Put all that stuff you bought away. Do the following
Tap on the wall with your finger, you will be able to hear a hollow area as
you tap across the wall. When you come to a stud it will have a
solid sound. Take a small nail and hammer it slowly into the wall, if you
miss the stud move 1/2 inch at a time until your nail hits the stud
On a lot of walls over a door their is a solid peice of limber so your stud
finder will not work there. Hope this helps.


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"skunkybeast" wrote in message
t...
I needed to find studs above my garage door to install a much needed
automatic garage door opener. I went out to home depot and bought a stud
finder. I figured that I'll get the cheapest one they have thinking I'll
only use it a few times, I bought the Zicron StudSensor SL.
JUNK! found out it can only read on smooth surfaces not like the
finished wall above my garage door. Then I go return it, and decide to buy
a
Stanley (top of the line) for $30 instead of $10 I paid for the other one.
I bought the Stanley IntelliSensor Digiscan Stud Sensor and again
JUNK!.
I try to test it at home in my basement on a wall with a finished side and
an unfinished side with the studs showing. I measured the distance to the
stud and marked it on the finished side. I ran it across the wall and it
showed I had a 7-1/4" stud. After 15 or 20 more tries I still could not
get
anywhere near an accurate reading. I was ****ed.
My question is: are stud finders supposed to find studs in the walls
or
find that there is wood in the walls somewhere. If they are real and
somebody knows a good one please tell me what where and how much. This is
just too much just to find one or two lousy studs, especially with my
short
fuse. thanks, chris