Why use a level when building something?

Your basic premise is wrong to begin with. Levels do not work 'based on the ground, earth's positon, etc." It works on gravity which is permanently fixed to the center of mass of whatever planet, star, moon, etc. you are on.

Try again but get an education first.

Harry K

------------------------------------------------------------------------ You're correct. His basic premise is VERY wrong. The solar system is definitely NOT level:

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Scroll down to inclination where it shows how far off the planets are from ecliptic and from the equator of the sun. Of the eight planets, the orbital plane of Mercury has the greatest difference from Earth's at 7° orbital inclination. Pluto was the previous record-holder until it was deposed as a planet during a recent coup. (-:

The OP should appreciate having a level floor when he next loses his marbles - that way they'll stay in the pretty much the same place.

You're right about gravity. It's a pretty good basis for determing levels. What amazes me is that even though the Greeks clearly knew about levels and how to use them, they built "to eye" in the sense that "level and square" often don't look proportionally correct because of perspective effects.

To counter that effect the Greek builders created optical illusions to make the buildings appear perfect. If steps are built perfectly flat or horizontal, they will seem to sag in the middle. Every horizontal line in Grecian temples therefore curves slightly upwards. If columns are built straight up and down, they will appear to lean outwards. The ancient Greeks built vertical lines to lean towards the middle.

They were quite familar with plumb bobs, ancient ones have been discovered in the rubble of temples that collapsed from earthquakes during construction. They used them, however, to deliberately and precisely build "out of plumb" so that it would look perfectly rectangular from a distance. Quite an idea using levels to deliberately build out of plumb buildings that looked perfect but were far from it, anglewise.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green
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"DerbyDad03" wrote in message news:fcde6cbd-9402-4b83-aca4-

Reply to
Robert Green

Quack! Quack! Quack!

Reply to
Twayne

The bubbles wear out from use.... :)

Reply to
jw

re: "I figure if they're sly enough to put all the bad stock in the front, I'm sly enough to pull all the good stock from the back."

You are giving the staff at HD way too much credit.

Many of us do what you do...check each board before purchasing.

I'll pull a board off of the rack, see that it sucks and put it off to the side. I'll pull another, and if it's good, I'll put it on the cart. This gets repeated until I have all the boards I need.

When I'm done, I've got a stack of crap boards off to the side. Since I'm a nice guy, I put them back on the rack. Some folks may not, so the HD staff does.

In either case, all of the crap boards end up in the front, but not because of any creative thinking (read: slyness) on the part of the HD staff. It's a result of nothing more than the sorting process and the return of the crap boards to the easiest location.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

re: "anything longer that a 4' level is a pain to use and store"

I have a 6' aluminum level that I love.

It fits easily along the side of my trailer and I store it in the "rafters" of my shed.

I needed a 6' level for the Derby cars to reach from axle to axle to ensure the car was level before tuning the spindles. Once I bought it, I started using it for all sorts of other projects.

Reply to
DerbyDad03

re: "anything longer that a 4' level is a pain to use and store"

I have a 6' aluminum level that I love.

It fits easily along the side of my trailer and I store it in the "rafters" of my shed.

I needed a 6' level for the Derby cars to reach from axle to axle to ensure the car was level before tuning the spindles. Once I bought it, I started using it for all sorts of other projects. ============================================= I didn't say it wasn't useful, but that it's clumsy to handle and for the normal workshop, hard to store. Tell me you haven't banged into a doorway or knocked something over with it when using it in the house. With a straight (and level) face!

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

re: "I figure if they're sly enough to put all the bad stock in the front, I'm sly enough to pull all the good stock from the back."

You are giving the staff at HD way too much credit.

Many of us do what you do...check each board before purchasing.

I'll pull a board off of the rack, see that it sucks and put it off to the side. I'll pull another, and if it's good, I'll put it on the cart. This gets repeated until I have all the boards I need.

When I'm done, I've got a stack of crap boards off to the side. Since I'm a nice guy, I put them back on the rack. Some folks may not, so the HD staff does.

In either case, all of the crap boards end up in the front, but not because of any creative thinking (read: slyness) on the part of the HD staff. It's a result of nothing more than the sorting process and the return of the crap boards to the easiest location.

---------------------------------------------------------------- That *might* get them off the hook if they didn't also place all the opened and resealed packages of tools, screws, etc. to the front, etc. They pulled that crap on me with a new toilet, claiming that the open box one was the only one they had. They stuck with that BS until I called the district manager on my cellphone (programmed in from an earlier, similar run-in) and insisted that the manager walk me back into the stock area. He didn't have to because within minutes they were wheeling out a new, sealed unit just like the one in the badly ripped, open box.

I've seen so many retailers do this I can only assume it's SOP. While you theory can certainly explain some of the crap being pushed to the front, it can't explain why there's only one GD toilet in an open box in the plumbing area but apparently plenty more in the back.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

DerbyDad is the king of obtuse humor, as in "Metal Yard Shed" somehow meaning a shed for a metal yard. Now the Thermos joke *was* really funny but my feeling is that if you have to explain a joke to more than one person, you should drop it from your stand-up comedy act. No offense Derby, but obtuse humor often creates ill will when it's misinterpreted. The first exchange we had way back when was a case in point. You were making a joke and I thought you were being insulting.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

I'll grant you that a single open-package being out front while there are sealed ones in the back of the store sounds fishy.

However, I still don't think the staff is purposely moving bad boards to the front as part of their job responsibilities. I sincerely believe that they just end up there after the customers sort all the good ones out.

I also don't think they place open/resealed packages in front in any kind of "sly" manner.

Let's say I return an open package of an item to the Returns desk. The package needs a piece of tape to keep it closed so if I haven't already done it, the person staffing the Returns desk does.

Now, every once in a while they call someone from each department to put the returned items back where they belong.

If you were the guy from hardware who had to restock a box of screws and there were already 6 boxes on the shelf, would you remove the six sealed boxes, place the taped up one in the back and then re-shelf the sealed ones? I doubt you would, but not because of any "slyness" on your part. It's simply easier to just push the other boxes back and put the returned one in the front, the same as you would do with an unopened package.

Once again, no one placed the open package in the front in an attempt to be sly...it was nothing more than a convenient place to put it.

Even if it wasn't a retuned item...let's say it was a ripped open box already on the shelf...once it's removed and taped up, it's simply easier to just put it in the front and be done. If a customer opened the box, odds are he's just going to put it right back where he got it from - the front.

I really think that in most cases, you are gving the store too much credit. I think that open items end up in front through other means than "slyness".

Reply to
DerbyDad03

Yeah, that was obvious. Since I've broken bubbles on levels before, I thought he was leveling something in a hazardous zone.

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That's pretty cool. Another $25 to spend. Thanks )-:

I'll bet Harbor Freight's got one.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

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Much better pricing and free shipping with $50+. You guys really know how to use up my allowance.

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

Another believe in the goodness of man. That's guantlet number two!

People are evil, I assure you. (-:

A walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet!

-- Bobby G.

Reply to
Robert Green

With lumber I wouldn't doubt a good operation gets rid of at least the worst stuff as the customer sorts it to the front. Not the barked up studs going for 69 cents, but at least the 2 buck studs. If there's a competing operation down the road a normal buyer doesn't want to wade through too much crap. I go down the road to a different source if I have to sort too much. I just don't knowingly buy open box. Usually crazy unless deeply discounted. Then it's half-crazy. But a couple months ago I bought a NEW Felpro manifold gasket kit from Amazon. Might have saved a couple bucks on the kit, but I did it for the convenience. The damn thing had been opened. Sure enough, one of the upper plenum gaskets was missing, and the lower metal-framed gaskets were bent as if they had mishandled. Had to go to the FLAPS for the plenum gasket. So if there was any savings buying from Amazon, that was wiped out. Excuse me. I'm going to the Amazon site to leave a scathing review. Keep forgetting to do that.

--Vic

Reply to
Vic Smith

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