I'm building my own straight shaft, any info would be great.

[aushunter]

G'day fellow hunters.
Here in Australia I can't find anyone who sells the straight shaft for Excal or maybe I haven't searched enough on the net.
The Anderson shaft looks pretty good, but to me its just a bit of alloy bolted together and I was thinking how hard is it to make one.
I know Cj has built a few and a few others have done so also. Any photos of your straight designs would be good.
At the moment I am just going by my imagination and photos of different ones on the net.
Hope to get the old Excal up and running soon.
What would the best thing to be used for the hand grip?
Any help would be good.
Thanks and HH
aushunter (Brad)..

 

[muggsc]

Bicycle bar ends work best.
Cal

 

[S.S.Tupperware]

I use alum tube cut a handle out of the same material, fitted a piece for the handle and had a buddie weld it, and worked out a longer lower shaft out of a wood dowel. with a lil sandingit fit the tube and is stiffer than the stock end. EZPZ.

 

[tvr]

7/8 inch aluminum tube and bicycle bar ends make for an easy build and very usable shaft. Can use the arm cuff off the original. Just need to experiment a little with the position of the detector and the distance from the handle to the arm cuff to get balance and fit right.

Best to you on the project!
tvr

 

[aushunter]

Well, thanks guys for your information, which I took on board.
I bought a bike handle thingy today during lunch break from work.
It was a different shape than expected but I thought for a moment and checked out the ones one my mountain bike, they where perfect.
I just swapped them over and the new ones look pretty good on the bike.
I drilled a blank piece of alloy I found kicking around the shed and gave it a bit of a sanding and one coat of green colour spray paint.
Drilled a few holes in the blanks which I guesstamated what the lenght should be.
I had an old Bounty Hunter in which became the handle.
Now the hard part was weather the lower shaft will fit. No way in the world, then I remembered that the BH tracker 4 shaft was a little looser the the stock Minelab.
Yabba Dabba Dooo, it fitted perfectly with nil movement in the lower shaft.
Things are looking great, allI gotta do now is work out how to put together the lower bit to the main shaft.
I got i bit of an idea. I just gotta purchase a new lower rod Bounty Hunter shaft and work out the arm rest side of things and I think I got it down pat.
Had a few end plugs kicking around and they just tidied up the job nicely.
Thanks for the photos.
HH and cheers
Brad (aushunter)

 

[Cupajo]

So far so good!!

CJ

 

[gobble-gobble]

A few years back I built a few different styles,

1 pc. alum. & carbon shaft.
& 3 pcs. travel shaft

Taco aluminum tube
7/8" OD---- 6' LENTH
MFR. # A237858BLY61
STORE STOCK #369510029
PRICE WAS $19.99

Boaters World

www.boatersworld.com/product/369510029.htm
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Kellyco--minelab GT handle. price was $ 20.00
you can get the arm cuff from anyone---------

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Whites lower carbon rod, Was $9.00

You can make two shafts out of this 7/8 tube. one pc. alum with carbon rod & a travel shaft two pcs. alum. with the carbon rod.
For whatever reason I can't post pictures up. Send me your email add. & I'll send you some pictures of the ones I built.

 

[tvr]

Nice looking shaft. You are almost there.

Before you drill all the holes to mount the detector holder piece to the long shaft, get the detector mounted to holder piece and strap or duct tape it to the long shaft. Go for some slow swings and a walk and see how it balances. Move it up or down to balance then drill and mount it.

First one I made, I got the detector too high on the shaft and I had to hold the coil down. Had to re-drill and move the detector lower to balance it.
tvr

 

[aushunter]

Thanks fella's,
The arm cuff will be bought, that I probably will buy from Minelab or maybe one from Anderson and get it shipped over.
I'll just check out the availability of arm cuffs. It looks like the one with the velcrow arm strap is the go.
Still waiting for the new battery to arrive from the States, much cheaper to buy one from over there than to get one from here in Oz, that is just plain crazy.
Gotta go back to work, thanks for the help once again.

Brad (aushunter)