Editor's Note: This forum discussion originated as a giveaway for the Lumber Wizard 4 metal detector. The giveaway has ended, but we hope you'll still share the story of your ruined day by clicking the "add information" link at the bottom.
Question
From the Staff at WOODWEB:
Has buried metal in a log or piece of wood ever ruined your day? If so, tell us your story, and become eligible to win a new Lumber Wizard 4 metal detector from Wizard Industries.
Two winners from this Forum will be chosen, and both will receive a free Lumber Wizard 4. The Lumber Wizard 4, manufactured by Wizard Industries, is a precision metal detector for locating nails, screws and other metal inside new and recycled wood, and pinpoints the exact location of metal. It works on all types of woods, particle board and solid woods.
Forum Responses
(Solid Wood Machining Forum)
From contributor A:
My favorite story is about a pecan tree I lumbered. It came from a home in town so you might expect nails, rope, wire, and other stuff. I didn't get any of that but what I did get was several bullet slugs buried deep inside. They became very visible as their shining cores said hello in my fresh lumber.
The tree was in an old part of the city of Anoka and I wondered how many children had played in the 100 + years tree. With no equipment to move the logs, I decided to cut it to bowl blanks on site. 14 x 14 of bark and about 14 deep. When I found a nail I would stay in the kerf and go around it. Cut the top half of the log, roll the log. Now, where were those nails? Of course several sharpenings. The story does have a happy ending though. This is what I turned out of the first blank, and it did have a nail in it. I am waiting for the Wizard before turning the rest of them.
It was beautiful material, dry, and straight. The problem was, unbeknownst to me, all the fasteners had not been removed. The trims, much of which were simply straight milled boards, was put up with an air nailer which buried the heads of the nails and then the holes were neatly filled with matching filler. When they were taken down, the nails were supposedly removed by pulling from the back side. Apparently, some of the workers became impatient with the job and just broke the nail shanks off even with the back surface.
There was a boatload of the stuff and I was careful to select the nicest looking boards for the desk. There were no wide boards on the lot, so I would have to edge glue pieces where I needed wider stock.
Every board that needed jointing was done on the tablesaw equipped with a newly sharpened carbide fine tooth blade. The glue lines were all but invisible. I was feeling very good about myself. But these were the days before I had a metal detector.
A number of times, after ripping a nice long board, I saw the glint of metal on the bright, clean edge. Fortunately, the nails were a small gauge, small headed type and didn't knock out teeth from my fairly expensive blade, but before it was all over, that blade had to go back to the shop for another treatment.
The desk turned out beautifully. But I could have built that desk in half the time had I not had to excavate hidden nails. I now go over all my stock, even new stuff, with a metal detector. I have found metal even in newly milled material. Here's a photo before the finish was applied.
I backed it out and started looking into the cuts I had just made for some clues as to what was going on. Then I saw it. Not two inches from the end of the log was a half-inch diameter lag bolt! It was an old log so if there was any blue staining on the end it wasn't visible. And since it was my first time I didn't know to listen for that expensive high-pitched sound that sawing through a half-inch(!) diameter steel bolt will make. And in case you're wondering - no, the bolt head wasn't visible from the outside of the log! Anyway, I sawed the end of the log away and gingerly tried again with yet another new blade. It worked this time and I've been running blades through logs ever since! That wasn't the last piece of steel I've sawed through in my days as a sawyer. It is, however, the only one I've sawed through twice!
This picture is of a big walnut log that had some nails in it. It was worth the trouble as it was a large, high-grade log.
Another instance I know of is missing fingertips on the right hand of an employee that hit a live bullet when ripping a piece of hardwood.
The walnut grove that the owner insisted be logged was on about a 30 degree slope where a small access road traversed back and forth from the top of the rise to his cottage/fishing camp at the river bottom. And while no other professional loggers would buy these trees I, as an aspiring woodworker, thought I had struck gold.
The actual felling of the trees went fairly easily and the slope was an advantage as I was able to use a come-along, gravity and determination to haul each log cut down to the access road at several points where a lumber truck was contracted to haul them to the local sawmill about five miles away.
And here was where my encounter and near death experience with buried metal occurred.
As with everything I like to take a hands on approach to everything I do. As a result, while the old sawyer on a vintage outdoor roofed circular mill cut the logs into lumber for me, per my specifications, I manned the tail board with his helper stacking the planks.
Everything was going great for about an hour or so and I was marveling at my good fortune in logging the trees and thinking about the projects I could make with the three or four thousand board feet of lumber that were being produced.
That is when in a micro-second several things happened at once. The first thing was that, even though the sun was shining, I heard the sound of rain drops on the tin roof which covered the circular mill. The second thing was I heard what I thought were angry bees going by my head. The third was (to my amazement) both the sawyer to my right and his helper to my left had collapsed on the ground.
Of course it was only as the 52" saw blade ground to a halt and I asked what happened that I, the greenhorn, learned that we had struck something metal in the log. And just like pellets from a shotgun, both the sawyer and helper had hit the deck to avoid this shrapnel. I, oblivious to the danger, had just stood there unwittingly facing injury or death.
To this day I still have the small section of walnut log where the 3/4 inch metal bolt we had hit was neatly sawn in two. As it turns out the spike had been driven into the tree many years previous when they first ran hydro to the old hunt camp through the trees.
So if anyone wonders why they can't get a tree from a hedgerow or backyard sawn at the local mill, the answer is that someone could get killed if the carbide tipped blade hits metal, and the effort and price of replacing the carbide teeth on a 52" circular saw blade simply isn't worth it.
Of course, this story happened before the Lumber Wizard 4 was invented and, if my cautionary tale is chosen as one of the winners, I'd love to own one to use.
1. We sawed an urban red elm - magnificent tree, but with an old 1" auger bit embedded and grown over about 14' up on the tree. Of course this same tree also had about 2 bags of sac-crete encased and grown over - and yet I still call it a magnificent tree?
2. While cutting down a 50"dbh bur oak we were told there is a 6" steel pulley in there somewhere - the old clothesline pulley that the now 54 year old son remembers they used to ride on from back porch to tree. We just grazed the edge with a chainsaw and will now be making it into a table - pulley included.
On this particular day we find ourselves with a double whammy. A nice 20" pine log goes through our saw, as we cut the edges down, the first pass, slab heads to the chipper, second pass the slab is headed to the chipper and on that third pass, we hit metal. You know that unmistakable sound of the blade breaking like a tight spring being released from a vice.
The mill stops and our guys hustle to change that blade. Keep in mind those two slabs are still heading to that chipper. Now, need I remind you - that chipper is made for chipping wood.
Seems the second pass on that log missed a nice piece of metal. It must of been 'cause when that chipper started to chip away, that piece of metal blew through the blades, and out through the wall of the chipper like a missile. Destroyed the knives, locked up some of the mechanisms and blew a huge hole through the side of the chipper walls, ruining it to the point we had to replace the whole machine.
Piece of wood, $28 Saw blade, $10 wages, $360, chipper $28,000. Lesson learned - priceless... That's why a person needs a Lumber Wizard 4 metal detector.
Common Lumber Name | A | B | C |
Hardwoods | |||
Alder, Red | 9.9 | 19.2 | 2506 |
Apple | 10.9 | 31.7 | 4132 |
Ash, Black | 9.3 | 23.4 | 4132 |
Ash, Green | 14.3 | 27.6 | 3590 |
Aspen, Bigtooth | 10.3 | 18.7 | 2439 |
Aspen, Quaking | 10.3 | 18.2 | 2373 |
Basswood | 6.2 | 16.6 | 2174 |
Beech, American | 8.9 | 29.1 | 3793 |
Birch, Paper | 8.8 | 25.0 | 3260 |
Birch, Sweet | 11.9 | 31.2 | 4065 |
Birch, Yellow | 9.2 | 28.6 | 3723 |
Buckeye | 8.9 | 17.2 | 2235 |
Butternut | 11.3 | 18.7 | 2440 |
Cherry | 13.8 | 24.4 | 3184 |
Chesnut, American | 11.6 | 20.8 | 2708 |
Cottonwood | 8.5 | 16.1 | 2102 |
Dogwood | 6.8 | 33.3 | 4331 |
Elm, American | 10.2 | 23.9 | 3116 |
Elm, Rock | 12.2 | 29.6 | 3860 |
Elm, slippery | 11.5 | 25.0 | 3251 |
Hackberry | 11.8 | 25.5 | 3319 |
Hickory, Bitternut (Pecan) | 14.7 | 31.2 | 4062 |
Hickory (True) | |||
Hickory, Mockernut | 9.1 | 33.3 | 4332 |
Hickory, Pignut | 9.3 | 34.3 | 4332 |
Hickory, Shagbark | 10.9 | 33.3 | 4333 |
Hickory, Shellbark | 6.6 | 32.2 | 4195 |
Holly, American | 8.3 | 26.0 | 3387 |
Hophornbeam, Eastern | 7.9 | 32.8 | 4266 |
Laurel, California | 15.1 | 26.5 | 3456 |
Locust, Black | 21.2 | 34.3 | 4470 |
Madrone, Pacific | 7.8 | 30.2 | 3925 |
Maple (Soft) | |||
Maple, Bigleaf | 12.8 | 22.9 | 2980 |
Maple, Red | 13.1 | 25.5 | 3318 |
Maple, Silver | 12.4 | 22.9 | 2981 |
Maple (Hard) | |||
Maple, Black | 12.3 | 27.0 | 3523 |
Maple, Sugar | 12.3 | 29.1 | 3793 |
Oak (Red) | |||
Oak, Black | 11.7 | 29.1 | 3792 |
Oak, California black | 16.4 | 26.5 | 3455 |
Oak, Laurel | 6.3 | 29.1 | 3791 |
Oak, Northern red | 13.6 | 29.1 | 3793 |
Oak, Pin | 13.0 | 30.2 | 3928 |
Oak, Scarlet | 13.2 | 31.2 | 4065 |
Oak, Southern red | 9.6 | 27.0 | 3520 |
Oak, Water | 10.4 | 29.1 | 3793 |
Oak, Willow | 6.4 | 29.1 | 3790 |
Oak (White) | |||
Oak, Bur | 15.4 | 30.2 | 3928 |
Oak, Chestnut | 10.1 | 29.6 | 3858 |
Oak, Live | 17.5 | 41.6 | 5417 |
Oak, Overcup | 10.7 | 29.6 | 3860 |
Oak, Post | 11.0 | 31.2 | 4063 |
Oak, Swamp chestnut | 10.7 | 31.2 | 4063 |
Oak, White | 10.8 | 31.2 | 4062 |
Persimmon | 7.0 | 33.3 | 4332 |
Sweetgum | 8.9 | 23.9 | 3115 |
Sycamore | 10.7 | 23.9 | 3115 |
Tanoak | 9.0 | 30.2 | 3926 |
Tupelo, Black | 10.4 | 23.9 | 3116 |
Tupelo, Water | 12.4 | 23.9 | 3115 |
Walnut | 13.4 | 26.5 | 3454 |
Willow, Black | 8.6 | 18.7 | 2438 |
Yellow-poplar | 10.6 | 20.8 | 2708 |
Common Lumber Name | A | B | C |
Softwoods | |||
Baldcypress | 13.2 | 21.9 | 2844 |
Cedar, Alaska | 14.4 | 21.9 | 2844 |
Cedar, Atlantic white | 10.9 | 16.1 | 2100 |
Cedar, eastern red | 16.4 | 22.9 | 2981 |
Cedar, Incense | 13.1 | 18.2 | 2371 |
Cedar, Northern white | 11.1 | 15.1 | 1964 |
Cedar, Port-Orford | 12.6 | 20.2 | 2641 |
Cedar, Western red | 12.2 | 16.1 | 2100 |
Douglas-fir, Coast type | 12.3 | 23.4 | 3049 |
Douglas-fir, Interior west | 13.2 | 23.9 | 3116 |
Douglas-fir, Interior north | 14.0 | 23.4 | 3048 |
Fir, Balsam | 9.9 | 17.2 | 2236 |
Fir, California red | 10.6 | 18.7 | 2437 |
Fir, Grand | 10.7 | 18.2 | 2371 |
Fir, Noble | 10.1 | 19.2 | 2507 |
Fir, Pacific silver | 10.4 | 20.8 | 2711 |
Fir, Subalpine | 10.5 | 16.1 | 2101 |
Fir, White | 12.2 | 19.2 | 2506 |
Hemlock, Eastern | 12.6 | 19.8 | 2573 |
Hemlock, Western | 11.5 | 21.8 | 2847 |
Larch, Western | 11.3 | 25.0 | 3251 |
Pine, Eastern white | 12.3 | 17.7 | 2303 |
Pine, Lodgepole | 11.5 | 19.8 | 2576 |
Pine, Ponderosa | 12.6 | 19.8 | 2573 |
Pine, Red | 12.2 | 21.3 | 2777 |
Southern yellow group | |||
Pine, Loblolly | 12.9 | 24.4 | 3183 |
Pine, Longleaf | 15.0 | 28.1 | 3658 |
Pine, Shortleaf | 12.9 | 24.4 | 3183 |
Pine, Sugar | 12.6 | 17.7 | 2302 |
Pine, Western white | 10.0 | 18.2 | 2370 |
Redwood, Old growth | 14.9 | 19.8 | 2573 |
Redwood, Second growth | 13.2 | 17.7 | 2302 |
Spruce, Black | 11.3 | 19.8 | 2575 |
Spruce, Engelmann | 10.0 | 17.2 | 2234 |
Spruce, Red | 10.6 | 19.2 | 2506 |
Spruce, Sitka | 10.8 | 19.2 | 2506 |
Tamarack | 12.0 | 25.5 | 3318 |