How to make a straight shaft for the Excalibur 2

This tutorials shows the measurements and parts I used to create a behind the elbow shaft for my Minelab Excalibur. I have tried all of the different ways to swing this machine and this is by and far the easiest and keeps it out of the water when you are in waist deep. The downfall is that its also the longest. I have been using this set up for about 1.5 months now (80+ hours of detecting) and its still perfect. Very light, no wobble or anything like that, and I could very easily swing it all day. I found an aluminum broom handle at lowes for $4 and I made my handle out of PVC for $5. I wrapped it with a velcro strap but I think a piece of neoprene that holds a beer/soda can would be good too.

If anyone is looking to make one its very easy.

Here are some pics:

Parts/Tools:

I bought a Plugger lock off of ebay to connect the lower to the upper shaft but you could use duct tape if you wanted to be cheap about it. I used all plastic screws instead of metal so I could take them off. I used a Oscillator saw to carve holes in the arm cuff so that I could fit a strap in there because the minelab arm cuff does not have them

The only tools you need for this project are a hack saw and drill. The holes for drilling are 1/4 and screws are size 1/4-20.

Here is a breakdown of the parts. I looked them all up so if anyone wants to build this they would know how much it approximately costs:

Pole: $4.50 - lowes
Arm Strap for arm cuff: 4.90 - ebay
Screws (7): 4.84 - lowes
Handle: 5.59 - lowes
Lock to connect bottom/top shaft: 10.89 - ebay
Velcro for handle: $5.47 - lowes

Total: $36.19

Again, you could probably do this much cheaper. I had an extra pole from a broom. I had the plastic screws from another project and I had the velcro already.