Homemade coils

How many here have attempted making their own detecting coils?

markg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How many here have attempted making their own
> detecting coils?

Made one for the surf pi.

><

I've made a couple of 'experimental' ones for my F75, and when I eventually get time to make my Surf PI kit, I will homebuild a coil for it. (the spiral type, made from cheap figure-8 loudspeaker cable)

Way back in the mists of time I made a BFO detector and wound my own coils.
I had never soldered before nor had any electronic training but I gave it a go and had some success.
Finding copper wire proved very difficult and I eventually found a company in Co. Clare Shannon Zone and persuaded them to sell me some copper.
Winding it to around 40 - 42 turns also proved difficult and I made my own wooden dowel and that made it easier.
I used aluminium foil to make the Faraday screen.
Masking tape and glue were used to bind it all together.

It worked and I had my first kit detector.
But it didn't last more than a few hours but I found a few coins and nothing was too deep, if I dug to 2" that was about it.

A year later I bought a proper detector and haven't looked back since.

Where are the most failure points on a cable, at control box housing or coil?

There are a lot of tools needed. Making a winding board(in the coil shape) will save time. Also, you will need a two channel oscilloscope to null the coil(stops it from detecting the tx and rx windings).

Harold,ILL. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Where are the most failure points on a cable, at
> control box housing or coil?

Control box
At least it used to be with many folks choosing to hip-mount.
These days, not many offer hip mount.
Plus, manufacturers believe it's easier [ to replace ] rather then [ repair ]

Yes because I called FT about a coil cable that was freyed but still worked and they said if it go's I would have to buy a new coil as they can't fix the cable?