Found a stud finder trick at a jobsite in Nashville

Some old timer showed me how to use a rare earth magnet to find nails instead. Has anyone else ditched the electronic ones for magnets?

3 comments

3 Comments

xena13d ago

Grabbed a strong magnet from the hardware store after reading about this, and I'm not going back. The electronic ones just give false readings on drywall or plaster, especially if there's metal lath or old wiring around. A magnet picks up the nail heads plain as day, and you can feel the exact spot they're driven into the stud. It takes a little more patience to sweep the wall, but you also learn the framing layout better that way. I keep a 25-pound pull magnet on a string in my toolbox now, and it's saved me more time than any of those expensive gadgets ever did.

seanlee3d ago

lmao the "patience to sweep the wall" part got me. That's code for "I spent 20 minutes looking like a ghost hunter with a magnet on a string while my wife watched from the kitchen." I tried the magnet thing once and ended up finding every single drywall screw from a old picture frame that was patched over. Thought I discovered a load-bearing stud behind the toilet. Turns out it was just a plumbing bracket from 1987.

lane.cameron3d ago

That bit about "feeling the exact spot" is the real gold right there. I used a 50-pound pull magnet for the first time last month and it changed everything. You can actually trace the whole stud path by sliding it vertical after you find that first nail head. It picks up the screw heads too if they used those, but the real trick is marking your spots with a pencil as you go so you don't lose the rhythm.