Good tool or jig for hanging large pictures?

[Lee Schierer]

I haven't found a reliable studfinder, despite several tries.

I recently had to find the studs behind a tiled wall in a bathroom to mount some safety rails. My regular electronic stud finder found nothing. Knocking on the wall with my knuckle only gave me a sore knuckle. Fortunately I had my Little Wizard metal detector and some 1/2" x 1/2" rare earth magnets that I had brought along. By sliding the metal detector over the wall, I could locate the screws holding the dry wall to the studs. Then I could get one of the magnets to stick on the wall where the screws were. By finding several screws in a vertical line, I could define exactly where the studs were. I have used this method several times since to find studs.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

Hi guys,
I need a tool or a jig to hang some pics on a freshly painted wall. They are roughly 30" long and 24" high, so somewhat awkward to handle and a little heavy. I expect to use 2 hangers on each picture. I've used tape measures and levels and can eventually get it right. But then I have to touch up the paint.

Googling brings up tools that let you hold the pic on the wall with one hand and mark it. But these pics will require 2 hands to place on the wall. So then I spotted this "Hang it Perfect" gizmo. LINK Has anybody used one? Or do you know of another tool or home made jig that works well?

As always, thanks for your help.
Fred

At your shoes I would consider something based on French cleat. It looks very convenient and effective for a such heavy and big stuff.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I hung around 200 paintings in a day and a half for a pop-up art gallery using a Bosch Green Laser GLL 100 GX. It snaps a vertical and horizontal line. The trick is to snap the line at the middle of where you want them to hang, or of you want all to be lined up across the top or bottom, snap it there. I had may paintings of different sizes, so I snapped a line in the middle.

With a middle line projected on the wall, I measured each painting, divided by two, and then pulled the wire on the back taught in the middle as it would when hanging, and measure the distance from the wire to the top edge of the painting. Subtract that from 1/2 the height of the painting and whatever that number is, measure up that amount. Your paintings will all be hung centered.

Also, the vertical line helps you position it where you want, and measure up the green line to be right on the mark.

[Keith Westfall]

I had to hang 5 kids portraits in a double row (3 & 2) for my daughter, and not wanting to 'mark the wall' I ran 2 vertical stripes of masking tape on each end of the wall and measured down to determine the height I wanted to be for each row. Then a ran a small string line across the 2 vertical strips secured on each end with tape. Simple measure for separation of each picture and placed a hangar nail. (she had wires on the back - yes I checked each for same length!)

Worked great, no marks, and spacing that she was happy with...

[Tom M King]

I looked at the other studfinder today. It's a Zircon i520. I needed to find some studs in a 1798 house to support my theory that there was an earlier door in a location now covered with an early 19th century plaster wall, and the other one wouldn't read through the plaster. This one did, and proved my theory by pointing out the wider framing members beside the old door opening.

[Frederick Skelly]

Thanks everyone! I'm reading it all and taking it all in. I appreciate it.

Tom, I'll go read about that zircon -thanks!
Fred