Calculated Industries 8110 Center Mark Drywall Recessed Lighting Cutout Magnetic Locator Tool for Non-LED Cans, Yellow

I have been adding over 3000 square feet of addition to my existing home. My family had vastly outgrown our little 1100 sq ft. home so adding a garage and three bedrooms/baths was much needed. I decided to go with recess lighting throughout the entire addition to save on money and to also be able to use LED bulbs that have a multi year life expectancy. When I calculated the amount of drywall I would be hanging (200 12ft sheets!) I knew I was in for a huge project. I ended up installing over 50 recess "can" lights. For each light, I had to cut out the drywall around the circular opening. Typically this would have taken an extensive amount of time and effort just to get the hole cut out, and any mistakes in the measurements would cause the hole to be wrong which creates double the work repairing the hole. With this little tool it made cutting out the hole for the recess lighting the easiest part of the project. I simply screwed the lighting cutout into the light socket inside the "can" light. The tool extends out to almost 8 inches to account for different size recess lights too. The end of this tool has a magnet on it and it comes with another magnet that allow all the guess work to be taken out. I simply slid the one magnet along the ceiling until it stopped and stuck to the other magnet that was hanging down from inside the recess lighting canister on the other side of the drywall. I used a dremel tool to cut out around the recess light. (The recess light has a "lip" that a dremel drill bit can simply follow around the outside edge of.) What would normally take 15-20 minutes minimum per light to measure and cut out for now takes me 20-30 seconds! It is a perfect tool and simple to use. I would recommend this to anyone, regardless of your skill level and whether you are a DIY person or a professional contractor. Great little tool.

I used this while hanging drywall for a basement finishing project. It worked awesome. I used it to mark and cut out over 20 recessed cans. It is way faster and easier than measuring and marking. All of my cans were 6". It was very accurate overall and is perfect if using a spiral cutting tool to follow the perimeter of the can when cutting out the holes. This is how the product instruction describe how to use it. I used my DeWalt spiral cutter for a few of the cutouts, but it was blowing so much dust in my face that I switched to a 6" hole saw that was less messy when cutting overhead. Using the hole saw is a little more difficult because I would mark a circle around where the magnetic marker lined up and center the drill bit for the hole saw in that. On one or two of the cans, the Center Mark guide that screws into the light bulb socket of the light can ended up a little off center because the socket support of the can was bent at a slight angle and that threw things off. However, it didn't have too much impact as the holes were only off by 1/8" and I was easily able to slide the can into the hole cut in the drywall. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone hanging drywall and needing to cut out recessed light cans. This will only work in screw base cans. Some of the newer cans for LED don't have the screw base in the can so you can't screw in the magnetic target.

If you have ever tried to locate and cut the holes for pot lights while hanging new ceiling sheetrock, you will know that this item is a blessing, sent straight down from Heaven by my father-in-law to make my life less miserable. You simply screw the magnet into the existing pot light fixture, hang the sheetrock, and drag the other magnet across the area until it stays - voila! Simple design but worth your sanity.

Outstanding time saver!!! No more measuring, marking and hoping. Screw it into the fixture, rock over it and find it with the magnet. You have the center of the light every time. Just did an area with 12 lights and it worked perfectly for me. Paid for itself on the first job.One bit of advise, the magnet finder part snaps together and if dropped (you will drop it) can come apart with the magnet sticking to anything it goes near. I epoxied it together to solve this problem and made it solid. No effect on performance at all.

I'm a remodeling contractor and have to do some drywalling on most jobs. I'm doing a basement now and this really helps a lot! Much easier and quicker. I highly recommend these!!!

I used this tool to do the cut outs for 6 recessed pot lamps in a tongue and groove ceiling I installed in our home. Did not have to make one measurement. This tool does it all for you. Perfect cuts every time.

The CALCULATED INDUSTRIES 8110 CENTER MARK DRYWALL RECESSED LIGHTING CUTOUT LOCATOR TOOL, is really easy to use, and very accurate. These tools work really well, and take out the guess work. If your going to be doing some recessed lights, this would make your job a lot smoother !

Great product for installing around canned lights, seriously, I can't tell you how much time this saved. Not sturdy enough to take a drop without splitting or cracking, but great little tool.