Metal detection.

[muttley9050]

Hi guys. I know this has been covered before but it always seems to lead back to rob d and he's not selling them anymore, so...

I'm in the market for a metal detector to go along side the mill I'm in the process of buying. The only suitable one I can find is one fuelwood sell but it's about £750+vat. Which is a bit much for me. Can any one recommend a reasonable one from elsewhere?

Thanks

James

[Macpherson]

Hi, same here, iv`e been getting all the stuff together over the past couple of months and the detector is the last piece of the jigsaw. Iv`e spent far to much time on the problem as you will probably know yourself if you`ve been looking into it. Anyway it`s in the post, a c-scope cs4pi, £200 SH on ebay.

Through talking to loads of folk on the blower and looking on metal detecting forums I came to the conclusion that Pulse Induction or P I machines, designed specifically for beaches or highly mineralised ground MAY penetrate the wood further than the VFL`s, anyway there made in England and you can get the tech guy on the phone, he recons about 6-8" but We`ll see. Setting them up seems to be a bit of a dark art and of course everyone else wants machines that discriminate out iron so they only find gold and silver ! I was told by one guy [at a shop] that he would be able to get a nail at 18" but his detector cost over 4 grand. Anyway good luck, hope this helps. I`ll let you know how I get on. Cheers, Euan.

[geoff]

The C Scopes are good detectors, the one mentioned in all metal setting will get a nail at 7 or 8 inches.

[muttley9050]

Thanks guys. This is the problem with Google I'm thus instance. If you Google metal detector you get an endless supply of beach type

Detectors, maybe these would work but I don't know. If you include wood in a search you get endless cable and studd detectors. I'm sure these won't work.

I'll look up the one you mentioned and see how I get on.

Edited February 23, 2014 by muttley9050

[Macpherson]

Great, sounds like all the time i spent may not be wasted. Could do without punching in the word "detector" again for a couple of years !! Thanks for your encouragement .

[predator]

did,nt someone mention in a past post regarding ex mod mine detectors made to a rugged standard i bet

[agg221]

The problem with metal detecting when milling is what do you do if you identify that there's something there?

 

Obviously if you can see a piece of metal you can dig it out, but if you can't see it, how far down is it? If you are happy to write off any log that shows metal then it's easy, or you can just shorten it and only mill above the metal. However, if you try to just dig it out you can spend a lot of time digging for a fencing staple that you would never have hit because of where your cut falls, and of course any tool you use for this you risk damaging the edge of anyway.

 

In the end, I took the view that most metal in trees was soft iron or lead, the former might dull the cutters but that's it, the latter does nothing. I also tend to quarter things so no chance of detecting it. Consequently, I stopped worrying about detecting at all and just keep an eye out for the telltale blue streak in higher tannin timbers.

 

Alec

[openspaceman]

Obviously if you can see a piece of metal you can dig it out, but if you can't see it, how far down is it? If you are happy to write off any log that shows metal then it's easy, or you can just shorten it and only mill above the metal. However, if you try to just dig it out you can spend a lot of time digging for a fencing staple that you would never have hit because of where your cut falls, and of course any tool you use for this you risk damaging the edge of anyway.

 

I thought standard practice to mitigate damage when the detector indicates metal is to mark the position, mill from one end as close as you dare and then come from opposite end to a similar safe point, split board off with wedges and test if it contains the metal usw.

[Macpherson]

did,nt someone mention in a past post regarding ex mod mine detectors made to a rugged standard i bet

 

yep, and trying to get a handle on the finer points of detecting is ,funnily enough , a mine field !! Looked at these ones , there`s either no info or there two expensive, or both.

[dervishcarving]

I was commissioned to do a lot of carvings at a local School and one huge beech stump i was carving into a story-telling throne was full of mails. Some i could see an i marked for removal. some i could not see and they marked my chains for replacement. after loosing 3 chains in a day i got a cheep (about £30) metal detector off ebay. It might be cheep and it might not be good at descriminating between ferrous and non-ferrous but since then i haven't lost a chain to a nail. If the nail is 5 or 6 inches inside the tree i might not see it but i check teh whole log at the start and then now-and-then as i progress (as i assume you would). a cheep one is better than nothing and if you give the log a swipe after a couple of passes of the mill wouldnt you then be detecting any metal deeper in the wood?