New Year's Day mod, got my Teknetics Mark III going

Here's a few pics of my Mark III, finally made time to get it going. Never owned one until a few years ago, found a hip mount Mark III on eBay. Intentions were to modify this onto a current shaft setup and auctally started the mod years ago but lost interest, wasn't until yesterday driving home decided to finish the mod.

Miraculously, the Mark III was still in decent condition after being tossed and setting in the detector junk yard all these years. The meter assembly was lost but still the housing was intact,experimented with several meter assemblies from different machines and settled with a Bounty hunter analog meter, then glued a Whites ID face plate over the Bounty hunter meter. Then, squeezed all this into a gutted XLT meter housing and mounted the Toggle switch.

This was my first mod without splitting the housing, the problem with splitting a Teknetic housing is the side case decals get damaged and they never look good no matter the pain and effort to straighten then out. Was tricky, but was able to do the soldering from the stock meter area were the meter was removed, enclosed one pic before I soldered the wires, also had to remount the speaker due to notching out a portion of plastic so the T-Handle would be flush at the center top portion of housing.

Those of you into vintage detectors, Think you'll like this. The red box is the Mark 1, Gray box with T-Handle is the Mark III. If weather permits, will take the Mark III out for It's first adventure which will be my first time using one out in the field.

Will order a clear protective XLT meter piece this week, that will complete the meter assembly.

Mark III is simplified version of a Mark 1, same audio with less knobs. Hopefully as deep

Thanks for looking,
Paul













Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2016 03:54PM by Old California.

Sweet! Paul you are a Modification Master! I love the way you Modded the Mega rare Patriot Meter on the Sovereign GT. I remember and old post where you showed it.

Paul------You are truly a "Master of Modifications", great work!!------Are you about ready now to start on my Etrac to make it over into the better balanced (maybe lighter) machine I so desire? LOL

Thanks Harold and Doug,

Harold, Yeah I remember the Patriot meter mod that was a tough one. Will never do that again, was sweating bullets throughout the entire mod but luckily it turned out well.

Doug, Your mods are excellent works of art, always admired your work.

That reminds me, my lightweight Explorer mod is almost done, beautiful machine but not quite finished. Lost the motivation and tossed it in the detector junk yard. I'll get it done someday, lost interest with it. Terrible thing to have lossing interest on a started project, one of these days I'll get a spark of energy and get it done

Thanks again
Paul



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/02/2016 05:53PM by Old California.

Paul-----I think you are getting me mixed up with someone else.-----I'm Del (not Doug)--and I don't have serious mod skills---but---I sure can/do admire others (such as yourself) that have those skills.---------Del

Tip of the hat...job well done..wish I had your modding skills.....

Jeez... I thought I was seeing things and had to have another drink!
I was!
Those are " White's" meters off DI's.....

Well done!
Those old "Coincomputers" were the "dog's bollocks!"

Beautiful as always Paul!!!

Ive always liked how you keep the mod looking like it could of came from the factory!!

Excellent !!

Keith

“I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own”
-Nikola Tesla

Thanks Del, Dan, Des D an Keith,

Sorry about that Del, the Oregon portion confused me Doug goes by a similar handle. Thanks for understanding, and patience with minelab eventually they'll come out with a lightweight Explorer

Thanks Dan, Several others on this forum are extremely talented with mods, always a pleasure viewing others work allot of talent out there.

Thanks Des, Yeah the meter assembly has parts from both Bounty hunter and Whites, luckily all fell together with no issues.

Thanks Keith, Yeah I've always tried to maintain the appearance of a factory model, Doesn't always work out but at least most are decent looking.

Went out today, compared both Mark 1 & Mark III. Tried several different coils (7.5", 8" Bounty hunter, Fisher DD, 11" & Hothead 12") and both equally fared the same with all coils on depth, Not the slightest difference between the two.

Even detected a pounded site with allot of iron, Surprisenly the Fisher DD coil fared the best, even reduced EMI in an area under power lines. The Fisher DD had no problem punching down 7"- 8" was really surprised the DD was the better coil under these conditions.

The Mark III, is a neat detector, same performance as Mark 1, Missing a few Mark 1 features I wish it had but over all a fun detector to use.

Thanks again everyone,
Paul







Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/03/2016 06:21AM by Old California.