Texas Lurker Shares Modifications for the ACE 150/250

[M.T. Handed]

Well I"m finally making my first post! After lurking on this forum for 18 months and enjoying everyone else's informative posts, I think I have something of interest to share. I live near several lakes and I decided I wanted to metal detect in the water,so I started looking on this forum for ways to water-proof my ACE 250. I found KHOUSE'S Lake-Looter and searched out all of his posts on the subject. To make a long story shorter, we visited by phone and I bounced some of my ideas off him. If you have read one of his latest post you know we met up at a lake in Missouri and I got to see the Lake-Looter first hand and enjoyed metal detecting and making a new friend. Kenny as you all know is one talented guy. I would still be trying to figure which container to use without his posts and details on the Lake-Looter as well as confirming some of my ideas that I wanted to try. I knew I didn't want to try and solder the coil cable back together to add an extension so I contacted Robert at American Detectors in Fort Worth and with his contacts at Garretts, he got me a coil with a nine (9) foot cable so no splice was needed. I got one of the cable clams and per Kenny's idea, drilled two appropriate size holes for the cable and head phones. I then was faced with the problem of drilling 7/8's hole in the container, it finally dawned on me ( I never claimed to be the brightest bulb in the box ) to drill out the perimeter of the hole with a 1/8 th bit, then using a sharp knife remove the plug and with a rotary file clean up the hole. I wanted to chest mount the unit so I got a bino-bra from Cabelas and using Velcro and a scrap piece of plastic made a chest mount. After putting the unit together I tested it under water for 24 hours with no leaks, but being the cautious type(sometime) I put a bead of silicone around the base of the cable clam. I am looking forward to using this unit this summer in Texas and Missouri with Kenny, I would never Got'er Done with out your help my friend, thanks again for your unselfish help to me and others on this forum.
George

 

[Joel-Winnipeg]

Looks like you got your self a winner in the converted 150.
Good luck and good hunting.
Keep us informed of your finds and pictures later on this summer.

 

[Uncle Willy]

Pretty neat bud. Hope you visit us often and tell of your successes.

Bill

 

[khouse]

That rig looks better than my Lake Looter! Great job! That detector plus your Diamond head scoop will make for a great jewelry team. Now if we can just get those depositors to start flopping around in the water! Maybe we can catch up this summer at the swimming hole? I look forward to visiting again with you and your wife.
Kenny

 

[John-Edmonton]

Thanks for sharing your mod. The ACE makes a super water machine! Good luck and keep us posted of all your rings.

 

[Pyledriver]

Man, I need to do that to my Scorpion.. I've been eyeballin' the lakes around here in N. Texas myself!!

 

[detectin4fun]

Nice modification for wading detecting. I like the idea of mounting the control box around your neck.

 

[thsfineday]

garrett needs to come up with a chest mount like yours. its not like we arent already looking down. good luck hunting .post some pics of your finds.

 

[metalhead]

Wow! I just got a look at this post. Awesome mod. Incredible! I really like what you've done to waterproof your machine. Good luck with that setup. Looks like it should work quite well.
Oh, by the way, welcome to the forum! This is a wonderful community and a great place to share info. Happy Hunting!

 

[Oakman404]

M.T. Welcome to the forum. Awesome mod to your 250. That mod would work for just about any Garrett detector!

 

[BigCatDaddy]

I thought the same thing too but upon trying the Scorpion coil in shallow lake water, I shelved the idea. Too much buoyancy on the coil makes it tip up and rather unruly in the water. If there was a solid coil for it like the 150 coil, it would be deadly!!