Follow up OBN's Excalibur users only

DualFieldBandit · Jan 26, 2014

After watching Joe's video I decided to check my top orings. Not wanting to remove the knobs I held it up and shined a flash light up under the knobs to inspect the orings and found some cracks in the control knob housings. Here is pictures of them with the knobs off. I'm having a machinist friend of mine make some pucks that will slide right over the existing knob housings with an extra oring in it. I'll epoxy them on. Then I'll need to pick up some Anderson knobs for it.

NOTE: these only show up when shining a light through them. A jewelers loop is a necessity when inspecting these. I found the rest of them had some hair line cracks in them too. One thing I noticed is the newer Excal II's have a thinner wall on these control housing knobs from earlier one's.

zoom / enlarge for more detail.

imalookin2 · Jan 26, 2014

Is it possible what you are seeing is mold marks from where the pod was made? Right where you point is where there would be a mold mark from the two halves of the molds they use.

Surf Master · Jan 26, 2014

imalookin 2

As I posted already before, his post is true, the knob posts are not as good as the blue model, and the green machines posts were built to fail, for money making purposes, profits on repairs, cheaper to build , make more in repairs, nothing less , until you figure it out for yourself, just like the yellow phones not as good as the stock blues, the knob posts, and those slimline coils, just don't cut the mustard over the bbs coils on the Blue models

dewcon · Jan 26, 2014

That is a neat little trick with a flash light..... really can see thru them well. No cracks or seams here.

Dew

itsaring! · Jan 26, 2014

Hope I don't have to break out some liquid steel. :no:

imalookin2 · Jan 26, 2014

I pulled one knob from the threshold and it looked fine. Looking at it with a lope I could not see any problems. My machine was bought used. It was over a year old and I have had it about 15 months I am guessing. No problems here. I checked the O Ring with a lope and it was slightly raised on one side. I think it was probably that way from the factory. No way to tell but nothing I saw alarmed me. My machine has been in the water a lot. I think keeping it out of the truck during cold weather is a plus. If you have your Excal in the car at night and it is freezing then you can expect problems. Don't do it.

itsaring! · Jan 26, 2014

imalookin2 said:
I pulled one knob from the threshold and it looked fine. Looking at it with a lope I could not see any problems. My machine was bought used. It was over a year old and I have had it about 15 months I am guessing. No problems here. I checked the O Ring with a lope and it was slightly raised on one side. I think it was probably that way from the factory. No way to tell but nothing I saw alarmed me. My machine has been in the water a lot. I think keeping it out of the truck during cold weather is a plus. If you have your Excal in the car at night and it is freezing then you can expect problems. Don't do it.

Now you see why I left my knob guard on my back after someone told me I really didn't need it. You bump those knobs at all sideways you can crack something. Even an older model.

Gold Digger 2 · Jan 26, 2014

I take mine off at least once a week and spray super slick stuff (ace hardware) on the posts,,,,,I think ML is jerking us around on the price of knobs but I have heard bad stuff about using Anderson knobs or any other knobs with set screws, the ML knobs are meant to crack and break so you don't end up breaking the o ring or knob post,,,,GL HH

fsa46 · Jan 27, 2014

Gold Digger 2 said:
I take mine off at least once a week and spray super slick stuff (ace hardware) on the posts,,,,,I think ML is jerking us around on the price of knobs but I have heard bad stuff about using Anderson knobs or any other knobs with set screws, the ML knobs are meant to crack and break so you don't end up breaking the o ring or knob post,,,,GL HH

I have heard some say that, but if you're aware of that there shouldn't be a problem. Even with the stock knobs I'm extremely careful when turning them.

I have a set of Anderson knobs and haven't put them on because they're not a snug fit. Yes, they do have a set screw but I wish they weren't as loose before tightening it.

If the post had a "flat" I wouldn't be as concerned . If/when I do put them on I think I'll file a flat on the post before I install them. I'm not worried about damaging the pot because I'd be careful when turning them.

fsa46 · Jan 27, 2014

Excal_Thug said:
I'm having a machinist friend of mine make some pucks that will slide right over the existing knob housings with an extra oring in it. I'll epoxy them on. Then I'll need to pick up some Anderson knobs for it.

If that's a good fix you may want to consider having a bunch made and sell them on the sites.

It's the set-up that's costly, once the set-up is made it's nothing to turn as many as you want

I'm sure you're not the only one that will have this problem. Something to think about. :thinking:

dewcon · Jan 27, 2014

INteresting FSA. Just be sure you get a good seal because the tube is round and the puck is flat. As far a protecting the outside hard nylon washers might work.

Dew

DualFieldBandit · Jan 27, 2014

Just got off the phone with minelab. They stated that cracking on the excal II's knob housings is recognized as a slight issue (meaning they have seen a few) They are not sure why it does crack there. He said they thought it was form dropping them. So they tried to duplicate it and couldn't crack them?The tech said they would most likely repair it as a courtesy for me costing me shipping both ways with a ten day turn around.

Follow up OBN's Excalibur users only

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