testing for wires behind wood panelling

Go to the electrical department at Home Depot or Lowes and buy what I call a "squeaker". More properly called, I think, a non-contact voltage tester. It looks like a fountain pen. When you squeeze the pocket clip against the body, it chirps once. Then if you hold the tip near an energized wire, it chirps continuously.

There are two variants. One is labelled "100-250 volts". You must hold it within an inch or so of a 120VAC wire to make it chirp, so this may not work for you if the wires are buried back between the wall studs. But there is a "low voltage version" - mine says "12-90 VAC" that can detect a 120 VAC wire from considerably farther away. This is probably what you want. Mine is made by GB Instruments, model GVD-504LV (the LV suffix meaning "low voltage").

If you don't have a Home Depot or Lowe's near you, the standard version of these things is often available at Ace Hardware, etc - or on eBay - but I'm not sure about the low-voltage version. Still, they are not expensive, so try it out.

Bill Jeffrey =========================

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Thanks for the info Bill, much appreciated. I have a tester that only works with drywall, guess it's back to the store.

My dollar store sold some pen/screwdriver gadgets to do that.

The Mastech MS8900 is a nice little instrument.

Is the wire open or shielded, BX or conduit, carrying AC? low voltage? If it's like telephone or computer cable I've used a Tripplette Fox and Hound to do this. Check it out here:

I wonder whether you could use a small transmitter and detuned AM pocket radio or two kluged toy AM walkie talkies to do this job.

I've also used my kids play metal detector to trace out larger metal BX and conduit buried in walls.

Richard