Leveling tools on a garage floor

[Stan Graves]

Hi all,

I'm finally setting up shop in my garage. The problem is the slope of the floor. My garage floor is pretty flat from side to side, but slopes about 1/2" every 4 feet from back to front. The total drop is

2.25 inches over 20 feet.

What is a good way to level the mobile tools and carts as I move them around the floor? When using the table saw, the infeed support needs to be about 5/4" taller than the outfeed support to have all the table surfaces at the same elevation.

My solution so far involves some tape on the floor to mark the tool locations. As long as the mobile carts are on those spots, everything is level. I'd like something more flexible for general use.

Any ideas?

--Stan Graves

[Jack]

As long as the floor is flat I'd hesitate to worry about it being a bit out of level (except perhaps for an assembly table or workbench). If you can get over that, then you just make your outfeed support the same height as your saw and no matter where they are they will be flat.

-Jack

[mttt]

If the drop is consistent - and you keep the tools in the same orientation, then I'd think the solution is as "simple" as raising two casters.

I've got two problems - my slope is not consistent. Rise is less at front of garage; more near door. And I like to be able to spin my tools around. I'm wondering:

- is my only option to have the floor overcoated and re-floated to be level?

[Bay Area Dave]

I have an extreme solution for you Stan. Install level wood flooring over the concrete. Your legs and feet will be happier and dropped tools should survive a fall nicely. It hurts to drop an $100 router bit on concrete...

Simple solution? none that doesn't involve bending down and jamming wedges under the low sides of the equipment. I just ignore the slope of my garage (ah, studio ) floor. As long as the outfeed table isn't higher than the TS table, everything moves along smoothly. I also have lots of adjustable roller stands.

dave

Stan Graves wrote:

[Larry C in Auburn, WA]

It hasn't been a problem for me. My tools aren't level, but they are sitting flat on the floor. Draw yourself on paper a simple picture of your TS and an infeed support and an outfeed support assuming a perfectly level floor. Now regardless of how you rotate the paper your tables are still at the right height for you TS. The problem is if you try to level everything. I don't know if it makes sense to you, but it did to me... I wouldn't level your tools except maybe your bench. In your case your floor slope is about

1/4" over a TS width (assuming your saw is 2.5' wide) which isn't enough to worry about.

[Bridger]

since the slope isn't constant there isn't likely to be an easy solution. you could get fancy with some self levelling machine bases, but they are expensive and still wouldn't arrive at the same height at different places in the garage. if each machine had all of it's own infeed and outfeed tables attached and on the same base it might be workable. otherwise you might work on making a set of wheel chocks of different heights Bridger

[C]

You state the slope is from one end of the garage to the other. Is there also a slope from side to side? If that slope is 0 or close to 0, then use your tools with a side-to-side orientation. If done correctly, your path of travel for workpieces would be level.