Before hanging a wall cabinet, you need to find the wall studs. Electronic stud finders are relatively inexpensive. Flashing LED lights and an audible beep are supposed to tell you where a stud is located, but you can get false readings. Your screws hit only thin air and leave holes to be patched. Recently, while installing a built-in cabinet, I tried a new gadget called the MagicStud Finder. To use it, you simply place a disk–a rare-earth magnet encased in plastic–in a holder. Then you slide the holder back and forth on the wall in search of a drywall screw. When the holder passes above a screw, the magnet attaches itself to the wall directly over the screw. No need to move slowly; the magnet pops out of the holder and onto the wall even if your hand is moving it pretty quickly. In short, it worked great.

MagicStud Finder comes with five targets, so you can locate several studs at once. It sells for $15 plus $6 shipping and handling. To learn more go to www.magicstudfinder.com.

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