# Lumber Wizard 3



## Typhoon (May 13, 2010)

Anyone on here have a Lumber Wizard 3 metal detector? I have heard good things about them so I ordered one. I had another cheaper metal detector but I ran over it. I am going to be more careful with this one. haha.. I am just fishing for a little feedback from those who own one. Thanks!


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## Andrew96 (May 14, 2010)

No...but how would they do on concrete?


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## betterbuilt (May 26, 2010)

Typhoon said:


> Anyone on here have a Lumber Wizard 3 metal detector? I have heard good things about them so I ordered one. I had another cheaper metal detector but I ran over it. I am going to be more careful with this one. haha.. I am just fishing for a little feedback from those who own one. Thanks!



I have one. I like it for the most part. I've found nails up to 6-7 inches deep in a log. I did find out it doesn't like the cold and when its below forty you have to keep it warm some how. I don't like the fact that every time you turn it on it may or may not be calibrated right so you have to have a little flathead screw driver ready to adjust it all the time. It really comes in handy finding lost pieces of hardware. I use it on all the yard trees I do. I did find out it goes beep really quick for nails and it beeps a little longer for hardware. If you hear it linger a little longer you know its something a lot bigger. Best of luck.


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## rarefish383 (May 27, 2010)

I have a fisher M scope. It's an under water detector. The unit and headphones are good to 250 ft. I play with it in the surf and in rivers. It works great in old battle fields too. Since it cost about $700 remind me not to leave it by your truck, Joe.


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## betterbuilt (May 27, 2010)

rarefish383 said:


> I have a fisher M scope. It's an under water detector. The unit and headphones are good to 250 ft. I play with it in the surf and in rivers. It works great in old battle fields too. Since it cost about $700 remind me not to leave it by your truck, Joe.



I doubt you'd have to worry to much about leaving it near my truck. Though you might have to worry about me backing over it.


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## Ted J (Jun 11, 2010)

Typhoon said:


> Anyone on here have a Lumber Wizard 3 metal detector? I have heard good things about them so I ordered one. I had another cheaper metal detector but I ran over it. I am going to be more careful with this one. haha.. I am just fishing for a little feedback from those who own one. Thanks!



I just won a hand held wand metal dector on the bay for a total of $20.44 shipped to my door. It's a CEIA PD 140 SECURITY WAND that is similar to the Garret Super Scanner Wand I was originally looking for, but for the price...







It works very well, and if it'll save a blade on the mill from being ruined, money well spent. 

There seem to be a number of good deals to be had on ebay for these hand held scanners, and a number of cheap knock-off items of the Garret also, so buyer beware!!!

Ted


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## rarefish383 (Jun 12, 2010)

Just jokin about my M Scope. I also have 2 old Garret "Ground Hog" coin hunters. They are great for scanning logs. They will pick up bobby pins and sparkler wire at about 10 inches. They pick up nails and screws much better. I work for UPS and we have to walk through a scanner when leaving the building. If you set the big scanner off they hit you with a hand wand. I don't empty my pockets and seldom set off the scanner. I never take my keys and coins out of my pockets. For a couple days I kept setting the scanner off and the hand wand couldn't find what it was. Finally we found the culprit, I left a soup spoon in my jacket pocket. The hand scanner wouldn't pick it up. I don't know what the tolerances were set at, and these are Garret wands. I really like my Garret Ground Hog's, but I don't trust the wands we have. I'm sure if the wands are made for scanning logs they are better than the ones we have. Garret makes top notch equipment, Joe.


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## rarefish383 (Jun 12, 2010)

I guess my point with the security wands is this. They are only made to pick up targets under a couple layers of clothes. My M scope is a powerful unit and it will only pick up a target at about 18" max. If you have access to a scanner, the easy way to test their reach is to get a bunch of wood paint stir sticks. Glue a sample target to the end and pass it under the wand, keep extending the disstance untill it no longer beeps, then you'll have your max depth, Joe.


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## BobL (Jun 13, 2010)

rarefish383 said:


> I guess my point with the security wands is this. They are only made to pick up targets under a couple layers of clothes. My M scope is a powerful unit and it will only pick up a target at about 18" max.



Depth sensitivity is more of an issue for cant cutting, and band and rip saw milling involving leaving the boards stacked on top of each other on the cant.

The other issue is sensitivity to object size, eg being able to to detect thin or small hardened steel objects within a couple of inches of a surface. Security detectors are also generally not sensitive enough to pick up things like 1/8th inch hardened steel nail/screw/bolt through a couple of inches of wood. BTW those hardened fixings can make a mess of a chain.

I use a hand held detector used by woodworkers using planers and thicknessers. It can detect a standard paper staple at a depth of about 1/8", and a standard 1" nail at a depth of about 3". 



> If you have access to a scanner, the easy way to test their reach is to get a bunch of wood paint stir sticks. Glue a sample target to the end and pass it under the wand, keep extending the disstance untill it no longer beeps, then you'll have your max depth, Joe.



I don't understand what the role of ""paint sticks have in testing? I tested mine using several actual boards I had cut of varying thicknesses and stacked them on top of each other to get a more precise detection value.


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## rarefish383 (Jun 14, 2010)

Bob, with a hand held scanner I guess it doesn't help much. With a standard metal detector you can leave the coil hanging over the end of a table and then wave a test target past the coil, then keep moving it farther away till it no longer picks up. It's easier than putting a target on the floor and waving the machine over it. I've found that the distance from the coil to a point where it no longer picks up, on my Fisher M Scope, isn't all that much different in the air or through other denser media. Oddly it seems to pick up better in sand than in thin air. I often wondered if the moisture content made a difference. I think I'll tape some different objects to the bottom of my 3" Poplar slab just to see how small I can get at 3"s and still pick it up.

Here's a big DUH on my part. It never dawned on me to just keep scanning the log after a slab or 2 have been removed. When you add up the weight of all the other stuff my machine is a bit heavy, Joe.


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## betterbuilt (Jun 14, 2010)

I check after every slab and when you come across a nail do you keep going or cut it out. I run into this all the time. I find that stopping isn't really an option. I only mill yard trees and I bet I'm at 100% for hitting nails in the butt logs. I wonder how many of us actually stop cutting when your halfway through a really nice log. I can't say I've ever let a nail stop me.


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