ZirconMetalliScanner m40 Handheld Electronic Metal Detector

Brand/make: I'm very glad I spent the extra $10 to get this one instead of the Little Wizard II. Zircon seems to be the industry leader in this sort of technology, and seems to be a brand I can trust and get good support from. Their website is well maintained. It's designed in USA; assembled in Mexico. I think it's a newer design than the Little Wizard II, since it was first released in April 2007, whereas the Little Wizard II product manual is dated November 2002.Purpose: I bought this primarily for finding staples/screws/nails in old wood I want to reuse, but I'm sure I'll find other uses for it too, like finding things I drop, finding studs and nail lines, etc.Size: It's a little bigger than I imagined it, but that's a good thing - my fears of it being delicate or likely to be broken were completely unfounded.Battery: I only just got this, so I can't comment on battery life, but it's nice that it came with the 9-volt battery already installed and ready to use.Broad/pinpoint usage: You can use this lying flat for doing a broad sweep, then turn it up and point it like a gun to pinpoint the exact area. That's really handy.Proper usage: This is a sensitive, quality device. Like the directions say, if you move it around quickly changing its orientation, it will give you a false positive briefly, but used properly, it'll work great - just use a steady hand and don't twist it around quickly.Lights/indicators: The scanner has a green "READY" LED under a four red LED "bargraph". This is duplicated on the other side, so you can conveniently see it regardless of orientation. Furthermore, when you're closer than 4 lights, the blue senor lights up and buzzer sounds (engineered at just the right volume, IMO, to be audible but not annoying).Calibration: Rather than fool with a little adjustment screw till you get it to stop whining (like I saw in a video for the Little Wizard II), this is auto-calibrating. Just hold it out away from any metal while you turn it on, and it calibrates based on its surroundings. This is also helpful when narrowing down a piece of metal in an area with other smaller pieces. Just let off of the trigger and turn it back on where it is, and it'll be better calibrated to pinpoint the large piece (strongest influence).Metals: This detects ferrous and non-ferrous metals, though it is more sensitive to ferrous metals. I'm not sure how it works, but there may be a different mechanism involved. For example, with ferrous materials, the scanner seems most senstitive when the object is inline with the sensor rather than turned perpendicularly, whereas overall proximity seems to be the most important factor in detecting non-ferrous metals, regardless of orientation.Large object detection (pinpoint orientation, high calibration):Item: [distance at first light], [distance at buzzer]5-qt stainless mixing bowl: 5.5", 3.5"heavy lineman's pliers: 5.5", 3"3/8" OD copper tubing: ~2", ~3/4" (similar for 5/8" OD copper pipe)14-AWG 2-conductor Romex: ~1", ~3/8"0.024" thick aluminum plate: 4.5", 1.5"(Your mileage may vary...)Small object detection: This found one leg of a common office staple (~6mm long - pretty small!!) in a piece of wood. Properly oriented, it's enough to sound the buzzer. Oriented non-optimally, it may only light up 2-3 lights, but I'm still convinced it would find it buried even an 1/8" in both broad or pinpoint orientation, if you're doing a properly careful search. For non-ferrous metal, I got similar results with a 14mm piece of solid telephone wire.Sensor geometry: The sensor is not as symmetric as it appears. I used the two tiny bits of metal mentioned above to "map" it. The intended pinpoint end is sensitive, whereas the other end isn't very. In the middle zone, there's a variation of sensitivity depending on the material. For ferrous metals, it seemed more sensitive in the very middle, whereas non-ferrous materials were better detected in either direction away from the very middle.Magnetized materials: The usage sheet states: "Magnetized materials may cause false, unstable indications." After experimenting with a small disk-shaped fridge magnet, I don't think that will make a big difference. It seemed to detect it somewhat better facing into one of the poles, and a little less coming at it from the side, which is about what I expected.Bottom line: I'm very pleased with my new "toy" and expect it will serve me well for years to come.

I decided to keep it, as it seemed to aid me finding studs except for one room in my home. I checked it in other rooms, and it seemed to work perfectly. I purposefully aimed it at metal objects and it would notify me right away. That one room was odd though, where any time I scanned the wall anywhere, it would notify me. I suspect that it would work grand in newer homes.I don't know whether that warrants five stars, so I'll give it four because it seems to detect metal with accuracy in most places.

I needed this to find some network cabling I tucked behind a wall 10 years ago. My cabling was about 4' bundled in about a 6" circle. Using this tool I was able to find the bundle on my first try. Many other detectors only work on metals containing iron which means that they will probably not detect copper network cabling. This is one of the few inexpensive detectors that claimed to work on both ferrous and non-ferrous metals. It worked like a charm.Have tested this on miscellaneous items around the house and it works well. But the items to be detected have to be within inches to be detected.Looking for copper pipes in your wall? Should work. Looking for wiring in your wall? Should work as long as it's not located at the opposite side. Looking for a missing screw in a specific area? Yes this would probably be OK. Looking for a screw in your front yard? No, not unless you want to be crawling around your yard all day.So for it's intended purpose this is a great, inexpensive, tool.To use you point device away from anything metal and press, and hold, a button which powers it on and calibrates it. You can then use it in either of 2 ways. 1) Pinpoint scan by using the end of the blue rod -or- 2) Area scan by running the blue rod parallel to what you are scanning. I couldn't tell a major performance difference between modes. The unit has signal strength lights to show you how much metal it's picking up on.Let's say you have a lot of metal near the area you want to scan and you want to find a metal object within this area. You would hold this next to the base level of metal (not next to what you are scanning for) and power it on while pointed at the base level. This will result in the unit being desensitized to the base level of material. Pretty nice.

I could easily find hot spots, probably studs, in the areas I did check in the stairway, in the wall in the master bedroom, in a slanty gable areas, and they were not weak signals, either. I couldn't find them at all with the POWERFUL magnet. I couldn't get a regular stud finder to even register something on the lath and plaster.They said this sucker could find things up to 4" deep and would work well on lath and plaster, and now, I believe it!Hold the blue tube vertically for wide scan, horizontally for pinpoint scans. Recalibrate near strong singles to lower sensitivity and more accurately find the high points. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 led lights as the signal gets stronger, and an audio alarm, too at maximum readings. Cool.So I'll be able to do some things around here now I've heretofore been reluctant to do since finding studs was too much off a pain in the &%W^ to tolerate the hit and miss deal in lath and plaster walls. I'll more carefully search and mark hot areas with a spot of blue painter's tape and watch as long studs just appear. Then I'll know where things lay and then I can make better plans.I could finally find joists in areas of squeaky floorboards or on wooden steps, too, and screwed those down without too much trouble with self sinking, snap off screws. And I suspect even the ceiling joists will be revealed to me. And it's good to know where all the stud bays are, if you really want to seriously consider blowing in some more insulation.It seems to be a very good tool. And a must have if you ever have to deal with older lath and plaster walls.