Stopped fighting my stud finder, now I just map the wall with a fridge magnet
For years I'd swear by my electronic stud finder, even after it told me there was a stud 6 inches to the left of where the baseboard nail actually was. Last month I was hanging a heavy shelf in my hallway and got so fed up with the beeping that I grabbed a rare earth magnet from my toolbag, the kind I use to pick up screws from carpet. I swept it across the drywall, it latched onto the drywall screws in the studs, and I marked every single one with a pencil dot in about 3 minutes. Turns out the drywall screws are never perfectly spaced, but the magnet gives you the exact center line, no guessing. I've now hung 4 shelves and a mirror that way, including a 70 pound cabinet in my garage, and I haven't touched the stud finder since. Has anyone else ditched the fancy electronics for a simple magnet trick, or am I just late to this party?