A better stud finder

[supton]

A pair of stacked hard drive magnets. One wasn't quite enough (these newer hard drives not nearly as good) but two would stick to the drywall screw. Find center of magnet, mark the wall, done. As opposed to the hope and poke stud finder that I've had for years (or hoping to find a nail pop someplace).

Finally found a use for those magnets that I've been saving all this time (other than for holding things to the fridge).

 

[burbguy82]

Magnets are the best stud finders ever.

For years I have used a pair of neodymium magnets to find the screws. They are about 1 inch by 1\2 inch, pretty powerful.

 

[supton]

Hadn't thought of it until today, then it struck me to try it out. Worked pretty slick I thought.

 

[D60]

Yeah, I tend to prefer the magnetic CH Hanson stud finders when possible

 

[burbguy82]

Hadn't thought of it until today, then it struck me to try it out. Worked pretty slick I thought.

one thing I did was wrap the magnet with electrical tape, just a little bit, it help with marking up the wall, sliding it around to find a screw in the wall.

 

[spackard]

I used a thick one, crushing my fingers, to find a stud on an external wall covered with stucco and chicken wire. Go back and forth enough and you can tell the “pain” of chicken wire from the “pain” of a nail in a stud. Alright, maybe I drilled a few mistake holes before I struck stud.

 

[Astro14]

The magnet presumes the drywall guy was on center with the nails/screws…not sure I would make that assumption!

I’ve had pretty good results with a regular Zircon stud finder through drywall. Haven’t tried through challenging materials like stucco…

 

[Kruse]

While all the drywall that I've installed in my lifetime has been with screws, I've demolished plenty of old drywall that was put on with adhesive glue. So your magnets work just fine if there are screws holding it in place, but there will always be a place for a stud finder in my tool box.

 

[Pablo]

I use neodymium magnets. Not perfect, but better than the three stud finders I've wasted money on.

Thing is as mentioned, especially in 2x6 shops and garages, who knows what "stunts" the builder did between beers.

 

[supton]

My wife is pretty OCD and so I'm pretty sure they were on center as she did the drywalling. She still won't let me live down the fact that I framed her sewing room on 24" centers and used the non-premium studs at that. In that room the screws certainly do wander around. Lesson learned, and my office uses 16" centering and I paid the extra few bucks to get straighter boards.

 

[zzyzzx]

I use a combination of stud finder types. A regular and a magnetic one.

 

[wavinwayne]

Never tried the magnet method, looks interesting. The Franklin Sensors M150 stud finder I picked up recently works like a dream. It's SOOOOOO mind numbingly easy to use.