DFX: Stainless Steel in 15KHz only, not Best Data

[mikeofaustin]

Edit: This is with the white's DFX.

Playing around this morning, I find that a simple stainless steel screw no more than half and inch can't be seen by best data, but it can with 15KHz only. It was my impression that best data displays info for both freqs? FWIW, I had the preamp and ac sens turned way down during the test
(2 and 68), because my backyard is very EMI prone.

If it's prone to lose this metal, what other metals am I Iosing?

Any ideas?

 

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[Sandman]

Re: Stainless Steel in 15KHz only, not Best Data

Stainless steel does this to some detectors. If you have the sensitivity turned up to high you could be missing the deepest targets because of the larger field that sees more minerals. There should be no other metals that we search for that will do this.

Good Luck,
Sandman

 

[JOE(USA)]

Re: Stainless Steel in 15KHz only, not Best Data

mikeofaustin,

Remember that "stainless steel" is an alloy. It has varying electromagnetic properties depending on what alloys are used. As for whether it's magnetic, the answer is that it depends. There are several families of stainless steels with different physical properties. A basic stainless steel has a 'ferritic' structure and is magnetic. This is caused from the addition of chromium and can be hardened through the addition of carbon (making them 'martensitic') and are often used in cutlery. However, the most common stainless steels are 'austenitic' - these have a higher chromium content and nickel is also added. It is the nickel which modifies the physical structure of the steel and makes it non-magnetic.
So the magnetic properties of stainless steel are very dependent on the elements added into the alloy, and specifically the addition of nickel can change the structure from magnetic to non-magnetic.
What this means to someone testing their detector on stainless steel is your wasting your time. Joe

 

[mikeofaustin]

Re: Stainless Steel in 15KHz only, not Best Data

Sorry, Imeant to mention it was with the White's dfx.

The different responses I get from the two detection methods seems to contradict what 'Best Data' is supposed to do... get info for both freqs.

 

[dewcon4414]

Ive found that Best Data is best used on the beach for the transition between the wet and dry sand. Other than that you tend to loose depth vs the single freq if used properly for the soil conditions. Best Data does a great job on the beach and its very sensitive to tiny flakes of say copper. Air testing isnt a very good gage of the effectiveness of one freq over the other.