Unpopular opinion: the free printable stud finder from the hardware store flyer actually worked
I laughed at my father in law when he pulled a paper template out of his pocket at his place in Tucson two weekends back. It was one of those cardboard slide things you get at the register, and he swore it would find the studs behind his 1970s drywall. We tested it on 6 spots against my $40 electronic one and it matched on 5 of them, only missing once near an outlet where the wiring messed with both. The trick is you slide it along the wall and listen for the pitch change when you tap, which sounds dumb but your ear picks up the hollow vs solid way faster than I expected. I am not tossing the electronic one, but for a quick job on a ladder it is now the first thing I grab. Has anyone else had luck with the cheap cardboard ones, or did I just get a weirdly honest batch?