PinPointer security

[dbax]

Greetings -- I have been out of touch for a while -- traveling. I have a simple solution for securing your pinpointer -- you will never walk off and leave it. In my travels I lost my cherished Garrett PinPointer. You don't know how much you miss a tool like this until you discover your don't have it. In searching the Internet I discovered others must have had the same unfortunate lose, but few say much, I think it may be because there are a few metal heads making scathing remarks about how stupid it is and so senseless and careless a knuckle head you have to be to get up and walk off without your pinpointer. Well, I may have thought that very same thing -- until -- it happened to me. So, I searched the Internet to see if there is a solution to this ---------- Oh, but wait, you may be wondering how I could have been so careless. I was out of state on a hunt with my son. We got separated and I got a bit annsy about his location so I headed back to the car, put my gear away and circled the lake and found him a good distance from where we started. All was good, I picked him up and we went for lunch. Two days later I went out early one morning, by my self, put my belt on and notice the pinpointer holster was empty -- I tore the trunk of that rental car apart. I went back to the area I had last hunted -- nothing. Okay, so I started an Internet search looking for a solution and I saw a couple. One really nice answer to this is a "security ring" that slips around the screw cap, like a washer, with a protruding slot that you can clip a bungee to. But, $20 plus shipping and it becomes a pretty expensive fix. Worth it, I guess, considering you are saving a $130 piece of -- can't live without it -- equipment. Being the cheap skate that I am I put my careless brain to work and came up with the following solution. I had seen a couple of other examples of fixes for this but did not like them -- while these are not advertised as water proof, one should not break the water "resistant" characteristics of the Pinpointer, right?

My solution is pictured below, and it works great and is watertight -- Drilling a hole in the center of the cap, after removing the small foam pad inside the cap. I took a #12 - 24x3/4" round head with nut and ground the round head off, thin and flat. I made the hole just big enough to thread the small bolt through, but before that I ran a small bead of plumbers glue around the shank then pulling the bolt through the underside of the cap, pressed it into place -- this secured the bolt and sealed it. I then took the nut and spun it down over the bolt down onto the topside of the cap, this really secured it. I then took this to my vice where there is a small anvil and I placed the exposed bolt on the anvil and with a small hammer I beat the bolt out flat -- well, sort of flat, knocking the threads down, this gave me a good surface to drill into with a small drill bit making a hole big enough to accept a split key ring. The bungee cord I am using came from and Indian Casino -- you get these for free, as many of you know. This bungee works great. The purpose of the bungee is not to carry the pinpointer around but only to make sure you do not get up and walk off without it. Hope someone finds this helpful. Lastly, I replaced the small foam piece over the top of the flattened bolt head, worked out perfect. Nope, did not have to make any other adjustment, it screw down normally.

 

[sprchng]

look up a place called detectingdoodads. He has a device which is much simpler and serves dual purposes and only costs twenty bucks

 

[dbax]

Thanks, sprchng -- I looked it up -- I should have come to you first. Guess I was putting in all the wrong search word -- This is a press on, or a twist on, or glue on (?) plastic ring with an eyelet to a light coil tether. Very nice. $7 for the ring and tether and $6 for shipping -- total $13. Had I seen this first I would have bought it. What I kept seeing on the Internet were two versions of a metal ring, a kind of thin washer that would screw down under the screw cap. Both of the models I saw also had an eyelet or slot protrusion for clipping a tether to. These, however were $20-$26. My fix cost me $1.09, and about 15 minutes of my time. Did not have to wait for postage to arrive either. Thanks again for pointing me to the detectingdoodads site, I just might get one of these for the back up Pinpointer I will be getting soon (for my wife) -- peace, Dan
P.S. Looking some more at detectingdoodads and found he has a security ring with a glass on it, a loupe -- how cool is that? The Loupe swivels out from the top -- well, you have to go to the guy's site to see it. $17-$20 and I'm guessing the same $6 shipping. My little screw in the top is looking pretty pathetic -- oh, well, I already drilled the hole.

 

[sprchng]

You won't find a nicer guy and he really has a passion for detecting. They're made with a 3d printer and snap on and off very securely. Loupe is glass so it doesn't scratch. Been using them for 6 or 8 months and love them but ironically , I don't use the tether , just the loupe.

 

[Hightone]

Just a matter of time before Garrett follows the same idea. But will it raise the cost? Mine was $90.

 

[dbax]

Hightone you go at deal at $90 on a Garrett. After a lot of research and needing a replacement PP for the one I lost I found a lot of options, the new Whit's TRX, for one, but the price?? I was about to pull the trigger on another Garrett when I came across the XPointer at $89 and then a video on a test review and a side by side test and point assignment for the Garrett, the XPointer and the TRX -- I ordered the XPointer. It comes with a "security ring" and bungee. Its max search depth is not as great as the TRX but more than the Garrett. The LED light is very useful on those cold dark morning just before the sun rises. The Garrett LED light was better than nothing but the XPointer is a real mini flashlight.

I have only made it out for one hunt since receiving the XPointer. Like the other copy cats it is a Garrett look alike but does not suffer from the falsing when you press or put pressure on the barrel of the Garrett. The Xpointer does not false at all, grip it, twist it, push it into the ground, not false signals. The LED was super. It quit working, going off on me. This turned out to be by fault, I had not screwed the battery cap down fully. At the time, though, I thought it was broken because for the first hour it seemed to work fine, and when it was working it was great. So, I went and retrieved my trusty Garrett from the car and wow, what a difference, the Xpointer with its multiple levels and the ability to turn the sound on and off and that LED light -- it was a bigger difference than I expected. Xpointer 5 stars, Garrett, by comparison 3 Stars. Like I said, the screw cap was loose and that was the reason it kept going off on me. Here was the problem -- the security ring is a washer type fitting with and extended eyelet protruding from the side from under the cap. If you pull on the bungee just right, and hard it can actually cause the cap to loosen, which is what happened and why it did not act up until after I had used it a bit. Also, the bungee supplied is short and the end of the bungee fastened to ring on the holster broke. I had a longer coil bungee which I attached later and it works fine. Once the cap was re-tightened everything was good. Love the Xpointer and for its price you could almost buy two of the Whites TRX. Because of my experience using the steel security ring, like the $14-20 types you see around, I am thinking about doing my solution with the bolt as that has never loosened the cap and it is not in the way like the protruding eyelet is sometimes uncomfortable on the hand. I am determined never to loose another one of these. CON -- just discovered in some air testing and doing some of my own living room comparisons -- the XPointer will not pick up small pieces of brass. I repeat, the XPointer will not sound off on small pieces of brass, at all. The Garrett will sound on brass. For artifact hunters this may be an important consideration. I had a brass chain and it would not sound on it, the Garrett, loud and clear. I have a small, flat piece of religious jewelry, very thin and just smaller around than a dime and the XPointer would not sound on it at all, not matter how I touched it but the Garrett would sound off. So, if you are considering the XPointer and you have no desire to find buttons or other small brass pieces then go for it. Me, I am wondering if I should carry both the Garrett and the Xpointer? My tool belt is getting heavy already. This does, however, diminish the trustworthiness of the XPointer. Anyone have a reason for this I would like to hear it. Thanks, Dan