On 12/18/2004 12:52 PM RBM wrote:

I'm a thirty plus year electrician. I bought one of those GB toys a year
ago. It seemed to work OK the first time I used it, but never again. I think
it was just pot luck the first time. I remember stud finders being about as
accurate when they first came out.

They're better now? I've got, like, three. One is a magnet on a pivot
which my Dad used to find nails, presumably driven into studs. Yeah --
like that works. Half the time the original nail was sufficiently off
the stud centerline that every nail I drove in afterward hits air. The
other two operate on some mysterious principal possibly employed in fish
finders or divining rods. They have various colored LED lamps on them.
With their help I have found blintz-shaped areas on walls that seem to
move around mysteriously depending on which finder I am using. My latest
technique is to smash a paint-filled balloon near the wall. The blotches
of paint indicate the location of studs with about the same accuracy as
my stud finders. I can then proceed to pound in nails with confidence
that I will find plenty of "wall air."
--

Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
71 Type 2: the Wonderbus
84 Westphalia: "Mellow Yellow (The Electrical Banana)"
KG6RCR