zoidberg
Well-Known Member
Who can advise of whether electronic 'stud finders' are effective in discovering old nails and screws in wood?
Finding nail and screws
- Thread starter zoidberg
- Start date
anoccasionalyachtsman
Well-Known Member
No use to you if you're looking for them in 'quality' products with the possibility of their being of brass or stainless, but I use bits of magnet. One benefit is that you can leave them to mark the line of the stud instead of having to mark it some other way.
(Dead hard drives are a good source of strong magnets).
Graham376
Well-Known Member
Stud detectors not too good at finding small metal objects. If you Google Woodworking Metal Detectors, some wand types should come up, which are far more sensitive but, read independent reviews.
sarabande
Well-Known Member
Small metal object detectors in the food and farming industry tend to be large and expensive.
My thoughts turn to security wand detectors which, by implication, should be capable of picking up the presence of small metal objects, but with what precision and accuracy, I wot not.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=metal+...769651&tag=googhydr-21&ref=pd_sl_6jmkxnarol_e
My thoughts turn to security wand detectors which, by implication, should be capable of picking up the presence of small metal objects, but with what precision and accuracy, I wot not.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=metal+...769651&tag=googhydr-21&ref=pd_sl_6jmkxnarol_e
Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
Best thing to find old screws & hidden nails is a newly sharpened saw:ambivalence:
fisherman
Well-Known Member
Rare earth magnets are pretty good, pick up a nail through an inch of wood.
alan_d
Well-Known Member
My wife used to be the local organiser for Project Linus, a charity which provided quilts for sick or otherwise needy children. Before passing on donated quilts she was careful to check that pins or needles had not been accidentally left inside. I thought one of these hand-held wands would simplify the process, but even with the sensitivity set to maximum it would not pick up a pin or needle.
Neeves
Well-Known Member
You might try a surface coating meter. Used to determine the thickness of galvanising or paint on a steel substrate. They are very sensitive (at short range) - though whether they pick up a steel nail in 1" of wood I don't know.
Jonathan
Jonathan
Dan Tribe
Well-Known Member
A plane can be quite effective too!
Malabarista
Well-Known Member
I have always found a fine toothed festool blade to be quite effective ( and more expensive)
zoidberg
Well-Known Member
I've just bought some small ones via eBay, thanks, and will try them out on some 'known' problems, before addressing the teak. Even if they prove ineffective, there's no harm to be done. I can always find other jobs for them to do around the boat....
Neeves
Well-Known Member
I've just bought some small ones via eBay, thanks, and will try them out on some 'known' problems, before addressing the teak. Even if they prove ineffective, there's no harm to be done. I can always find other jobs for them to do around the boat....
They are marvellous to put away 'later' but too close to the compass. Take care.
Jonathan
zoidberg
Well-Known Member
Yup! I knows about that....
'A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away' I made up one-third of a crew on a Rival 34, which had stopped for the night in the anchorage at P'D ( centre right ). Following a night in the 'Inn Of the Trouserless' ( lower right ), and following a 'kind of discussion', we set off for Tobermory and the Sound of Mull. This lies more or less north.....
I was interested to note that the owner/skipper, a very august maths academic and one-time Dartmouth graduate, noted the compass heading, steered to it, and set the Autohelm. I was also interested to note that the whole of the southern coast of Mull lay on our starboard bow, some miles off. The two, both academics, continued their academic discourse.
The weather was fine, I wasn't averse to 'the long way round', so I let this continue for a while to see who would notice and what would develop.
After the best part of an hour, the younger and boaty-inexperienced one, showed signs of puzzlement. He went below, peered at the chart, and came back more puzzled. I busied myself with something or other, until eventually he hesitantly asked about which bit of Mull he was looking at. The skipper-laddy gave him a condescending look, peered at the bulkhead compass, tapped it, and stared sternly forward.
The younger academic came and sat by me. "I'm a little confused," he muttered. "Shouldn't Oban be off to our right, behind a low island? I can't make out where anything is....."
It didn't take long for him to deduce, logically, that it was the compass reading 'North' which had deceived him and his world view. Despite there being some magnetic anomalies around, that was the largest Deviation by far I'd seen..... and told him. "There's something disturbing the compass. Let's see if we can track down what it is....."
It didn't take long. The owner's shiny Plastimo HBC was upright in a little teak rack, on the inside face if the cabin bulkhead, and right hard against the steering compass. "Try shifting that," I suggested. Yup.
An effective early lesson. But the boat's owner was too up himself to register the problem - or the solution. The HBC was replaced in its smart little teak holder, and there it stayed....
rogerthebodger
Well-Known Member
I've just bought some small ones via eBay, thanks, and will try them out on some 'known' problems, before addressing the teak. Even if they prove ineffective, there's no harm to be done. I can always find other jobs for them to do around the boat....
I use small magnets to hold covers over electrical access panels closed. I started using velcro but they would fall off due to the heat.
BTW I do have a steel boat so my compass has more outside effects than some small magnets inside my hull.
PhilMaSails
New Member
Try searching on fleabay for a 'GP Pointer' metal detector wand, looks like a carrot in various colours and will run about £15 or so from a UK seller, note lots of chinese sellers so check the seller/item is actually in the uk and delivery times or you could be waiting weeks for it to arrive. They have a detection range of about 2" to 3" and work a treat. They are made in china but work fine, lots of vids on youtube to demonstrate how they work.
zoidberg
Well-Known Member
I went back to Robbins Timber/James, the source of my lumps of teak and of my problem. Their guy James bought a 'Little Wiz 2' scanner device from Axminster Tools, which does the job well. That's what I'm now doing.... so my tame joiner can stop sucking his teeth and stroking his chin in fear for his thickness-planer's blades.
Edit: It emerges the product is called 'Little Wizard II' and I found it in 'Rutlands', who despatched it pdq. So far, so good....
Edit: It emerges the product is called 'Little Wizard II' and I found it in 'Rutlands', who despatched it pdq. So far, so good....
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