Cleaning your skid plates

Something I've sadly neglected in the past when cleaning my gear is arguably the most important part of the outfit and the part most prone to abuse, the coil and skid plate.

I have always religiously checked my skid plates for wear and cracks but if the tape looked good, it stayed put until either the tape or the skid plate needed replacing. Depending on the ground I am detecting on, this could be a few weeks or many months.

During a recent rainy period which kept me holed up inside, I decided to pull all my coil covers off, give the coils and the plates a good scrubbing and a fresh winding of Tessa tape.
I was amazed and somewhat ashamed at the amount of dirt, grass seeds and moisture that acumulated under my spoked coils and even my solid coils had moisture and dirt which had managed to pass the tape barrier.

My skid plates now get removed weekly and even more regularly when detecting in high dust or damp grass. As a result, my coils are quieter and suffer far less falsing which also means less frustration and more nuggets in the jar.

If your coil is getting noisy or falsing, it may be time for a clean out.

Damn good point MT. Something so obvious. Its always the simple things that are over looked.

Happy hunting

JW

thanks for the tip madtuna i'll have to get some tape and clean my coils out now...
cheers
stoppsy

Morning Gents.

Tuna,very good point.As kiwijw said,"so obvious yet so simple to overlook". Looks like Iv got some cleaning and re-taping to do.

Cheers kon61.

Then suddenly.... there was this rush on Tessa tape!!!
Nice one Tuna!
Phill.

Sorry to sound dumb, but I am new to this. Does it have to be TESSA TAPE, and what exactly is tessa tape. Would masking tape frron your local hardware shop do the same job.
Thanks

as above lol - a good reminder to us all !

sorry xenon, can't help with your question (someone with more knowledge should be able to help you out). but remember, on this forum, there are NO dumb questions.

.

how often do you replace your skids?

thanks for the tip madtuna. i`ve taken off so many worn skid plates that were full of dirt and it never occurred to me to take one off and clean it before it wore out.
in answer to your question.
behind the desk.
http://thefullfool.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/wheres-waldo1.jpg
cheers
dave

.

Hi Xenon,
Tesa is just a brand name and is just used genericaly like bandaid is. There are probably numerous different brands and they could probably be purchased at hardware stores as well as any prospecting supply shop

and Dave...even with your clue it took me 5 minutes to find him!

what a gem Tuna ! must keep that in mind, hey were U leaving skid marks behind that prompted U to clean it out LOL.
hope to catch up again soon M8. hoping to get out your way in april, if your around might catch up for a beer or coffee.
Wil

lol Wil...mate long over due for a catch up! looking forward to it!

Thanks guys,

Appreciate the feedback.

Murachu wrote:how often do you replace your skids?

Hi there Murachu & all, Think of a skid plate like a car tyre. When your tyre wears through it blows your tyre. The skid plate is there to protect the main coil body from wearing through & "blowing" your coil. So when the skid plate wears through it is time to replace it gefore you wear through your coil & knacker it.
I notice I have just worn the front nose edge of my coiltek mono 10" X 5" joey coil right through. My most used coil. I hadnt noticed this until I was down south on my last detecting trip. I took the skid plate off & turned it around as a quick on the spot fix. But I didnt use that coil very much this time around & didnt use it in shallow creeks to detect bed rock as water would have got in between the skid plate & coil.
Just out of interest, as this is the first skid plate I have worn through, where do your skid plates usually wear through? Mine was the front nose. Would this be the most common place?

Happy hunting

JW

hi JW
i wear mine out at the 2 o`clock and 10 o`clock position
cheers
dave

G'day Dave, On looking at mine again, being an elliptical, it is from the 10 oclock position to the 2 oclock position. So right around the front nose of the coil. Makes sense really as these are the edge points of pin pointing & poking & proding. Thanks for your reply

Happy hunting

JW

The reason i asked is that an old prospector who has found bucket loads of gold since the 70s once told me "mate if your not replacing skids often you are not near enough to the ground"

Tesa is a brand name and they make many good tapes. They do make masking tape so you have to make sure you get the right tape. If you know of Blackwoods, they stock Tesa tapes. They are German and have been in business for more than 30 yrs. that I know to.
I saw Jaycar selling some 50 mm wide tape for $20 a roll. They claimed it would even stop water leaks. Has any body tried it ? It might be worth throwing a roll in the truck.

Minermike wrote:Tesa is a brand name and they make many good tapes. They do make masking tape so you have to make sure you get the right tape. If you know of Blackwoods, they stock Tesa tapes. They are German and have been in business for more than 30 yrs. that I know to.
I saw Jaycar selling some 50 mm wide tape for $20 a roll. They claimed it would even stop water leaks. Has any body tried it ? It might be worth throwing a roll in the truck.

I have a roll that Steve "threw in" when I bought my detector and have taped the skid plate as you do. Have also used it to repair a hole burnt into the tonneau cover of the ute and after being washed and out in the rain/sun it hasn't let any water in and has stayed in place without any of the corners lifting up etc. Been on there about 5 months now. Very impressed and yep for about 10 bucks may even give the old "Duct (duck) tape" a run for its money.
P.S. The roll I have is about 15mm wide.

Hi guys, Is there anything wrong with using the standard electrical tape that electricians use, to tape the coil covers on to the coils? Thanks

JW

kiwjiw,

The only reason I know of is that it does't hold up well at all
if you scrub your coil.
Some tapes also have a small metal component in their make-up,
but I don't think plain electrical tape does.

There is another option to skid plates, tape and cleaning....

Coat the bottom and edges with a 2 part epoxy.

P7 is the brand name.

Bring those old fiberglass back to life!

Chris

Hi, We use ordinary electrical tape (nitto) from any hardware store and put about 6 or 7 wraps around the coils. Only use this as when we first went detecting never had other tape and it was use electrical tape or nothing. A fellow detector that is now best mates alerted us to this and showed us why our coils had got noisy, dust being the cause. Certainly makes the skid plate last much much longer. Pull the first 3 or 4 wraps tighter and we have some going under edge of coil to help protect edges of skid plate from wear. I always have my coils on the ground lightly dragging them - low and slow will find more. with the spoked coils dust always gets in through the center spokes as you cannot get tape to hold there. When on gold fields during our prospecting getaways we always remove tape and clean out dust from between skid plate and coil. Dust always seems to make coils more noisy.
Cheers Travelergold

Hi guys, Thanks for all your replies. I have been using this electrical tape for a while & now feel a lot more confident using it. I was wondering if it may have been having an adverse effect. Many thanks & happy hunting.

JW