If you need to locate studs in a wall, you can buy a special gadget for the job. But if you have an old hard drive, you can get the job done for nothing.
Picture by Knick Flanigan
Reader Justin wrote in explaining how that worked for him:
Just a quick tip for those who have experienced issues finding the studs in their standard walls like I have: Rather than using an electronic stud finder which was off by approximately 10cm (I spent $15 on for a basic one, then later $95 on a more advanced one which gave the same results), I realised there are nails holding the plaster onto the wall studs. I ripped one of those powerful magnets out of an old hard drive and ran it across the wall. To my amazement I was able to find the nail right away which was in the centre of the stud.
We’ve mentioned a similar technique quite a while back, but it definitely seemed worth revisiting. If you’ve got another neat trick for stud-finding, tell us in the comments. Thanks Justin!
Dan
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 2:13 PMNeat idea, only really works if there is a nail in the stud or joist though.
Hunter
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 2:40 PMThere’s an app for that… I have an app on my Android phone which reads the magnetic field disturbance. Who needs more junk lying around when you can do everything with your phone?
SCOTT
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 3:23 PMYour stuffed if they used glue though
Swamykant
Tuesday, August 30, 2011 at 6:30 PMGood idea but I am not ready to break my HDD
LG
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 10:11 AMA pic of the actual magnet would be handy :)
Gish
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 2:16 PM@LG, They looks a bit like this http://www.reuk.co.uk/OtherImages/hard-drive-magnet-polarity.jpg
When they are ‘joined’ they might look like this
http://www.tokyopc.org/newsletter/2002/10/magnet_before.jpg
Go for a full 3.5″ drive, rather than the notebook ones if possible. I am not sure if the little ones have big enough to be usable magnets.
Just be careful with these suckers. These are scary strong magnets. If you get two of them close, and let them snap together they can shatter into heaps of itty bitty pieces that are a pain to clean up (especially if they fall on something metal)