Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/10/these-innovative-stud-finders.html
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Ok, stupid question. What metal in the stud? Or do you mean the nail used to hang the drywall? Sure that tells you where the stud is but I doubt it would get you the center every time. And you have to find a nail for it to work so that’s probably why he’s searching around so much in the video. Hard to beat a $20 electronic stud finder with deep scanning.
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Almost all commercial construction and any highrise condos use steel studs. The only time you see wood studs anymore is for wood frame construction - residences no taller than 4 storeys (though some new building codes allow 6 storey wood frame structures).
who bet you could hang before this auction goes overboard
It’s almost as if the BB store is shilling complete junk! <<//s>>
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innovative stud finders…
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She’s all the stud you need…
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Correct. All single family residential is Type V wood framed. Type V wood framing can be done up to four stories high (apartments/condos) . If you went with the more expensive Type III framing you can build a multi-residential (apartments/condos) structure to five stories. If you structurally design your building using CLT (cross laminated timber) you could build a wood structure up to 85’ high, which is about 8 stories after making room for the floor/ceiling assemblies.
It is true that Type I assemblies contain partition walls framed out of metal studs. But the majority of homes american live in are wood framed. So only a small percentage of Americans could take advantage of this studfinder.
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me likey!
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Hi All,
I’ve been a handyman for 20 years and have been exclusively using magnetic stud finders for over 10 years. I work in all kinds of homes and businesses so I’m dealing with a myriad of construction types. Wood and metal studs, Lath and plaster, tile over sheetrock, plasterboard and simple sheetrock.
I tried many popular electronic stud finders but found that they were unable to work reliably and were more trouble than they were worth; because of weak batteries, false positives, inconsistency and so forth.
Common sense told me that using a magnet to find studs via the metal fasteners that hold the wall board to the studs was the least error-prone method to locate studs because magnets are looking for “real” things. Screws. Screws that were “pointing” directly at the studs that I was looking for.
Electronic stud finders are looking for something that is far more abstract: density changes. This works ok when there is a significant change between where this is a stud and where there is not a stud such as an uninsulated sheetrock wall. Banging your knuckles on the wall will let you hear the difference between a stud and no stud. Electronic (radar) detectors work well for that type of construction.
But as soon as you start losing that distinct difference in density, like insulated sheetrock, plaster board, plaster over lath, tile over wall board, then you’re NOT going to be able to easily hear the difference between stud and no stud with your knuckles. This is why radar (electronic) stud finders…which are kind of like electronic knuckles, perform poorly in these scenarios. They make sloppy decisions because the entire wall surface is hard and dense. There is no longer the distinct hollow sound when tapping in between studs.
Rule of thumb: If it’s difficult to find a stud by banging on the wall then it is also hard for radar to find them.
OK. Time to set the record straight on this next one.
It’s common on forums like this for so called “experts” to claim that since these screws may or may not be in actual studs, then the magnetic method of finding studs is inherently unreliable. But that is NOT true.
Anyone who has ACTUALLY installed sheetrock knows that if your screw misses the stud or is screwed into the extreme right or left edge of the stud, then it will just keep spinning and won’t be able to pull below the surface of the sheetrock—and it will be removed and re-screwed into a location where it actually threads into the “meat” of the stud and is pulled below the surface so it can be hidden with a skim coat of mud. This is just a basic fact.
Another common objection is that since these screws are not always in the center of the stud, they are an unreliable way to find the stud center. Here’s the reality: Who cares?
Think about it. A stud is 1.5" wide. When the magnet finds your screw, you can be confident that it is actually screwed into the stud in an area that solid enough to hold a screw without splitting the wood. This can be anywhere within 95% of the 1.5" width of the stud. As you can see in the picture, it really doesn’t make any difference if you’re in the center or not…as long as the screw threads in tight—as opposed to turning around and around.
I know what you’re thinking. “Everyone says that I need to be right in the center of the stud to hold up my 58” TV." More bad information. There’s virtually no difference in holding strength across the face of the stud. This is a fact based on my actual experience.
As a side note, simple magnetic stud finders are only as good as your ability to “feel” the magnet tugging on a screw or nail. That’s easy in sheetrock. But once your screw or nail gets deeper than 1/8", the tug can be so subtle that you can’t tell if it’s a fastener or just wall friction.
That where products like the studpop or studthud come into play. They both have very strong magnets that actually move in response to fasteners that can be up to 1/2" away. This takes the user out of the picture because the indication comes not from the “tug” but from the physical movement of the studpop/studthud’s magnet.
These “moving magnet” stud finders are by far the only reliable way to find studs in houses built before 1960. Just read the reviews. Tons of people raving about how they couldn’t find anything that worked in their old homes until they found these 2 products.
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So, stock holder or owner?
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Thanks. I didn’t consider that. I’ve only been in a residential building taller than 4 stories maybe a dozen times. I live a in suburban sprawl of 7 million people, so I don’t really have a good sense of what it is like to live in a large city full of high-rise apartments.
Give that man a cigar! Yes. Inventor of both products. I’ve been designing and manufacturing magnetic stud finders for the past 10 years. But that doesn’t take away from my keen observations. Oh and just for the record, I have nothing to do with the “StudTHUD”. I sold the rights to a hack Chinese manufacturer 7 years ago.
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magnetic stud finders work by finding metal fasteners so they work equally well on metal or wood studs.
Yeah, with a name like that! 
Thanks for the awesome detailed explanation.
I bought one of these magnetic pop ones after seeing the guys hanging my daughter’s TV using one. It was so much easier than the many ways I’d tried to find studs over the years.
Used it to hang several heavy things in my house since then. Works great. Gotta get a good one though, with a strong magnet, as mentioned in joblake326’s post. Probably could even just use a super strong magnet, without the pop. The pop is nice because you can then easily mark the center.
My wife thought of that. It actually was a great name for the way that the product worked but when the products got manufactured in china, they were junk—and they still are. The 'PoP is a much better design plus it’s made right here in Maine. 10 minutes from my house. So take that china_stud_dud.
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Yeah I hear that all the time. A few problems with that:
- Good luck keeping track of a loose magnet. It’ll attach itself to anything metal, Usually NOT your tool box.
- A strong magnet is very brittle and breaks easily…and eventually the plating will crack and then it will rust.
- As explained in my initial lengthy post, a plain magnet works on sheetrock but not so much on other construction where the metal fastener is deeper than 1/4".
My grandpa left me a stud finder from 60’s or 70’s very similar to this - works well.
And then there’s the simplest method of all - magnet taped to a string.
In my 1943 house I wanted to put some hooks in walls to hang a hammock. In this case it was important to find the edges of the stud because the hook thread was easy 1/4" wide with aggressive threads and it needed solid purchase. So I drilled tiny holes either side to detect the edges, simple enough to patch and paint and the hook landed perfect middle.
How accurate you need to be all depends on the fastener and what you are hanging. In my case, the hooks ended up bending after time from the weight they had to hold and deformed the hole slightly but if those were sunk too close to the edge I’m sure they would have split the stud and pulled out.
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