Replies

1. 
   dgreen | Oct 16, 2006 06:44am | #1

   I'm not positive about the smaller one as I gave mine to my dad, but I just tried the larger one on bronze and it works as well as it does on ferrous.

    

    The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.
   -- Herbert Spencer (1891)

   
   

   ---

   Edited 10/15/2006 11:51 pm by dgreen

2. 
   QCInspector | Oct 16, 2006 08:30am | #2

   Just tried mine on Aluminum, Brass, and Steel and it worked about the same on all three. Sorry don't have any Bronze handy (that I could remember at least) but it shouldn't be any different.

1. 
   tinkerer2 | Oct 17, 2006 05:16am | #7

   I don't have the exact proprotions of metals in my head but I do know that brass and bronze are very similar in composition.

1. 
   JimV | Oct 17, 2006 04:30pm | #10

   Traditional phosphor bronze is an alloy of copper and primarily tin.Brass is a alloy of copper and zinc. (in varying proportion, with a smattering of other elements)"There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other is that heat comes from the furnace." - Aldo Leopold

3. 
   RickL | Oct 16, 2006 07:07pm | #3

   Why the query over bronze It's the least of your worries of hitting with a blade. I've cut miles on non-ferrous with my table saw and miter saw. I've even jointed aluminum on my jointer. Steel is the problem metal. I wish we had a detector for sand. We have an antique lumber yard where we have guys who just remove metal from boards and timber before we process it into other products.

4. 
   KeithNewton | Oct 16, 2006 07:10pm | #4

   I have the larger one, and it picked up a bronze screw through 1" cherry. I am sure the little one would also, only with a smaller path.

1. 
   EdHarrow | Oct 16, 2006 07:53pm | #5

   Thank you all.

   I'm actually looking for bronze screws buried in the joinerwork of my 'rotting bundle of sticks', AKA a wooden boat.  Fasteners are obvious when under varnish, they ain't so obvious when under 60 years of paint. ;-)

1. 
   byhammerandhand | Oct 17, 2006 04:28am | #6

   I test my wizard by running across my left hand until it hits my gold wedding band. I don't think the "metal" type makes any difference.

2. 
   KeithNewton | Oct 17, 2006 05:36pm | #13

   Hey Ed, I don't know if you have a good method for removing the old bung, but the last time I did that, I found a little trick that was fast, and left a good clean hole for the new one. I taped a piece of thin plex or acetate onto the base of a plunge router, then plunged through it with the next size up, router bit from what had been used. This was easy to place right over the old bung, and it was easy to tell when it hit the top of the screw

1. 
   EdHarrow | Oct 20, 2006 04:57am | #14

   It arrived today, just as I was heading out.  I gave it a quick test tonight; I think it's going to do the trick.  Maybe if I read the directions it will do even better, LOL.

   Thanks for your help, Ed

   PS:  Bung removal.  Yuck.  You name it, I've tried it.  Most of the time I poke a centering hole, use a drill at least half the size of the bung, and drill to the fastener.  Then, using whatever comes to hand (usually an awl) I collapse the bung into the hole.  This works well, most of the time (that would be when the bung is stuck in traditionally, with paint or varnish).  Now I have another technique for when I come across a bung stuck in with 5200 or epoxy, or...  Thanks!

   Edited 10/19/2006 10:03 pm ET by EdHarrow

1. 
   KeithNewton | Oct 20, 2006 05:29pm | #15

   Ed, I said in my earlier post that I used a plunge router, but that was not right, because it was a little chris-craft, with a lap hull, and the base would have been too large for all the plunge router bases. That was about eight years ago.I just remembered that I used a little trim router without tightening the depth nut as if it was a plunge router. With the little cut-away base allowed me to get up close to the edge of the next plank above. If I just have a few to remove, I would do it like you describe below, but if you have to remove a couple of hundred, as I did, this was well worth the set-up time, because after I figured it out, I could just align the base with one hand, and then plunge that little bit with the other hand, and Zip, zip. man it was fast and clean and easy to control.

2. 
   EdHarrow | Oct 20, 2006 06:18pm | #16

   A trim router sounds a bit more manageable, that's for certain.

   So, the biggest problem I've discovered with this gizmo is that it doesn't indicate where I'm going to find the head of the fastener.  When it beeps I make a mark with a marker, and then remove the paint in that area.  Something better than 50% of the time I'm rewarded with a bung.  I've learned to do a bit more research and discovered, for instance, that the screws for a locker frame could as well be driven in, toenail fashion, from the inner side of the frame.  At least those screws are not bunged!

    

3. 
   RickL | Oct 24, 2006 08:24pm | #17

   http://www.zircon.com/SellPages/ScanAndSensor/ScanAndSensor/ScanAndSensor-Metal.html

   We use the MT6 to pinpoint the nail location.

5. 
   PADDYDAHAT | Oct 17, 2006 05:27am | #8

   Ed, yup I have the small one(a) but you must be precise due to it's narrow path. Pat

1. 
   EdHarrow | Oct 17, 2006 06:08am | #9

   From Lee Valley, from their supplier,  “Types of Metal Detected: Responds equally well to all types of metal, steel, stainless steel, zinc, magnesium, and aluminum”.

   Curious, no reference to copper, brass or bronze (not to mention gold, LOL).

   In most cases I know, approximately, the location of the fastener, so the narrow path shouldn't be too much of a problem.

6. 
   highfigh | Oct 17, 2006 04:39pm | #11

   I have the small one and it works very well. Just overlap the scanned path and you can go fairly fast. I had a self-induced problem with the battery cover and the manufacturer took care of me extremely quickly and well. It's an inexpensive tool and the person I talked to (I think he's the owner of the company) went way beyond the call.

   "I cut this piece four times and it's still too short."
1. 
   EdHarrow | Oct 17, 2006 05:18pm | #12

   I'll let you know!