WV62 Ask; Is My Tejon Okay?

[MarkCZ]

I got this machine used, but it looks to in pretty good shape. I have only had it out hunting 2 times, once with the new NEL snake coil and I was hunting almost a trash dump area. I took it to a yard yesterday for about an hour of hunting and I had the 9x8 on it.
I put a zinc penny on the ground and adjusted the disc to take it out and still get a good response on dimes and up. Then I set disc 2 just a little higher but it would still respond to the clad dime I put on the ground. First I did a ground balance and set the sensitivity to about 9.5.
My first dig target was nickel, all the rest of my dig targets were roofing nails and small pieces of rusty wire.
I know I can air test these items and the Tejon will disc them out but in the ground I am digging pretty low on the disc scale. I didn't find a single high disc coin, but I don't see that as problem being I have hunted that yard with another detector.
Any ideas??
Ron in WV

Big brother, on both the Tejon's I had and even on the Vaquero I calibrated the disc control knobs so that both disc one and disc two scales matched (this sounds a little like your problem). I removed both discrimination control knobs and got a nickel and I set the disc controls at the point where the nickel was starting to break up just a bit, then I replaced the knobs with the pointer marks just to the right edge of the 5-cent mark and snug up the set screws. The idea was to have the disc controls set at the 5-cent mark and get a good response from the nickel and by advancing the control to the same point and the nickel begin to break up as close to the same point as possible.

Little Brother!

 

[WV62]

I adjusted the disc knobs as you suggested a couple of nights back, so I don't think that was my problem yesterday.

Brother Ron in WV

 

[AlanTN]

Well, that should never happen with a Tesoro - They are legendary for their discrimination for a reason.

First thought would be ground balance being way off?

Next would be to really listen to the audio, it may still sound off occasionally when passing over targets you've disc'd out, but if you check them again they will usually crackle, pop, or sound "off" in whatever way you want to describe it. As I mentioned to you in the Tejon post on my MXT thread yesterday, you have to just trust the machine and trust the disc.

Last would be that somewhere in its past life it might have been abused if this happened with the stock concentric. Using the aftermarket coils and DD coils in general will throw the disc off and frustrate the hell out of you, but mostly on tabs and screw caps, never rusty iron - in my experience.

 

[AlanTN]

Another thing I forget to mention - Roofing nails are usually heavily galvanized, which is zinc over iron, if they are not galvanized they are made of aluminum which is going to be harder to disc out.

The rusty wire though, even in an odd shape - the audio should crackle in some way.

 

[MarkCZ]

Here around the house on most evenings the area gets hit with some kind of electrical interference that knocks out ALL my metal detectors. Well, one day in the not so distant past I had my Tejon out in the yard seeing how well I could run around smaller iron items, I didn't care what I dug as long as it wasn't small iron. All, was going pretty amazing for an hour or so and the only Iron I dug was a steel nail that was still in the holes of a small aluminum cable clamp PERFECT!!! then all I once the ground became alive with thousands of good target responses and dig after dig they were nails or screws, NOT GOOD! with my other detectors they always become extremely chatty when the EMI starts up. So, I go in the house and get one of my other detectors and take it outside and turn it on and WHAM! it was so chatty that you couldn't tell a chat from a target, the EMI was really bad. It didn't really make the Tejon chatty but it did effect it like you went to all metal, I could hold the coil up in the air and the detector was pretty calm, but with the coil on the ground I couldn't move it without a positive audio response.

Maybe you could try it again in another location and double check that the coil's cable connector is good and snug, also it wouldn't hurt anything to dampen the connector pins with some electronic cleaner and plug and un-plug it three or four times to clean the pins contacts.

Mark

 

[MarkCZ]

Another thing I forget to mention - Roofing nails are usually heavily galvanized, which is zinc over iron, if they are not galvanized they are made of aluminum which is going to be harder to disc out.

The rusty wire though, even in an odd shape - the audio should crackle in some way.

Vinyl siding nails are aluminum! or the ones I bought were.

Mark

 

[WV62]

I just checked my trash for that short hunt and all but metal pencil eraser band would stick to a magnet.

Now the detector was picking up a lot of EMI and I did have a lot of trouble hearing through the chatter to get a good GB.

I am thinking now I need know for sure if the machine is okay, the only test I can think of is to go back to our park where I hunted with the first Tejon I owned and see how it acts there. Other than that about all I could do is send it back to Tesoro for a check up.

Ron in WV

 

[WV62]

Just air tested those trash items with the Tejon and all disc out really low, except a razor blade it didn't disc out until close to tabs.

Ron in WV

 

[Oldguy]

Regarding disc settings on your Tejon. I have noticed on my Tejon that ground mineralization or some other soil conditions appear to have an effect on discrimination settings. In some soils a copper penny or dime will disc out at or slightly below the zinc penny range, zinc pennies disc out at the tab range, etc. In other soils a copper penny won't disc out at all even at max disc. This appears to occur more with a DD or wide scan coil than with a concentric coil. I have no explanation for this, but once you realize it, it's easy to compensate with the disc controls on the machine. As for the EMI issues, the only time I have ever had an EMI problem with my Tejon has been when I try to use it near an underground pet containment system (Invisible Fence), ask the property owner to turn it off for a few hours so you can detect.

 

[Rick N. MI]

The Tejon with hit on larger iron. That's what I like about it. As you learn the tones you will see iron has a sharper tone than coins. Also iron will hit on the edge of the coil and coins won't. I set my disc to just take out nails. There are some nice iron relics. Also try lowering the coil down the to the target and iron doesn't hit as much. Also try a faster sweep over the iron and it can break up sometimes. I like digging the iron and getting it out of the way. It's why I really like it.

Rick