SE Pro Carbon Fiber Ultralight

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Transforming my Explorer SE Pro into a carbon fiber ultralight. Some components have landed, others are inbound, work has begun so I thought I would start a thread.

I found a nice thick rubber grip that can be replaced when worn out!

 

[Tony N (Michigan)]

Next, maybe make a coil out of carbon fiber. It may only weigh a few ounces when you are done.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

If only that were possible Tony. Carbon fiber is conductive, too conductive to build a coil from or even use for anti static shielding. If you wave a carbon fiber tube over your coil it will sound off.

I have built many coils for my Explorers over the years so trust me when I say the Minelab SE Pro Coil is a marvel of engineering and assembly. I can't imagine building a lighter weight, slimmer coil than Minelab has already built and yet the coil is also near indestructible. There is an ample amount of copper in an Explorer coil, that weight isn't going anywhere. Whether a coil is small or large the amount of copper is about the same. Then coil windings must be held rigid with no movement, typically with epoxy. If you look at an SE Pro coil there is very limited epoxy resin employed. I bow to the masters in this case, Minelab.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

The all important gut shots...public service announcement, to remove the control box from the shaft which seems seized on there FIRST separate the two halves of the control box by removing the four screws from the rear of the control box, it will come right off with little effort after that. Years ago, many years like original Explorer era at one point Minelab was gluing them on but I think they quickly stopped that.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Removed 2.4 oz just from the control box, speaker, some plastic trimming, and Minelabs humongous coil connector which weighs a whopping 1.7 oz. The replacement 5 pin connector weighs only .4 oz.

 

[Charles (Upstate NY)]

Control box trimmed and starting on the mount. Renamed it to SE Pro Tactical as I'm going to use Picatinny rail to attach the battery and arm cup.

 

[tiftaaft]

SWEET MOD Charles!!

 

[MikeO]

Awesome Charles.
First glad to see your back posting with regularity as you have always been the Exp. mod. go to guy in my book.
I look forward to following the transformation.

 

[synthnut]

Hi Charles,
NICE MOD ....How did you wire in your headphone jack ? ....... Does the speaker in the box work when your phones are UNplugged ? ....How did you wire it with the 3 wires that go to the headphone jack on the stock setup ? .....Did you have to combine any of the wires to get it to work on the stereo jack ? .....Thanks ...Jim