Abstract: Metal billets are cut from heated logs emerging from a furnace by a shearing system controlled by information detected as the logs emerge from the furnace. Detection in this position eliminates the variations inherently present in the length of the logs resulting from temperature gradients within the furnace, and from a length of time the logs are subject to these gradients. The advancing end of an isolated log is sensed by an electric eye, and the interface between one log and the following log is detected by an eddy current device. The data from these sensing devices is supplied to a computer, which controls the shearing operation so that billets can be cut with a minimum of waste. The billets can be of two segments, and the equipment establishes cutting operations that produce the combined billet length, regardless of the position of the interface between the logs.