geekTreasure Hunting, Metal Detecting
November 15th 2006 14:20
The Round Sound in Metal Detecting
The nature of any metal detectors field is circular. It is generally toroid in shape, which means like a donut shape. Circular. The lines of force emanate pretty much as circles, all around the coil itself, which is usually circular too.
Because of this characteristic of the field, its interaction with round objects causes a distinctive sound or signal to be created. The Round Sound. Good metal detector circuit designers utilize this characteristic of circularity, and all modern metal detectors, as well as many older models, are designed to capitalize on a round objects shape, and its interaction with the coils field.
This most certainly creates a fuller richer sound. Again, the Round Sound. Once you learn the Round Sound, it will become actually melodious to your ears, in every sense of the word.
The only drawback of designing metal detector recognition circuitry for the Round Sound, or programming for the Round Sound is that it can be overdone. The attempt to get the very best possible round sound is the reason a lot of detectors go bananas over bottle caps, and steel washers many times sound like rings. It is possible, with great care, to separate the various round sounds, pertaining to good and not-good. Practice is the key to that, and when in doubt, dig.
Practice Metal Detecting with a Home Made Target Area
It is very easy to build your own test area for metal detecting. Somewhere in your yard bury the various types of things you wish to get good at hearing, at various depths, and make a map of it as you go. Include deeply buried coffee cans at 36 and even 48 inches, and even a baby jar full of brass washers at about 24" or so. Do individual quarters, nickels, and dimes, at various depths. Do not get the items too close together though, or your signals will not be true. Practice often, in all the modes your detector has to offer. You will be amazed at what you learn, and quickly too.
Using Metal Detectors In Private Industry
I once gave a lumberman a metal detector, and it served him very well. It is probably still serving him well. This person was a tree surgeon by trade, and he also owned a Lucas Mill. The Lucas Mill is a portable lumber mill made in Australia, that processes rough wood, like tree trunks and large branches, into high quality lumber: 2x4's, 1x2's, anything you want, this mill would make it. Easily, and fast.
The biggest problem this lumberman had was this: his saw blades were very expensive, because they were very large, and because they had special teeth. These teeth were easily damaged by nails in the tree trunks that he made into lumber, so everytime the blade would hit a nail, and there were many such nails, there went another tooth or two on the blade; when enough of the blades teeth were shot, and it was time for a new blade, that rather defeated a lot of the profit of making lumber.
I got him an old Bounty Hunter ALL METAL DETECTOR which I had picked up at a flea market almost for nothing because it did not work. I replaced a bad transistor in it, and that was that. This bounty hunter was not too good for treasure hunting, but it sure did the job of finding nails in the tree trunks! The nail signals in the tree trunks were circled with white or yellow grease pencil, and it was then easy to avoid them. That was just one good way I have seen metal detectors used in Private Industry.
Another is in Plumbing. When I was a boy, with my first metal detector, the world famous JETCO MUSTANG, I used to hunt the schoolyard at Amelia Earhart Elementary in Hialeah, where I went to grade school. Mr. Tyree, the janitor there, saw me doing it one day and asked to borrow the machine. I asked my parents if he could borrow it, because it had been a birthday gift to me from them, and they said sure, as long as it was alright with me, and of course it was. Mr. Tyree had such success finding lost pipes and hitherto unlocatable water mains and such, that he had the school system spring for a metal detector for himself to use at the school, doing his janitorial work.
He said later that was one of the most valuable tools he had ever had for plumbing, and I know many plumbers who use the metal detector to locate plumbing of all types.
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