This is pretty much the spectrum of coverage we would expect for our woodworking needs. Most commonly you will find screws, nails or staples in your recycled wood and this is generally what I have found in stock I have bought for peanuts from garage sales and auctions. While some high quality woodworking blades will be able to slice through the odd small nail or staple without too much damage, it is the bigger objects that pose a problem, and the bigger they are, the more damage they are going to cause if you happen to run your blade through them, not to mention the risks involved with flying carbide teeth, sudden blade jams or kickbacks caused as a result! In use, I have managed to clear all my recycled lumber of foreign metallic objects and have protected my blades with no incidence of damage since using this item.

Lumber Wizard Dimensions: Length 18”, Width 21/2”, Height 1 1/8” at sensor, 2” at handle - just imagine an airport security type-wand and you can envisage the rough size of the Lumber Wizard III, perhaps slightly smaller. It looks quite similar in shape as well.

It weighs 13 ounces, which is roughly 368 grams, so it is extremely light and didn't cause any fatigue in the hand, arm or wrist when scanning over extended periods of time. It's lightweight is especially handy if you need to use it overhead, for detecting metal in structure work if you were renovating, as an example... or scanning the kids as they walk through the door for items they shouldn't be carrying! Just joking...

The unit runs off a single 9 volt square battery, and the manufacturers claim a quality 9V battery will last 40 hours of operating time. I don't think I have used it for 40 hours as yet, probably only 7 or 8 in total (40 hours of usage time is a lot of time scanning!) so I cannot verify that but I am still on my first 9V battery and they don't cost a lot. I actually have a rechargeable 9V so its even more cost effective to operate the Lumber Wizard III. When your battery does start to run out however, the unit does feature some indicators and warnings (changes to light flashes and audible sounds in use) to let you know you might soon need to throw in a new, or freshly charged battery. I'll certainly verify this when my rechargeable battery runs low at a later date and amend this review. Let it be known that the vibration function will consume more battery power and hence decrease battery life when this function is used often.

Before first use, you need to calibrate the wand, and you may need to check calibration every month or so to ensure the machine is working well, particularly if you live in areas that experience large swings in temperature or humidity as these can affect the LW III's performance. This takes about 10 seconds and involves making sure the unit is well away from any metal. You simply turn on the unit and turn the adjustment screw slowly until the continuous sound just stops. Out of the box, I found my unit was adjusted very precisely and worked well with no tweaking, although you should check yours before you use it to make sure it is operating optimally. The unit uses an automatic tuning transmit/receive circuit. It is designed to provide a precision detection pattern that helps eliminate errors or false alarms in use.

Sound and Vibration
When the Lumber Wizard has detected the presence of metal, it emits a continuous tone sound. There is no volume control, but it should certainly be audible for most woodworkers. More expensive detectors may have a varying tone that gets louder or more intense as the wands goes over the top of the metal object. This is useful for pinpointing the location of the item easier, however, I found I haven't had any major dramas with the lack of this feature on the Lumber Wizard. In most cases there is going to be an entry mark where the foreign metal material has penetrated the wood, so that provides a pretty good clue as to where the metal is located.

There is a simple on/off push button to turn the sound on or off. If you have hearing problems or are working in a noisy environment, the Lumber Wizard has a backup feature that solves that problem. The unit can be set to vibrate when it detects metal. The vibration is well measured and not too overpowering, but not too soft that it is difficult to feel. This feature can also be turned on or off as required. You can use the tool without sound or vibration turned on. In this instance, a red led light will illuminate when metal is detected. I recommend having at least the sound or vibration option switched on as well to ensure you do not miss that tiny bit of metal buried deep down in the lumber just waiting to attack your blades! I find I use the sound feature almost exclusively, except late at night when I'm organizing my lumber for the next day and want to scan over it while the kids and SWMBO are asleep. The vibration feature works well in that case, particularly if you have light sleepers in the house. However, there is one more additional feature... a 3/32" mono submini plug on the lateral face of the handle allows you to plug in earphones to hear the sound that way as well! A little bit of extra thought has gone into this design.
The unit also has a flashing green LED light to indicate the tool is switched on and ready for action.

In Use
As well as my normal use of the detector over the last month or two, I set up some basic tests to see how well the Lumber Wizard performed. This involved placing small metallic items under thick pieces of stock, sandwiching metal between stock, and even burying some small nails and pins deep into stock with a nail punch.

Naturally, the larger the metal object, the easier it will be to detect. The Lumber Wizard does have some limitation ranges. It was difficult to detect a small wire staple buried more than 2 inches in dense hardwood, however, a standard 8 gauge woodscrew was picked up relatively easily in my tests. It will detect larger metal objects in material over 4" deep. Considering that you can flip your material over and scan both faces (effectively providing twice the normal scan depth), this gives you probably all the scanning depth you will need for almost all regular pre-sawn stock dimensions and thicknesses. So for my basic tests, I found the Lumber Wizard worked quite acceptably for my needs.

I found it was important to make subsequent scans over areas I had just removed nails or pins from. This ensures all the material was removed and that there isn't a second or third, of fourth nail in the same close vicinity that triggered the initial detection alert. I found passing the Lumber Wizard about a 1/2" over the surface of a board back and forth in a slightly overlapping manner produced the best scanning results. You can even wave the Lumber Wizard very rapidly across the piece and it will still detect very well although you need to slow down your movement speed to accurately pinpoint the metal source. Just go a little slower on thicker material and ensure the Lumber Wizard remains close to the surface. It does have a 6" wide scanning area so only the outer 6 inches of the tool will scan effectively, although in practice, the scanning area is more like 7 inches. Surprisingly, scanning is effective right out out to the edges and tips of the tool. I make it a habit to scan all sides of 4" or thicker pieces as an added safety precaution, and in doing so, I have not had a single damaged blade since using the Lumber Wizard III.

Conclusion
I can honestly say that after taking the step from the Little Wizard to the Lumber Wizard, I have been able to ensure protection of my blades in thicker stock, and with less time wasted scanning the material. Using the Lumber Wizard III is quick and easy and for the sub $100 price tag, it is worth every dollar in my opinion because I know my blades on the table saw, band saw, jointer, planer and my router bits and even my drill bits are now well protected from those hidden metallic dangers...

Available to Order Online through these companies... Click graphic to go to their direct product page for this item
Lumber Wizard III Rockler.com	Amazon now ships selected tools to International locations!	Lumber Wizard Hartville Tools