Spoked or Solid NFA's

I,m interested on any feedback if the newer solid versions are more stable than the spoked as I,m looking at a new 18".Also any comments on the latest 16" and 14" if anyone had purchased one,particularly as far as quiet stable operation.Also how do the current coilteks compare.
Steve

The solid coils stop at the 17" x 11". An 18" is not available as a solid as yet. Compare a 16" solid at 1080 grams, to a 25" open at 1060 grams. The 18" would approach the weight of a Commander I'd reckon.

Hi all, just letting you know that Laverton Luck Prospecting Supplies has the solid 18'' Nugget Finder coil.

I stand corrected. I rang Nugget Finder and this coil is just being released at 1240 grams in weight. I'm told that some of the other larger coils will also be released in solid versions in the near future. Cheers.

i got a 16'' spoked and it runs nice, probably quiter than the 12',can try it if u want. i know people that u know, so no probs. .old mans got it at the moment but i,m pickin it up friday and i live nearby.

Hi deutran ,
I recently purchased a 14" NFA round solid after much procrastination ... The following are my experiences with this coil ....
Found to be very stable ( i run it in boost with a fairly high gain & stab in mineralised ground - very happy with this ...
No touch sensitivity - ( which was one of my concerns prior to purchasing as i like to scrub & doze with my coils ).
Great coverage as a general search coil ...
Great depth & sensitivity - 3 grams at 14" ... very clear signal ....
All this on a 4500 .
I am in the process of turning my 18" NFA round into a solid .... Lexen skid base , high density foam inserts between the spokes and lexen cut outs for the top side of the coil ..
The 14 and the 18 with deep settings will be the only coils i use this year .
Hope this helps ...
Regards
Gully Hunter

Gully Hunter wrote:Hi deutran ,
I recently purchased a 14" NFA round solid after much procrastination ... The following are my experiences with this coil ....
Found to be very stable ( i run it in boost with a fairly high gain & stab in mineralised ground - very happy with this ...
No touch sensitivity - ( which was one of my concerns prior to purchasing as i like to scrub & doze with my coils ).
Great coverage as a general search coil ...
Great depth & sensitivity - 3 grams at 14" ... very clear signal ....
All this on a 4500 .
I am in the process of turning my 18" NFA round into a solid .... Lexen skid base , high density foam inserts between the spokes and lexen cut outs for the top side of the coil ..
The 14 and the 18 with deep settings will be the only coils i use this year .
Hope this helps ...
Regards
Gully Hunter

Would be interested to see aome images of your solid conversion when you finish it

Thanks for the feedback everyone.Never really considered the weight increase with the solids.I used an 18" last year and it was perfect just hope I get a good one like that.Thanks Cougarcans for the offer let me know if your in the area sometime you might like to try the 17"x11".
Steve

artrix wrote:

Would be interested to see aome images of your solid conversion when you finish it

g`day mate
here is a couple of shots of my blitz coil. i put the base on it the first day i bought it , because , like gully hunter i am an extreme coil scrubber and it was costing me heaps for skid plates till i started making my own out of lexan. i put the top on because it kept filling up with leaves and bark. its a much better coil to use as a solid. today is the first time i have used it with the top on it and the dirt has stuck to the silastic so it looks pretty ugly but it is a heaps better coil now
cheers dave

cheers mate looks like it would take some punishment

Great job I think this might be a wake up call to the manufacturers.The current skid plates flare out as well when they hit against rocks etc and let a lot of dirt in from the inside as well.

hey guys, you know where i can get some lexen? looks like the way to go to convert my 17x11 into a solid.
thanks in advance,
GM

G'Day

So do the solid coil skid plates fit the spoked coils??? Or are they a different size?

I was contemplating a spoked coil next but I am starting to think that may not be the wisest move.

Are the spoked type only a problem where there is a lot of sticks and rubbish??

Waz

Hi deutran, I use 14' NFA open mono coil on my 4000 and it runs beautiful, but does get snagged sometimes in certain conditions. Quiet most of the time running in deep and deep and I have pulled a 4.3grammer from 41cms.

Cheers:D bergs

waznme wrote:

G'Day

So do the solid coil skid plates fit the spoked coils??? Or are they a different size?

I was contemplating a spoked coil next but I am starting to think that may not be the wisest move.

Are the spoked type only a problem where there is a lot of sticks and rubbish??

Waz

Waz,

I have both a 14" and 18" NFA spoked, and have fitted solid skid plates to both ; the only downside apart from dirt and twigs getting under the spokes (easily shaken out) is that the plates seem to be quite noisy when scraped across gravel and the like. This may be due to their not having any support in the centre ; I'm going to try a little plasticene, or a bit of foam under the centre of the spokes to see if it helps.

The solid skid plates fit well,

Phil

goldmuss78 wrote:hey guys, you know where i can get some lexen? looks like the way to go to convert my 17x11 into a solid.
thanks in advance,
GM

mate i got mine from a hardware. they had to order it in from somewhere. 1 m x 1 m x 1½mm cost $52.00. i`m guessing you could get it in melbourne from a supplier that had plastic sheet or perspex
dave

Howdy,
I've got NFI what NFAs are. Please explain.

Hi Greenwell2 , NFA stands for the Nugget Finder Advantage range of coils. Now a question for you, what does NFI stand for?

No F'ing Idea?

Sorry not up with typing abbreviations, I had NFI that NFI stood for NFI, thought maybe he was talking about another range of coils.

Yep you got it....just tongue in cheek ....seem fitting somehow,...than again it just might be my warped sense of humour..:O

I am getting a bit tired of the stickie poking through me skidie. I have a 16" spoked NFA that I intend to give the solid treatment with some polycarbonate cut to size. Can anybody recommend what would be the optimum thickness in mm for good wear and tear ....and would a product like sikaflex be ok to use and an adhesive or would silicone do the job just as easily?

Phil I hear what you are saying re: skid plates making a hell of a noise on spoked coils. I can hear far call faint signals due to this to the point I run without skid plates. Being a coil scrubber, I now have to concentrate even further to keep the unprotected coil off the ground. I would be interested to hear your developments on reducing this noise.

Cheers Cal

If your looking for a good supplier of resins and matting. Fiber Glass International 1638 Centre Road Springvale VIC 3171 is the bee's knee's and you wont be paying $52.00 for a metre of anything, 10 metres maybe! They also sell sandwich foam sheeting "Makes the best esky ever".

Chris.

Cal wrote:Phil I hear what you are saying re: skid plates making a hell of a noise on spoked coils. I can hear far call faint signals due to this to the point I run without skid plates. Being a coil scrubber, I now have to concentrate even further to keep the unprotected coil off the ground. I would be interested to hear your developments on reducing this noise.

Cheers Cal

G'day Cal,

I haven't experimented further as I have recently bought a 14"x9" NFA solid and will probably sell the 14" round. The problem remains with the 18" round ; I've been wondering if a layer of thin rubber between the spokes and skid plate might help. Wouldn't do much for the weight, though.

Phil

lkyphl wrote: I've been wondering if a layer of thin rubber between the spokes and skid plate might help. Wouldn't do much for the weight, though.

Phil

phil hi
if you glue the spokes to the skid plate with a bit of silastic it quietens them down a fair bit
cheers dave

phil hi
if you glue the spokes to the skid plate with a bit of silastic it quietens them down a fair bit
cheers dave[/quote]

Cheers, Dave, I'll give it a go,

Phil

waznme wrote:

G'Day

So do the solid coil skid plates fit the spoked coils??? Or are they a different size?

I was contemplating a spoked coil next but I am starting to think that may not be the wisest move.

Are the spoked type only a problem where there is a lot of sticks and rubbish??

Waz

Gday

I have tried a NFA solid skid plate on a NFA open spoked coil, think it was a 16" round, and it did fit, so I would assume that all other sizes would also be interchangeable also, the only thing of course is there is no inside support and that will make the skid plate noisy, and the drumming sound when it rubs on the ground and rocks and things is very annoying and can mask faint signals.

That is one of the very reasons I disliked the old coiltek 24" eliptical mono as it had a clear skid plate which wasnt supported in the centre parts either and the sound it made put me off using it, what I did to it then is the very thing I would do to the NFA ones, run a bead of neutral silicone along the bottom of the centre spokes and then fit the plate back on and tape the outer edge as usual, let it cure for a couple of days before use, only use sufficient silicone to keep the skid plate attached, that way when you want to replace the skid plate it will come away quite easily and without damage to the coil body, use too much and as the NFA skids are quite thin you will find that after it has recieved a bit of wear and tear it will most likely break as you try to lever it from the coil body.

Removing the cured silicone is a case of rolling it with your thumb, pulling or pushing at it, if you need to use a scraper try a popstick, just cut the front edge with a stanley knife to give it a chisel like edge, it will lift most of the stubborn silicone but will do a lot less damage than anything steel that is used, its not so much an issue on the inner part of the skid plate but will look unsightly on the edges of the coil body, after you get the worst of it off then put a small amount of turps on a clean cloth and rub the rest away, I then use some mild detergent and warm water on a clean rag to wipe off any turps residue, I have not seen any detremental effects of using this method to any of my coils to date.

Even if the silicone becomes detached after some use it will still act like a cushion between the coil body and the skid plate reducing the noise anyway, a small amount will do the best job, if you use too much not only is it ugly it will mean you will have a hard time getting it off and cleaned up, if at some stage you decide to sell the coil it will look crappy and abused and be hard to sell to anybody else even if it works fine.

cheers

stayyerAU

G'Day again,

Thanks stayyerAU for a very informative reply.

Can you buy a Skid Plate to suit a spoked coil, that is, with the same holes etc.

Or are they all complete cover for the area of the coil??

I assume that if you use a spoked coil with no wear plate protection, it would get damaged relatively quickly. Is that the case???

Waz

waznme wrote:G'Day again,

Thanks stayyerAU for a very informative reply.

Can you buy a Skid Plate to suit a spoked coil, that is, with the same holes etc.

Or are they all complete cover for the area of the coil??

I assume that if you use a spoked coil with no wear plate protection, it would get damaged relatively quickly. Is that the case???

Waz

Gday

Yes you can buy the skids plates for the spoked NF advantage coils, but they will only fit the open spoked coils, and will not suit the solid body coils as with the skid plates for the open spoked coils are curled up to fit up the insides of the spokes, just like its curled up around the outside edge of the coil.

You can use spoked coils without a skid plate, and many people used to use the old coiltek UFO and WOT type coils this way to reduce weight and to also stop the irritating sound that the plates made as I mentioned earlier, they are heavily resin filled coils and would take some bashing before they would give out, they would sometimes become touch sensitive if the resin cracked through to the wiring.

I would imagine that the NF advantage coils even though they are fully potted coils would be more easily damaged as they are not as solid as the early coiltek ones, so in short I think you would encounter the same kind of condition more easily and could ruin an expensive coil, it would be more sensible to keep the skid plate on if you want a longer lifespan for your coil, as any damage to this type of coil would be uneconomical to repair and you would have to buy another.

Skid plates are for the protection of the coil body, they take the wear and tear from rubbing on the ground (skidding) or scrubbing as some people might call it as well, protecting the coils leading edges against wear and tear that occurs from normal use, in conjunction with the coil tape it also cushions the coil body against damage when the coil is struck against objects along the edge of the coil while swinging , thats why you will note the edges of the skid plate are turned up and cover the lower edge of the coil and part way up the side wall as well, as these are the most vulnerable parts of the coil that are taking the most wear and tear during use.

cheers

stayyerAU