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do a lot of people in the business of custom sawing carry a metal detector????

Started by bikedude73, September 15, 2009, 03:49:23 PM

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bikedude73

I did not know what type or brand and even if people are using them?????

Tom

There are probably more with metal detectors than not. Mine is a Garrett Master Hunter 7 A.D.S. that I purchased back in the early 1980's

Having a metal detector allows you to enjoy two occupations. I use it to find metal in logs, but I also like to detect around old home sites.  Many sawing jobs are Rural and old housesites or barnsites are nearby.  It's a great break at lunch is to try to find someone's 100 year-old hammer, axe or dime. I've also been asked, by customers, to help find their corner marker or something valuable they lost.  It can make you quite the hero. :)

bandmiller2

Biker Dude,I can really only speak for myself but I would say no.I have a couple but only use them if something looks suspicous.You make your cuts and take your chances.If you hit metal in a log theirs probibly more.Unless you hit big stuff or ceramic you can usally resharpen and set the band. Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

gary

Mine is made by timberharvester if there is metal there it finds it every time

Magicman

Yes, I have one, but I never use it in the presence of the customer.  It's use tends to shift the metal responsibility from them to ME.  I always review with the customer that tramp metal is their responsibility.  It's $20 per band when/if  I hit something.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

LeeB

Yep, I have about 30 of them at the moment. Only work when they are new or freshly sharpened.  :D
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

WoodMiller

Like Gary and LeeB said, every custom sawyer has one.....

Customers ask me all the time if I have one. and I tell them I do - it's big, orange and VERY expensive   ;D.....

Actually, there are a couple of reasons I don't use one:
        - Most of the time you can get a good idea from reading the log, determining where it came from, whether it's the butt log, etc.  Then I remind the customer of the tramp metal responsibility and give him the option.
         - I charge by the hour, and scanning the customer's logs for him takes a lot of time.  (Very few portable detectors will give you a reliable 'all clear' on a log if you don't rotate the bigger logs, scan slowly, etc. and this can't be done on the mill using the turner.
         - I have cut metal in logs that had been scanned and none was detected.
         - Rocks, concrete, ceramic insulators won't alert the detector. (But these are rare)

That being said, I HAVE used a "Board Wizard" to scan old beams before resawing - but I have the customer scan them, unless he/she wants to pay me my hourly rate to pull nails from their "clean" beams.  The 5 or 10 minutes it takes to verify that they got all of it means I will only hit one or two nails in a day's sawing....

WoodMizer LT40 Superhydraulic LT40HDD51

pineywoods

Quote from: LeeB on September 15, 2009, 06:40:12 PM
Yep, I have about 30 of them at the moment. Only work when they are new or freshly sharpened.  :D
Yup, I ruined 2 brand new-right -out -of-the-box supersharps saturday, first on a nail, figured rest of the log would be ok... Wrong--fence wire got the second blade..
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

Banjo picker

I am not , so to speak a custom sawyer, at least not at the moment---that may change as i don't have an outlet for rr ties at the moment.  But I have a White DFX which will find most metal in a log .   It comes in handy when i get logs from the tree service guys....they have a very high % of metal.   They are my logs when I saw them, but custom saw or not I don't like to hit metal.... ;)  A good logger will very rarely get you into metal....I have one guy that I have bought many loads of logs from and the only thing i have hit was a bullet and that was just a graze....I gave it back to him after I ragged him a little for hitting metal.......The tree service guy I scan ever log that he brings in...the logger --only if it looks supicious.....If the log is under 20 or so inches and i will rotate it once before it gets to the mill ....no prob.   8)  ....But like has been said ...don't take responsibility for finding the metal...make that the log owners job , if you are custom sawing....Tim
Never explain, your friends don't need it, and your enemies won't believe you any way.

backwoods sawyer

I got a metal detector in the shed but never pull it out as it takes to long by the time you lay all the logs out and roll them around. On the other hand, I do not get carried away with charging the customer for every piece of metal that I nick. If the saw is damaged then I charge, if it will sharpen out easily then I do not charge.
Backwoods Custom Milling Inc.
100% portable. . Oregons largest portable sawmill service, serving all of Oregon, from our Backwoods to yours..sawing since 1991

artenvielfalt

Hi there, i use a detector because I´m always asked to cut oak from the side of the fields,... and there is NO wire or nails in there,.... and i always put it in myself i guess because i always find the wire and the clamps and so on.  so after always charging the guys and having the trouble changing the blade on my peterson, i bought one but still tell the people that it is their responsabillity.  mine is a whites product, don´t know the name because it is sold on license here in germany.  i think i spend less time in changing blades than looking at the log with my detector. but as been said, i read the logs too, ask where are they from and so on.  but you never know, we even cut down the trees ourselfes and it was in the middle of the woods, the biggest pine had still the wire aginst the deer grown in, all the others were clear, and we cut more than 60m³ it was the last of the older generation of sown trees,.... you never know.  i also had amunition and a rose clipper and so on, i also had a very expensive metall detector.
now i try to use it always just a small run over it and that´s it.
cheers Ulf

Magicman

Especially with oak, a blue spot will appear on the butt if metal is in it.  No detector needed.  I had a customer argue, no there's no metal in that tree.  I said, yup, and when I find it it'll be $20.  It didn't take many passes before he believed me..... :o
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

mike_van

I have an old Whites Coinfinder - Must be 25 years old but still works. It's saved me a lot of ruined blades.
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

nas

Better to sit in silence and have everyone think me a fool, than to open my mouth and remove all doubt - Napoleon.

Indecision is the key to flexibility.
2002 WM LT40HDG25
stihl 066
Husky 365
1 wife
6 Kids

JJ

I would suggest using one before sawing any yard trees.
Over the 15 years I have owned my home, I have watched several large eye bolts for my dog leads dissapear.

Last year I cut down a 30" hemlock from my yard, and in splitting it up for firewood, I find fencing embeded in the wood; along with bunch of what looks like 44 calber hollow point bullets.

            JJ

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