Still having F5 Elbow hurt--ouch

[Sven]

The mods I did with the arm rest exchange and padding as well as moving the lower rod up a couple holes on my F5 actually worked well. Was able to hunt for about 3 hours before the aching started to get to be a real pain....that Tek Delta my wife has sure feels nice, that Omega is looking good. But, just can't seem to part with the F5, love it's features, dial controls, independent threshold and gain controls............

Today was thinking about trying another poster suggestion to add weight to the back of the s-handle. First off held the detector with a relaxed grip and the coil wants to tip behind my ankel. Tells you right away it's coil heavy. Takes too much wrist and elbow power to hold in a balanced position where the coil would sit naturally a few inches in front of the toes. Found some tire balancing weights and found 12 oz. stuck them in the back of the s-handle did indeed balance the coil in front of the toes. This makes a big difference, makes it feel lighter, balanced and somewhat free of elbow pain.
Looks like this is the final fix needed..........to make this detector a keeper. And I had visions of owning an Omega tripping thru my head..........LOL

Just have to make a slide in adapter now, filled with melted lead.
Bad knee, bad elbow, jeepers what's next?

 

[TerraDigger]

.

 

[Elton]

Easy on and off..switch it from machine, to machine.......never feel the weight or strain again...

Little adjustment on your part for using it, and it solves a lot of problems.....

 

[patti]

You know, if you are having elbow pain caused by tendon overuse/inflammation then it is not going to go away by changing detectors. The only way to sort it out is to give that elbow a good rest for several weeks to cure the problem. After that you can prevent it from occurring again by using a lighter detector or whatever but if you try to work around the pain you'll just end up causing yourself a permanent medical problem. Even after the pain is gone you need to continue resting because for a few weeks/months or you'll just aggravate the elbow again. Trust me, I've been through this with my wrists, forearms, shoulder and hip joint. The only way is to rest it out and then figure out how to prevent it when you're healthy again. Consult your doctor in case you don't believe me.

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

F5 swung it for 4 hours and more at a time
for me no issues with any kind of pain.
For me it seems to be well balanced.

 

[Sven]

F5 swung it for 4 hours and more at a time
for me no issues with any kind of pain.
For me it seems to be well balanced.

Lucky you, bad joints seem to run in our family, started affecting my sister 10 years ago, shes 5 years younger than myself.
Starting to affect me over the past several years, more so over the past 6 months. Normally I would never have had a problem with swinging any
detector for 8 hours at a time. Not the case now. The F5 is not really balanced, the coil wants to fall behind you when you hold your arm to the side with a light grip.
You physically have to rotate your wrist upwards to keep the coil in front of your feet. The only way you can get the coil to fall naturally in front of your feet is to add
weight behind the armrest or get a lighter search coil. I found adding 11-12 oz of weight behind the armrest solved to problem. The detector is now heavier but, you would never know it.
The coil now rests balanced in front of your feet. Almost feels like your not swinging anything. Feels like featherweight umax Tesoro. Which by the way I can swing all day.

I am just trying to help myself and any others who feel that the F5 is lacking in balance.

Another poster mentioned rest, unfortunately not an option. Everything I do requires extensive use of my right arm. Even fishing the past few nights, casting lures for two hours caused some pain on every cast. Had to modify my casting style by using to hands.

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

Bad break for you Sven you may eventually have to give up those
hobbies that cause your problems.

 

[Sven]

Bad break for you Sven you may eventually have to give up those
hobbies that cause your problems.

You mean Xbox 360? I like the motocross racing game, was playing about 1-2 hours a night for the past 4 weeks to get better at it and I am. Reliving my younger years of racing.
Anyways haven't played for about 4 days, elbow was starting to feel somewhat better today. Decided to play for about 1 hour tonight. Pain returned. So like I suspected the Xbox controller
does have something to do with it. I do notice I grip to tightly etc. So I am going to lay off for a while and see what happens.

I'm not giving up detecting any time soon, that would just leave more for you to find...........LOL

Besides I am just finishing up my PI water machine build. Started a new project page at my website.

 

[Digger 45]

Another option is to switch to the opposite hand, i'm right handed and i'm using the left hand more and more. It takes some practice but its still better than not being able to MD at all.

 

[TerraDigger]

Sven, do you think there could be a way of 'juryrigging' the F5 control box to a Omega shaft assembly?

 

[GoVidGo]

I have an Etrac, 2X the weight of the F5, or so, and I switch hands/arms every so often. That helps a lot.

 

[Sven]

Sven, do you think there could be a way of 'juryrigging' the F5 control box to a Omega shaft assembly?

Might be possible to make a mounting plate that would work. Or make up a new handgrip rod attachment with a mounting plate on top.
I couldn't find a picture that shows the mounting system used on the Omega to see.

 

[TerraDigger]

The Omega attaches to a post of flatbar metal via one screw.