| DMala |
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Sleep is overrated
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Reged: 05/09/05
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Loc: Waltham, MA
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I need to find a stud
#306531 - 03/30/13 06:40 AM
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Yeah, I'm lobbing softballs tonight. 
But seriously...
I need to screw my flimsy-ass Ikea furniture into the walls, so my kids don't pull it down and kill themselves. The problem is that my walls are plaster and lathe, originally built circa 1900. I'm considering hiring Sylvia Browne, or maybe getting a dowsing rod to find a fucking stud, because nothing else has worked.
I've tried a stud finder, which allegedly has a "deep scan" mode for thick walls, but it doesn't find squat for me. I've looked for nails in the baseboard, but none are visible. There's an electrical outlet to the left of where I need to be. I can't see inside well enough to tell how the box is mounted, but rapping on the wall to the left of the box sounds different, so I'm reasonably sure there's a stud there. I measured 16 inches from there, drilled a test hole, and got nothing. So now I'm not sure what to try. Are there any other standard spacings that would have been used at the turn of the last century I could try? Or am I stuck punching holes in my wall at random until I get lucky?
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GatKong |
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Tetris Mason
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Reged: 04/20/07
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Look no further
[Re: DMala]
#306532 - 03/30/13 06:50 AM
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I use strong earth magnets. I actually keep one suspended on my wall for easy access. It found a nail in a stud, and hangs there on the wall as if attached there.
Just rub it around on the wall until it attracts to a nail in a stud. Best stud finder ever. I have a digital stud finder, and still, the magnet is better.
If you have old plaster walls, studs aren't standard widths, so good luck with that. BUT, with all the slats nailed into the studs to make a surface for the plaster, there should be tons of nails along that stud like a beacon for you.
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| DMala |
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Sleep is overrated
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Reged: 05/09/05
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Posts: 3989
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Loc: Waltham, MA
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Re: Look no further
[Re: GatKong]
#306533 - 03/30/13 07:12 AM
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> I use strong earth magnets. I actually keep one suspended on my wall for easy access.
> It found a nail in a stud, and hangs there on the wall as if attached there.
>
> Just rub it around on the wall until it attracts to a nail in a stud. Best stud
> finder ever. I have a digital stud finder, and still, the magnet is better.
>
> If you have old plaster walls, studs aren't standard widths, so good luck with that.
> BUT, with all the slats nailed into the studs to make a surface for the plaster,
> there should be tons of nails along that stud like a beacon for you.
I read about that, but didn't try it because I don't have a strong enough magnet. Looks like I'll have to get one. Thanks!
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| GatKong |
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Tetris Mason
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Re: Look no further
[Re: DMala]
#306535 - 03/30/13 10:16 AM
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> I read about that, but didn't try it because I don't have a strong enough magnet.
> Looks like I'll have to get one. Thanks!
Yeah, rare Earth magnets are the bee's knees. It's amazing how handy they are once you get a few of them. Find lost pins, find studs, pretend like you have a pierced ear (or what-ever you want to pretend is pierced :X), keep screws and nuts organized while working on a project, REMOVE METAL SLIVERS, use them as "tacks" to hold stuff to walls where the stud nails are (I do this with my kid's drawings and stuff, keeps their "art" off the fridge, and in their rooms where it's better displayed anyway).
Just be careful, they literally will attract to each other even from across the room, and you can get really hurt when they smash together at high speed, especially if you're holding one of them when the other decides to go airborne.
Guy loses finger to rare Earth magnets.
This guy was examining one in his hand, and he rotated it to look at it from another angle, which must have aligned the polar draw just right, because he says he heard for just a split second the second one slide off it's shelf before it smashed into his hand at high speed. The block-shaped magnet in the picture has a pull of 700 lbs. The cylinder-shaped one has 400 lbs of pull. I doubt those two magnets will ever come apart, that's a combine pull of over 1 ton!
As a stud finder, you don't need one any bigger than a watch battery, and being relatively small, they're a lot safer... although I have been pinched when I forget I have another near by. I have one large one, which I keep in an empty one gallon jug by itself, because when metal things attract to it, especially if they're small and hard to get a good hold of, they're a bear to separate from the magnet again. It came shipped in a large box just like that, all by itself, for a good reason.
Edited by Gatinho (03/30/13 10:25 AM)
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Re: Look no further
[Re: GatKong]
#306539 - 03/30/13 01:09 PM
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Is that the kind of magnet that's in a HDD? Those magnets are pretty darn strong.
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Just broke my personal record for number of consecutive days without dying!
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| DMala |
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Sleep is overrated
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Reged: 05/09/05
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Posts: 3989
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Loc: Waltham, MA
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Re: Look no further
[Re: GatKong]
#306605 - 03/31/13 04:56 AM
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Worked great! I'm not sure I want to know what is going on in that wall, though. For one thing, I got far fewer "hits" than I thought I would. I had to hunt around quite a bit to find anything.
Also, it appears that the studs don't run the entire height of the wall?!? Twice I found a nail that was a foot or two higher or lower than where I needed to drill. I measured carefully straight up or down, drilled, and hit nothing at all. The boundary seemed to be a little below chest high. As long as I didn't cross that, the magnet trick worked like a charm.
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I'd be packing my bags
[Re: DMala]
#306614 - 03/31/13 08:48 AM
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You name it... earthquake, tornado, nearby bomb or meteor strike... your house is going down like it was made of poker cards.
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Just broke my personal record for number of consecutive days without dying!
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italie |
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MAME owes italie many thank yous, hah
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Re: Look no further
[Re: DMala]
#306618 - 03/31/13 01:53 PM
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> Worked great! I'm not sure I want to know what is going on in that wall, though. For
> one thing, I got far fewer "hits" than I thought I would. I had to hunt around quite
> a bit to find anything.
>
> Also, it appears that the studs don't run the entire height of the wall?!? Twice I
> found a nail that was a foot or two higher or lower than where I needed to drill. I
> measured carefully straight up or down, drilled, and hit nothing at all. The boundary
> seemed to be a little below chest high. As long as I didn't cross that, the magnet
> trick worked like a charm.
Are you sure you weren't just finding the firebreaks? I cant envision ANY scenario where studs constantly alter location at mid height...And I've seen a LOT of disastrous construction...
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| redk9258 |
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Regular
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Reged: 09/21/03
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Re: Look no further
[Re: italie]
#306621 - 03/31/13 04:19 PM
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Maybe cut out for plumbing or HVAC?
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| DMala |
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Sleep is overrated
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Reged: 05/09/05
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Posts: 3989
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Loc: Waltham, MA
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Re: Look no further
[Re: italie]
#306668 - 04/01/13 06:17 AM
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> Are you sure you weren't just finding the firebreaks? I cant envision ANY scenario
> where studs constantly alter location at mid height...And I've seen a LOT of
> disastrous construction...
I have no idea. All I can say for sure is that, where I was able to drill right near where the magnet stuck, I hit a stud. And in the two cases where I was about 18-24" from the magnet, there was nothing once I punched through the lathe.
The house was built circa 1900, and I'm pretty sure my upstairs is a finished attic. In my office on the same floor, I have a closet where the top of the door jamb is about an inch lower on the right than on the left, so who knows what's going on inside these walls.
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| DMala |
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Sleep is overrated
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Reged: 05/09/05
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Posts: 3989
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Loc: Waltham, MA
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Re: Look no further
[Re: redk9258]
#306669 - 04/01/13 06:20 AM
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> Maybe cut out for plumbing or HVAC?
There's definitely no plumbing or HVAC in that wall. Even electrical seems unlikely in the area where I was working.
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> so who knows what's going on
> inside these walls.
I had tried to warn Italie, but my warnings fell on deaf ears.
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