Reclaimed wood

I have a good amount of reclaimed wood from the flooring at Cone Mills, Greensboro.

I have been told all the nails are gone but I don't trust that claim.

I would like recommendations on the type tool to purchase to check again for metal.

I have a Saw Stop and it is expensive if set off to replace the blade, etc.
 

bob vaughan

Bob Vaughan
Senior User
I've used a few detectors in the past and they seem to work to a degree. Both of the ones I used would occasionally signal on nail holes that had no nails but did have a lot of iron oxide staining from corrosion. I mention that so if you get a signal where's there's no nail, that's par for the course.
 

petebucy4638

Pete
Corporate Member
I've used a few detectors in the past and they seem to work to a degree. Both of the ones I used would occasionally signal on nail holes that had no nails but did have a lot of iron oxide staining from corrosion. I mention that so if you get a signal where's there's no nail, that's par for the course.
I have three metal detectors that were designed to find metallic objects in the ground. They all have discriminator circuitry that allows you to refine the sensitivity of the detector to tune out specific metals or to ignore soil with high iron content. I have used them to test timber for embedded nails, staples, fence wire, etc. I always turn off all discrimination settings so as not to miss even a tiny piece of metal. As a Sawstop owner, I'd rather toss a suspect piece of wood, than buy a new brake and blade. I'm not certain how a Sawstop table saw would respond to a streak of iron oxide, left behind from a pulled nail.

In my experience, when one of my detectors thinks that it has detected a metal object, it is indeed an old nail. Most wood, especially when taken five or six feet above the ground, is going to be free of metals, but not always. I would think that most handheld metal detectors would do a good job of locating embedded metal objects, such as nails. A lot would depend on the thickness of the timber too. I'd probably run my Sawstop with the safety mechanism locked out and with an expendable blade.
 

bowman

Board of Directors, Webmaster
Neal
Staff member
Corporate Member
With SawStop, you can put into bypass mode so nails will not trigger a brake activation. This also means it will not trigger if a finger comes in contact with the blade...
 

HITCH-

Hitch
Corporate Member
Larry I guess we never asked what size the stock is that you have and what your desired final dimension is.
 

cyclopentadiene

Update your profile with your name
User
I agree with Bowman. A family friend wanted some Adirondack chairs and I used treated lumber from Lowes. I just turned off the sensors and all went fine.
The main risk for you would be blade damage so I would use an inexpensive one as opposed to a Forest or something you fear damaging.
Bandsaw blades are generally not that expensive so curved pieces should not be a huge issue. I used reclaimed once pre Sawstop. I did hit a nail in the planer and learned a valuable lesson. Do not trust the metal detector. If I ever use reclaim again, I will use my flatbed sander only
 

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