Customer Reviews

Black & Decker SF100 Wood Stud Finder

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

Have several stud finders - A Stanley and a Zircon, occasionally they make a mistake, both mostly right on. This Black and Decker gets it right 1 out of 100. Yes, it was cheap, but so were the others. I need several - one in each truck, one home, one tool box-because of what I do. Don't need anything fancy, but this is a joke. I have figured out how to use it though-go to the left four times and mark the beep (each one will be different). Go to right 4 times, mark as above. Find center between two outermost marks and two inner most marks. Mark each on, and measure differnce between, add difference divide by 2. mark that spot. Drive in nail. if you don't find a stud, drive nail again 1/8 inch to left. Keep driving nail at 1/8 intervals until you find a stud. This is stud edge. Meassure 3/4 in to left. This is center. Mark center. Patch holes with drywall compound.
It think they have discontinued this item. Good riddance.

Not accurate. I drilled holes to find that there was NO stud where it said there WAS. I could've guessed just as easily. It also left black marks on the walls from the felt pads on back of product. Don't waste your money!

I dont have a clue how thick my walls are. This product says it works on up to 3/4" thick walls. I figured living in an apartment complex that the thickness would be average if not thin. Apparantly that was too much for the Black & Decker SF100. I'm pretty disappointed. Too bad I cant get my money back now. Maybe I can sell it on ebay *shrugs* I dont advise buying it though, that's just my 2 cents.

Bought this for my husband when we decided to take out our baseboard and put in in-wall electric heaters. This thing found studs only going from right to left. Then it wouldn't quit beeping after the stud had passed. Going from left to right on a wall doesn't make it go off at all. After several misses on the stud finder and some extra holes in the wall which needed to be patched, we tossed this piece of junk in the garbage and got a dewalt. DO NOT BUY!

Do not waste your money on this product. I have spent the last hour trying to find studs with this, only to be completely frustrated, and have two holes in the wall with no studs behind them.

Thanks Black and Decker!

We also live in an older house, where hanging pictures it not a problem, but I purchased this so that I could loacte wall studs to securely attach anti-tip furniture straps to protect our toddler.
I tried several times over any given area of wall, and could not get a repeatable reading. It detected studs where there was none and missed some completely. I ended up placing the dresser between 2 windows so I knew there were studs there.
Recently tried it again in a different room where we have doors that slide into the wall. I discovered that I could see into the wall in the 1/2" gap by the door, and I could determine the actual location of studs (almost 3 " wide) with a measuring tape. This stud finder was still just as clueless.

I have no idea how thick the walls have been when I've used this tool, so chalk up my complaints to naivety if you like.

I can't begin to explain how frustrating it is to find a stud's edge in one direction, but in the other direction, nothing. It's like a paradox. This stud only exists if you move right to left?? This happens over and over and over with this tool. I'm completely a layman when it comes to home repairs and handymanly work. Using this tool, I found a stud, mounted a monitor, put a little weight on it, and it pulled right out. Turns out, I was almost an entire inch away from the stud, while the whole time I assumed I was dead center inside it. Probably my mistake, but this tool did not help at all.

It's not all bad, as it has accurately helped me on more than one occasion. I just have to take it's readings with a grain of salt, and usually have to do drill tests with my smallest bit, just to be certain.

This thing came with a combo kit with a drill and saw, so at least I can use those. You would be better off just using a tape measure. It's way too sensitive, the area of a stud being located is about 6 inches wide, so you divide that in half and it's still no where close. I still had to drill several holes to locate the stud which was 2 inches from the left beep and 4 inches from the right side beep. It locates the next stud between 14 inches and twenty inches from that stud. Much less frustrating just to use a tape measure.

I got this stud finder bundled in with a Black and Decker cordless power drill set. It is pretty much worthless. It will beep every once in a while but then I can move it right back to the same area and it may or may not beep at all. This past year I tried to use it again when hanging up a tool-holding track system in my garage. I ended up finding the studs eventually but not after putting around 7 extra holes in my track system. What a turd.

This wood stud finder only works maybe 10 % of the time. I tried it in the garage where I can actually see the studs and it can only find a few of them. Then I tried it in the house and it never detected any studs! I guess my roof on my house is just floating in thin air!