Shopsmith Forums

Good morning-

Last night I was ripping some old lumber for pen-making from an old gym floor. I had pulled, I thought all of the old nails out of the wood. I had recently purchased the above item and, as a precaution was running it over the different pieces before running it through the table saw to cut off the tongues and grooves of the material. I found a piece of nail buried that you could not see. I was able to get the nail out. I was really impressed with this detecter in finding the metal, thereby also saving me carbide-tipped blade as well as any other problems that are encountered with sawing old wood. This tool is well worth the price, especially considering that old wood, even trees recently felled may contain hidden surprises.

ryanbp01,

Good idea! Thanks for sharing.

When we added on to our home here in NW New Jersey, I had to take down seven white oaks - several were quite large. Although I could use the wood in my fireplace, I decided to have the larger trunks lumbered. Called in a fellow with a portable saw mill and we went to work on a snowy morning. He told me that if he hit a nail and lost his saw blade it was $25.00. I bought five saw blades that morning.

A few years have past, and I m now picking some pieces off of my lumber stack. You can bet I will not run any piece through my SS saw, planer or joiner without checking for metal.

On Norm Abram's site I noticed he had the Wizard for sale. Checking Google I found the best price on Amazon and bought it (Wizard III). This is an invaluable tool. It is so sensitive to just about anything metallic that the best way to check a board is to hold it vertically and pass the wand over each side, otherwise it may pick up a metal object under the board.

If you use lumber (any lumber) you should use this tool.

Dickg1