but walks poorly in the shoes I want her to walk in. You'll see her on the classifieds later this week.

Before I spend money on a different cruiser setup, Has anyone modified their F5 to make it more comfortable to swing with the 11DD coil? I was thinking about extending the rod beyond the upper arm to take the weight off the nose, or maybe trying a different rod setup. Any ideas or suggestions?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Alimo88]

Mike your intro's are too cryptic for me.
which machine do you no longer like? and why?
PS did you ever use the F5 with the 8 inch round coil?
I LOVE the accuracy of the round coils on the F2 in regards to pinpointing. the pinpointing with the F5 standard elliptical is not as precise.

the balance points of detectors is important I find

 

[BH_Landstar_]

in regards to pinpointing. the pinpointing with the F5 standard elliptical is not as precise.

I've not notice that, I found it to be just a precise as the 11" DD thats on my F4 !

 

[Alimo88]

@landstar I was saying the ROUND coils with the F2 are deadly accurate. Where I detect (parks and schools) most coils are too large. I'm finding the 4 inch hits about 3 targets per sweep and thats with 50% of the stuff discriminated out.

 

[Jackpine Savage]

Unless Fisher changed the original F5's arm cup from the pics on their ad there is a difference.

The Omega cup is raised off the shaft perhaps an inch which shifts the weight back enough that you can feel a difference. When I realized this I tried putting a 1200 series cup (no off set) on the Omega and it really threw the balance off with the big coil.

Mike it will change the grip angle slightly but if it shifts enough weight back that should not matter.

Tom

 

[Mike Hillis]

Thanks Tom. I don't recall at the moment if they were the same arm cup or not. I'll check it out. That was the thing I liked the best about the Omega, it was a joy to swing. I have thought about putting the F5 box on a Omega upper rod to see if it would make a difference. Never thought of just an arm cup swap. I have also thought of getting a coil extension and moving the box to under the arm. I hunt by tones mostly anyway so mounting the box under the arm wouldn't be a hassle for me and I can pinpoint fine in disc mode.

All this to turn the F5 with too small of coil into a cruiser. I must be a nut job

 

[Mike Hillis]

To tell the the truth, I dislike round concentric coils. Always have. Personal preference thing. First thing I do when I get a detector with a round concentric is replace it with a DD or a elliptical concentric coil.

I personally find the elliptical concentric as the stock coil on the F5 to be the cat's meow. But again, it is a personal preference thing.

Pinpointing is something that you get better and better at over time and you learn how to pinpoint the different style coils.

HH
Mike

 

[BuckeyeBrad]

The arm cups are different and actually the geometry of the rods are also. Looking at the two, and assuming that for balance sake, the F-5 (with the slight extra weight over the single battery Teks) would work better with the control pod closer to your elbow, the F-5 "S" rod should be the better choice of the two. I'm actually surprised to see there is a difference between the two.

 

[Mike Hillis]

Hi Brad,
Thanks for looking at the rods and cups. The F5 swings fine with the stock coil. It is the 11" DD that get cumbersome as it throws the balance off. I'm just looking for a way to restore balance with the 11"DD so that I would be willing to face a 10 acre park with it, cruising for clad and information. In the past I did this with a Golden/Cleansweep combo or a DFX/Bigfoot combo, or here lately with a V3i/Bigfoot combo. The V3i is overkill for what I'm using it for so I'm thinking about returning to the Golden/Cleansweep combo. But before I do, I'd like to see if I could get the F5 to handle this task with the 11" coil mounted on it. That would double the sweep ratio over the CleanSweep or Bigfoot coils (two sweeps to their one) but I'd be using my favorite.
HH
Mike

 

[BuckeyeBrad]

You have me scratching my head a bit here when you're comparing the F-5/11"DD to the Golden/Cleansweep or DFX/Bigfoot. I've had both of those other rigs and my memory of them is even more imbalance. Of course the best balance is achieved when you have the overall length set to just allow the heel of the coil to JUST clear your feet as you sweep. The Cleansweep for example weighs 1.3 lbs while the 11"DD weighs about 15 oz. With the former, you have to set the overall rod length longer than you would with the latter because you need to "clear" 9" (half the length of the Cleansweep) instead of the 5.5" of the 11" DD. With the Cleansweep's more initial weight and having to use a longer rod length to accommodate it, unless I'm missing something here (still haven't had any coffee so that's a possibility) it seems to me the imbalance with the T-Rig would be greater (?). I'm 5'11" and I know when using an 11" DD with any of the current Fishers or Teks, rod length makes a big difference in overall balance but if you're considerably taller, you won't have as much flexibility that I would. Another option that I haven't done, and I have NO idea if and what advantage it may afford, is with the White's space saver rod coupled to the F-5. Obviously, you'd need to drill for the F-5 mounting bolt centers, but I believe the Whites rod would definitely allow for more adjust-ability of the arm cup positioning. I know you like to experiment so that might be worth a try at least, and probably fun to try even if it turns out to be a bust.

 

[Mike Hillis]

Brad,
The Bigfoot combo's are the easiest to swing as they are the lightest coils but the White box weight wears on me and the recovery speed isn't as good as Tesoro or Fisher. The Cleansweep is heavier on the nose but I'm not holding the full weight of it as the coil rests on the grass and I'm just sweeping it back and forth as I walk at a normal walking pace. It takes 5 sweeps of the 11" coil to match 2 sweeps of the Cleansweep style coils. A lot more energy is expended to cover the same amount of ground.

The Bigfoot is good to about 7-8 inches. Add in grass height air gap and your down to about 4-6" depth which is pretty good for this style coil in turf.
The CleanSweep is good to about 6". Maybe an inch more super tuned but you then you loose audio info and start digging bottle caps. Add in grass height and your down to about 2-4" depth. Also the recovery is very good and this combo works well in trash.
The 11" DD would be on my most favorite machine, giving me my most favorite audio responses and would match the Bigfoot for depth at that walking speed and better recovery than Tesoro. But I would need to offset the extra expended energy with a better balance on the nose. It may be as simple as adding a bit of weight under the elbow to fix my issue. I'll try that first as it would be the easiest solution, then try the Tom's arm cup as a prettier solution.

Come on Dave J, just build me a Fisher coil the same size as these other 18" x 4" coils. I'd be if you did.

HH
Mike