How many of y’all are using metal detectors before milling?

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TheLaundryMan

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Found what I believe to be two separate chain link fences in one cut. Had just sharpened my chain before starting this one.
Wondering if cheap metal detectors are effective?

Also If you have milled anything recently post pictures. I’m bummed this whole piece was garbage and I don’t have anything else to mill at the moment?
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Found what I believe to be two separate chain link fences in one cut. Had just sharpened my chain before starting this one.
Wondering if cheap metal detectors are effective?

Also If you have milled anything recently post pictures. I’m bummed this whole piece was garbage and I don’t have anything else to mill at the moment?
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That’s barbed wire from long ago.
 
I get my wood from a tree guy that does a lot of residential work and I'm always finding metal objects of all kinds. I have been lucky in that I have missed more objects then I have hit. Small nails and wire are bad enough but security light fixtures, iron fence, cloths line hooks and even an entire altenator in the crotch of a tree one time will wreck a chain beyond repair.
 
I get my wood from a tree guy that does a lot of residential work and I'm always finding metal objects of all kinds. I have been lucky in that I have missed more objects then I have hit. Small nails and wire are bad enough but security light fixtures, iron fence, cloths line hooks and even an entire altenator in the crotch of a tree one time will wreck a chain beyond repair.
Dang an entire alternator!? Wonder what the record for largest largest chunk of metal hiding in tree is? Bet you got close to it haha
 
Dang an entire alternator!? Wonder what the record for largest largest chunk of metal hiding in tree is? Bet you got close to it haha
It was in a crotch of a huge red oak and was not visible from the outside. Google "tree growing around metal" and start scrolling. You will find hundreds of pictures of trees growing around everything imaginable. One can only imagine what burred in the wood that you can't see.

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Dang an entire alternator!? Wonder what the record for largest largest chunk of metal hiding in tree is? Bet you got close to it haha
Thats another reason I don't like to rip through wood to fast. The slower you cut the more chance you can feel and hear the saw hitting something and you have a better chance of doing less damage to your chain.
 
It was in a crotch of a huge red oak and was not visible from the outside. Google "tree growing around metal" and start scrolling. You will find hundreds of pictures of trees growing around everything imaginable. One can only imagine what burred in the wood that you can't see.

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Makes asolid base for the winch
 
Thats another reason I don't like to rip through wood to fast. The slower you cut the more chance you can feel and hear the saw hitting something and you have a better chance of doing less damage to your chain.
Yeah. I noticed I went from throwing decent chips to small dust pretty fast and didn’t think about it any more than that. Lesson learned I guess
 
Yeah. I noticed I went from throwing decent chips to small dust pretty fast and didn’t think about it any more than that. Lesson learned I guess
You can rip through clean wood if you are sure it is clean. But since the wood I get has a strong chance of having metal in it so I don't cut supper fast. It gives me time and a chance that if I hit something I can back up and not strip every tooth on the chain in seconds. There will be damage but it's fixable.
 
A halfway decent detector would find that metal up to around 8~10" deep. I got interested in the hobby a few years back and got bored so I sold the main unit. I kept the small handheld pin-pointer because it's nice for finding things dropped in the grass/dirt (especially nails/screws that I drop and can't find), buried survey markers, etc.
I'll be dropping and bucking a tree that is on former carnival grounds that has cut electrical wires sticking out of the stem. I'm quite certain there will be a buried metal staple holding the wires. I'm going to bring the handheld unit and sweep the areas I'll be cutting. I can only get about 4~6" deep on small metal items but it's better than nothing and quick to do.
 
A halfway decent detector would find that metal up to around 8~10" deep. I got interested in the hobby a few years back and got bored so I sold the main unit. I kept the small handheld pin-pointer because it's nice for finding things dropped in the grass/dirt (especially nails/screws that I drop and can't find), buried survey markers, etc.
I'll be dropping and bucking a tree that is on former carnival grounds that has cut electrical wires sticking out of the stem. I'm quite certain there will be a buried metal staple holding the wires. I'm going to bring the handheld unit and sweep the areas I'll be cutting. I can only get about 4~6" deep on small metal items but it's better than nothing and quick to do.
Thanks. I’ll probably do that then.aid at the very least it saves me a few sharpens and significant life on a couple chains that would be so worth it
 
I get my wood from a tree guy that does a lot of residential work and I'm always finding metal objects of all kinds. I have been lucky in that I have missed more objects then I have hit. Small nails and wire are bad enough but security light fixtures, iron fence, cloths line hooks and even an entire altenator in the crotch of a tree one time will wreck a chain beyond repair.
I've got a red oak out back with a six foot two-man saw in it. Luckily, it's pretty visible. ;)
 

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Looks like the tree wins that round! Haha that’s awesome!
I was worried the horses might hurt themselves on it, but they never did. Probably should have taken it down - someone is going to try to at some point - but my late mate - a tree trimmer for the power company and then the city for thirty years - didn't want to, and it's grown a lot by now, and a little beyond my pay grade. So if someone ever cuts into it, they can blame his ghost.
 
Damn nice piece of hickory! Clean cut with your saw too. Yeah that piece was from a yard that’s been in city limits for 80 years or so. I knew there was a risk but I liked the diameter of the crotch I could mill. I liked it until I took my chain through all those pieces of steel that is haha
 

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