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Successfully finding nails with a Whites XLT.

Started by ESjaavik, April 12, 2006, 05:01:42 PM

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ESjaavik

I got a Woodmizer LT80 outside my house at the moment. It's not mine, I'm just the customer. And the sawyer told me it was $75 (or rather the equivalent in Norwegian currency) for a new blade for each spike he found. So I rummaged around on this forum and found a message by ohsoloco on using the Whites XLT to find nails in logs. He also gave me some hints on settings in a PM.

That helped me finding a program that should suit the situation well. My sawyer told me he did not have much faith in the device. But now after 3 days of going through logs from my property in a residental area, he told me he was very impressed by the Whites. He had no luck trying metal detectors himself. But we spotted a couple deeply buried in the trunk and some that we could see immediately through the center of the loop when using the pinpointing function. But you don't see the head of a nail in a trunk of 70cm diameter without some help.

In one case it indicated there is something exactly in the center of a 15" log. I cut out about the same length with a chainsaw, and according to the detector I cut exactly the same amount on each side of the object. I haven't splitted it yet to see what it is.

In another case it could not decide if it was steel or metal. And it was both:
http://www.sjaavik.com/images/P1000224crop.jpg

We did find 2 nails with the saw, but this was before we trusted the detector enough to go over each and every log before loading it. Later we learned to check every log. The log MUST be on fairly uncontaminated ground though. Axes, breaker bars etc. must be at least 1m from the detector, or it will desensitize it. And don't do it while wearing boots with steel inlays!  ;) If you

I think we found 5-6 instances of nails. Sometimes just a small part of a nail, and up to the object shown in the picture. In most cases it was close enough to the bark that I just made a cut about 2" to each side and cut out the piece with an axe. The sawyer placed my cut horizontally on the sawbench and we could recover almost all of the log.

So thanks to the forum and ohsoloco for your help.


JimBuis

ESjaavik,
Welcome to the Forestry Forum!! 8) 8)  We especially like to hear what is happening in other parts of the world.  What was that big thing in the center of your log in the picture?  It looks like some sort of light pole or something with two bolts sticking out of it.  It is interesting that it appears to be almost perfectly in the center.

I have a number of Norwegian friends here in Tokyo.  I have made more international friends here in Tokyo than anywhere else I have ever been.  Once again, welcome!!

Jim
Jim Buis                             Peterson 10" WPF swingmill

getoverit

Welcome to the forum !!

I'm also curious as to what the metal plate with the 2 studs is that you found in your tree. It looks like the top of a 6 volt battery, but I cant tell the scale of the picture. what was it?
I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok, I work all night and sleep all day

ESjaavik

I don't know what that piece of scrap is. It's aluminum 40x75x1mm. In the picture you can only see about half of it. I had to pack up the camera as it began raining. (Sometimes I miss the old non-electronic cameras.) The strange thing is that it had 2 screws in it which looked like they were screwed in from the inside out!?! It must have been torn halfways off, then the tree have grown around it.

Scale: The chop marks from my wood chisel are about 3/4" wide.

I'm new on this forum, and will probably move on. I'll lurk now and then though. I like the friendly note in this forum. I told "my" sawyer about you, and maybe he'll join you. He seems like he is just like you: a nice guy. I have to take a pic of him and his mill and show you guys.

ohsoloco

 I'm glad to hear that you've been having good luck with your metal detector  8)  I wish I would take some of your advice and scan every log that I mill, it would've saved me when I cut through that eye bolt the other week  ::)

Looking forward to seeing some more pics of your mill site  :)

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