How do you deal with metal?

[John Hughes]

Nearly all the hardwood trees I get to mill are either garden trees or hedge row trees and that means the chances are there is going to be metal in them.

I scan them with the metal detector but in many ways I would rather not know and just deal with the metal when I hit it.

So do you bother with a detector and how do you then approach finding the metal?

Chainsaw, hammer and chisel?

If it is just a small nail then the tips on my Lucas mill blades will survive but hit a cut nail and they will be ruined. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes to replace the blade, and 30 minutes to retip it. Tips cost about £10 per set of 5.

 

Woodmizer blades are about £13 each and will be resharpenable if the metal is small, otherwise will be ruined.

Do you just hope for the best or do you try and locate and cut out any metal?

 

John

[Brushcutter]

Never been over a log with a metal detector. My bands are normally wrecked by hitting stone and grime in the bark. The only metal i've hit is normally the bed of the when it pinches and grabs the log.

 

Its about 45 quid to have it re tipped tensioned and spot wealded back together and sharpened. There be 19' of steel to be welded together to make one band for the stenner 41.

[Bob Slade]

 

 

slabbing some Elm last week

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

 

 

(no not really) it was about August. nine nails, chain chopped right through them and hardly a mark on the cutters. 880's rule:party:

[nepia]

...nine nails, chain chopped right through them and hardly a mark on the cutters. 880's rule:party:

 

 

The power of the saw has something to do with it then? I was sectioning a big lump of London Plane with my 064 a couple of weeks ago and heard it cut right through what turned out to be a good sized nail in the middle. But I kept going for another half hour before inspecting the teeth (there was no drop in performance) and the nail might as well not have been there; there was just no damage. Good news but why?

[MattyF]

I find metal not to bad on saws its stones that seem to destroy chains!

[Mesterh]

I find metal not to bad on saws its stones that seem to destroy chains!

 

 

More often than not you can find bits of the nail stuck in the cutter, remove it and its fineish:thumbup1:

 

Sandstone can destroy a chain before you know whats happened!

 

I imagine it must get costly with bandsaw type blades though:scared1:

[liamjordan]

we dont have a metal dector, kinda just hope for the best i guess, and we mill a lot of hedgerow trees...

 

if we spot abit (hopefully before the blade goes through it) we just cut it out with the saw

 

like here for example we were very lucky, had to take a slice off the side with the saw as the log was slightly to wide for the milling and we unearthed abit of barbwire, glad we found it before the bandsaw did

Edited December 11, 2010 by liamjordan

[Rob D]

The power of the saw has something to do with it then? I was sectioning a big lump of London Plane with my 064 a couple of weeks ago and heard it cut right through what turned out to be a good sized nail in the middle. But I kept going for another half hour before inspecting the teeth (there was no drop in performance) and the nail might as well not have been there; there was just no damage. Good news but why?

 

There prob was damage but just very minor.

 

My theory on this is that it depends on the metal first off i.e. soft, hard, old or new. Then the next factor is how well sharpened your chain is. Different teeth size and raker height then some of the teeth will get absolutely hammered. Everything right and just slight damage to all.

 

But really it probably has more to do with the type of metal you hit.

 

As said it's stones that seem to write off chains bending the tips over and stripping the outer chrome layer

[wills-mill]

Wire and small nails will knock the set off a few Wood Mizer teeth and give you a stripy surface on the boards, as other people have said it's the tarmac, sand and flints that are bad news.

[tommer9]

Its can be a PITA with a chain mill, but can be an expensive episode with the bandmill. i hit a gate crook in exeter in the middle of a 4' dia holm oak....ripped several teeth off the band, and as has been mentioned, made some ugly scars on the two boards.

the only other time in 13 years was a very old nail in the centre of a farm hedgerow sweet chestnut.

I always try to debark before i cut, and on hardwoods from hedges or farmland i do a visual check first, although i tend not to mill these unless i have felled them myself, or seen them standing first.