Building workbench...how to level legs?

You could install adjustable leveling feet in each of the legs, you could just shim the short one(s), or you could build a level platform and set the workbench on top of it.

Lee

I have a slope in the floor of my garage. I placed the table perpendicular to the the slope, and used shims to get everything level. Given the table is a couple of hundred pounds, everything is solid and level. If you have serious unevenness, this solution may not work. I did consider building a raised floor for the shop tools that I would make level. Did that once with the back porch when we converted it to a sun room. Compound slopes in two directions. It was tough to level out.

DGA

Well, my afternoon project is addressing this problem on my workbench. I'm using these leveling feet available at Rockler

I found levelers on other websites similar to mine that quoted load bearing of 300 lb each. That should be sufficient. My biggest concern is whether they will cause the bench to slide around or not. I'll let you know.

BTW, my workbench is solid maple with 2 1/4" thick maple top, but its small (28" x 54"). With its heavy bench vise and a drawer full of planes I am guessing it weighs about 120 lb.

The DIY bench calls for mounting the vise directly to the edge of the bench. I recommend you mortise the rear jaw into the bench and below the surface. That allows you to have one continuous surface on top and the rear jaw of the vise is part of a continuous surface with your bench apron. I put a 4'" x 3/4" apron on my bench and extended it across the rear vise jaw. Its makes for a much friendlier clamping situation.

Bob

If I were faced with that problem, I'd build the bench with all legs the same length/

Then cut 4 extra pieces of leg material, say 12"-18" long.

Put the bench in place and then using a small hydraulic jack and some shim packs made from say 1/4" plywood, (The shim pack can be say 2"x6"), level the bench.

When you have the bench totally level. then clamp a 12"-18" piece to each leg so that it touches the floor and clamp in place with some C-Clamps.

Wait about 2 weeks, recheck bench for level. If level, bolt leg and piece together with some 3/8 bolts and large fender washers, then remove clamp.

SFWIW, ever wonder how they level out a 20 ton boat when they put it in a cradle or a house when they move it?

Same way.

Lew

What I describe above comes under the heading of BFU (Butt F**K Ugly)

Use only the shim packs.

If you make them 3x6 the you can turn successive layer 90 degrees.

Another approach is to drill a hole in the bottom of the leg, then install a 1/2-13 S/S Tee nut, then screw in a 1/2-13 x 3"-4" S/S carriage bolt with a lock nut.

If you are on a concrete floor this works, a wood floor, stay with the shim packs.

Lew

I would think that 1/4" is way too thick to make fine adjustments on bench level. As little as a 1/16" inch can make the difference between rock solid and wobble (depends on how far apart the legs are but not much).

Bob

So include some shims from a door skin.

Lew

The way I leveled my router table was to get four 3/4" bolts and matching nuts from the hardware store, and use them as heavy-duty levelers. Basically, I just drilled a 3/4" hole in the bottom of each leg as deep as the bolt could go, then a slightly larger hole for the nut to fit into. Six taps with the chisel turned that larger hole into a nice hex-shaped mortise, and then the legs could be leveled with a wrench no matter where I put it.

You can buy levelers as well, but this approach seemed more sturdy. FWIW, I wouldn't make the legs different sizes. At worst, you're better off just shimming them.

I like your idea. If I had seen it originally, I wouldn't have wasted the money on levelers.

Bob

Couple of things to consider re: leg levelers for your bench

1. you want some friction at the contact area where the leveler meats the floor. The ones I used are 3 " in diameter

1. you want the foot to swivel so it'll sit flat on the floor

2. the easier they are to adjust the more apt you are to relevel as things settle. The ones I used are adjustable from the top using an allen wrench - much easier than trying to get two wrenches under a leg/base

I don't know what the bench you're doing look likes. The leve levelers I used work great on a sled base - won't work on four leg bench though. I also don't know if this is the first of several benches you intend to make. Most folks start out with a quick and dirty bench which later becomes an assembly bench and then build a better, more useful one later. Some go through several "ideal benches" before settling on their "final bench".

Before I built Das Bench I went through Scott Landis and Allen's workbench books along with all the magazine articles I could find on benches and bench building. Asked questions here and from a few woodworkers I know.

As strongly recomended, I bought the hardware (vises) before working out the first of many iterations of scaled "plans".

Enjoy building your bench, you'll learn a lot.

charlie b

Put T-nuts and hex bolts into the bottom ends of the legs. Thread a nut on the bolt before installing it in the t-nut. Adjust the bench for level and use the extra nut on each bolt to lock everything in place.

Barry

Instead of sinking a nut into the wood, I was wondering if you considered trying T-nets to the same effect?

You can stop the bench from rocking on an uneven floor, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the bench is "level".

While the following doesn't necessarily apply to those Cadillac benches for aesthetic reasons, it will work on any bench destined for use on an uneven concrete floor like you find in garage shops, and it is cheap:

One trick that helps in solving both level and rocking problems, in that if makes it much easier to shim, is to design the legs so that half of the inside bottom of the leg (usually the inside half) is about 1/4 to 1/2" shorter than the outside half, thusly:

• *
• *
• *
• *
• ******

That "notch" on the foot of each leg makes it real easy to shim heavy bench/work table for both level and rocking on all four legs. You can cut the shallow notch into your solid legs, or if you make your bench legs out of doubled 2 x 4's as many of us poor boys did, just make one tubufour slightly shorter than the other.

FWIW

I leveled my bench by using the old style (dense rubber) mousepads as shims. It also has the effect of preventing the bench from skidding on the concrete floor.

I can't imagine *trying* to cut the legs unevenly.

Wait a second ... maybe if you *did* try to, then your legs would be perfectly even. Heaven knows, doing it the other way didn't work.

Chuck Vance

This really does not have to be complicated.

I have traditional maple bench that weighs in well over 200 lbs. The base has 3"x3" horizontal members near the floor.

I cut 3"x3" x 1/2" *pads* =for the whole thing to rest on. I tried it a recut the pads until everything sat just right.

One screw holds each pad to the bottom of the tressle cross member.

If/when I have to move and relevel the bench, I'll just make sone new pads.

-Steve

Level? Forget level, I'm happy with "not rocking".

My bench is shimmed with squares of scrap cardboard. It never moves. I did actually make some attempt to get it level front-to-back, because I've got a bunch of drawers on ball-bearing slides, and if it's not level, the drawers open or close by themselves, which is annoying.

I've got a bunch of things which move around in the shop (bandsaw, drill press, router table, etc). For that, I've got a bunch of wooden wedges that live on the floor. When I move something and it's rocking on the uneven concrete floor, I just find the nearest wedge and kick it under the short leg. Seems to work well enough.

"Upscale" wrote in news:gJmdncnYu9K snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com:

The problem with T-nuts is that they've got a tendency to come out if you're moving something quite often. Not a problem for the typical work bench, but for something like an N-trak module, it's definately something to be aware of.

Puckdropper

Thinking about it, I'd also guess that any type of standard bolt and nut combination would cause the head to the bolt to gouge whatever type of floor that the bench is sitting on, especially so with a really heavy bench. Guess there's nothing to match a really level floor.

"Upscale" wrote in news:4PCdnZ2dnZ0E snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com:

What I've considered doing is putting the felt "feet" on the bolt head (just a little smaller than the head) to keep it from messing up the surfaces. I haven't tried it yet, but it'll be a lot better than bolt vs. floor surface.

If you aren't going to be moving the bench a lot (who does?) you could put the levelers on the TOP of the leg rather than the bottom and that would solve the floor problem.

Puckdropper

Being lazy, and starting with a bench that I built for a level floor, I used the following method: (YMMV)

Drill 2 3/8" or larger holes in each "down hill" leg...

Mark matching holes in short pieces of scrap that matches leg.. (in my case, 2 x

Rout adjustment slots in the pieces of scrap, usually 1 1/2" or so will do it...

Lift low end with floor jack until level...

Bolt scrap on legs with carriage bolts...

Lower bench and check level..

After adding these, I didn't like the look of the scrap blocks, (I put them on the outside of the leg, to avoid a cross beam), I added a 2 x 4" across the 2 scrap blocks for a foot rest...

mac

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