little wizard

[Ed Costello]

Hello,

Anyone have one of these. I have an old maple bench top that I want to have planed. They require me to make sure the top is metal free before they plane it or I will pay for sharpening or replacement of knives. Any help would be appreciated

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=3820

[Mark Singer]

It works great!

[Jim Becker]

Yes, I have one. Somewhere. Works great. Now...if I could only find the darn thing!

[Tim Thomas]

I can tell you that the larger wand type one also works well. It is more expensive, but it covers a larger area so you can quickly scan a lot of boards. Because it is so easy and quick to use, I just scan every piece of timber I plan on using in a project before I get started. So far I've found a couple of nails, some staples and have yet to have an unpleasant "surprise" at the jointer, planer or table saw.

[glenn bradley]

I have the little one. Works great. Note, the wire mesh in your shop slab will fool you. DAMHIKT.

[Mike Heidrick]

The speaker on my little wizard was junk. I now own the lumber wizard 3 wand. MUCH BETTER piece and worth the difference in price.

[Steven Almas]

Maybe it's just me, but a product like this screams Ebay. I just searched for handheld metal detectors and came up with 1000's of hits. A larger wand style detector can be had for about $30-35. Can't vouch for the Chinese quality, but it would be worth doing a little research.

[Mike Keers]

I use reclaimed wood quite a bit, and I sprung for the Little Wiz, paid about $16 for it two or three years ago and have not been disappointed, it's saved me a few sets of planer knives and a saw blade or two. I didn't expect super performance, I was just looking for hidden nails and screws, but was pleasantly surprised that it will pick up the tablesaw or other metal thru a 2x (granted a lot of metal there). But it even picks up drywall screws under epoxy in my assembly bench thru 2" of lumber. Depending on the sensitivity setting, it will pick up a small staple from several inches away.

I'm sure the wands work better, but I wasn't prepared to spend more until I knew how well the cheaper one worked. I haven't felt the need to upgrade yet.

[jeremy levine]

Yes, I have one. Somewhere. Works great. Now...if I could only find the darn thing! You need a metal detector detector.

[Mike Tidd]

I have both the small and large wands. Save yourself time and opt for the larger wizard.

[Lee Schierer]

I was given an old cherry mantle by my neighbor. The wood was quite curly and I wanted to resaw it into 3/8" thick material. I found one nail by hand, but that was hard to see due to the dark stain and rough cut surface. I decided the Little wizard was cheaper than one resharpening of a saw blade. It worked great, locaitng several small nails that would have pur a nice nick in a planer blade.

[Chris Padilla]

A properly placed nick on a planer knife simply yields a nice bead!! ;)

I have the larger Wizard: works great as everyone has alluded to.

[Doug Hobkirk]

Would a metal stud finder work?
Would a security metal detector wand work?

The small & large wizard seem pretty reasonably priced but I'm always curious...

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

If I recall there was a thread on these a while back and some folks said that the cheaper units were more sensitive - I am guessing that it's because they don't have fine attenuation controls.

[Dave Lehnert]

Anyone have experance with the Harbor Freight wand? $39.99

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/photos/94100-94199/94138.gif

[Ed Costello]

Thanks people............. I think I will try one out

Cheers,
Ed

[Mike Hutchison]

Ed:
if you know anyone who works as a land surveyor
they have extremely sensitive metal detectors in the truck
1 beer at most should seal the deal

[Fred Belknap]

Ed I seem to be about the only nay sayer but I have the Wizard III (the bigger one) and it works but not as good as the ad in Lee Valley suggested. I think it said it would find objects 5"deep. I wanted to drill some holes for dogs in a table top that I knew had some screws holding it down and I couldn't find the screws and I knew about where they were. The table top was double ¾" plywood. It seems to work on surface stuff real well but it doesn't relieve all the anxiety.