I came upon a leg leveler idea for a module. Included below are two pictures of the leg leveler. The web site stated that this was very easy to built. Have any of you built a leg leveler like for your benchwork. I can find the bolt, nut and washer. I am interested in the black cap. Does anyone know where you can get them and how to complete the leveler? Thanks for your help.
Steven
Here’s what they look like:
This is the adjustable foot bolt. It is often necessary to adjust the height at train shows. These make adjustment quick and easy. They’re also inexpensive to make.
Here is an adjustable foot bolt attached to a leg. Legs are diagonally braced for stability.
The black item looks like a plastic pipe cap to me. You can find them in the plumbing section of the big box stores as well as your local hardware store. Normally they are white, but I believe that the color has to do with what the pipe material is.
I made one like that for my home railroad. The top center of the cap gets drilled out to just clear the long threaded bolt. The bolt is inserted through, and should really by epoxied in place to keep the bolt stationary relative to the cap. As shown, the protruding part of the bolt gets the nut and lockwasher. I don’t think that I epoxied the bolt head on the one I made, but I think that step was suggested in the article where I first saw the arrangement.
The module leg gets drilled out to accept a tee nut, which is sized to accept the leveler bolt.
The whole units are commercially available from hardware stores at a very reasonable price.
There are varieties like the picture in which you drill a hole and screw the leg directly into the wood. I prefer the ones that come with a threaded insert that you fit into the leg and then screw the leveler into. A machine screw as shown has low, tight threads. If you make the hole too small, they’ll be hard to insert. If you make it too large, it won’t hold. Normal expansion and contraction of the wood with moisture changes will affect the size of the opening, and may cause problems.
The RIGHT way for any threaded leveler is to have some sort of insert, not just a hole in the leg. I too use ones that come 4 to a pack and include an insert (plastic but as I don’t intend to tear down and rebuild my benchwork on a regualr basic, they seem sturdy enough). Other you can get with metal inserts, or with a DIY thing like pictured, a T-nut should be hammered in the bottom and the bolt threaded into that
The HD version shown could work, but it has size faults – stem too short to make up for some un even floors, and is that diameter big enough to support 1/4 or 1/2 the weight of a module? Our club is in the process of building new modules, and we went with a home build version. The original modules had plain stove bolt adjusters. Trying to spin those after several years, with the weight of the module on it, and even getting a wrench on the little square part got to be a pain. The new adjusters are 1/4x4" bolts thru PVC pipe caps. The sequence is bolt head, washer, PVC cap, washer, nut. That cap makes it easy to grab and spin, and the plastic slides easier on most floors.
When I biult my layout which is on a cement floor. I drilled pilot holes in the bottom of the legs and installed lag bolts. Very easy to adjust with a small wrench.
I’m using them and they have plenty of play. A couple of mine are extended 2 inches. As far as weight, they’re appliance levelers, used on things like refrigerators, washers and dryers. Layouts are quite a bit lighter than those.
I have a motorcycle frame table in my shop that came with these cheesy little leveling feet. So I took 4 1/4x20 bolts and welded for large flat washers to the top of the bolt heads. cleaned em up and powder coated them and the bolt head can be used to level the table.
You think it may sound like a bit of overkill for a modular layout but your biggest concern is going to be stability. The more flat surface you have on the ground the better off you’ll be I would make the base at least as large as the bottom of the table leg if not a bit larger.
Go out on the driveway and pick up some of your kids Hockey Pucks. Drill a hole through the puck with a counter sink for the bolt head. Put a large washer between the nut and puck. Use “T-nuts” or the appropriate size of nut glued into in the leg. These work great on cement floors. They’re big, cheap and don’t slide around. “Only in Canada you say”.
I use 3/8"-16 X 2" elevator bolts with T-nuts for sleeves. I get mine at ACE Hardware®. The last time I bought any . . . . . and that, admittedly, was a few years back . . . . . they were running a little bit more than a buck. They are available online from Amazon.com® at about the same price.
To compensate for floor undulations I went to an auto supply store and bought myself a package of 2 " boot patches.
I use these levelers that I got from McMaster-Carr and inserted T-nuts in the bottom of the leg and then used a 5/16 hex nut to lock the leveler once it was adjusted to the right height.
I used item No. 23015T63 which has a 5/16-18 thread, 2 ¾” long at $10.15 per pack of 12
Our little modular club here has an idea which I am surprised never to have seen online or in print. In my opinion, it is far more practical and easier to use than any idea I’ve ever seen, including those posted here.
I can’t seem to get any picture paste function to work (Firefox) so description will have to do:
The club uses eyebolts (1 5/8 " dia, 3/8" thread) inserted into commercially available nylon threaded inserts in the bottom end of circular metal conduit (about 1" dia). Putting eyebolts into Tee Nuts in 2x2s works as well. Simple to adust on the floor with a screwdriver stuck through the eyebolt. This gives far more leverage, and no slippage or banged knuckles.
I’m tired of fooling with wrenches to reach hex bolts in carpet - a clumsy solution at best for me, especially when the bolt is carrying a lot of weight and the wrench slips. I’m in the process of converting all mine to eyebolts and Tee Nuts.
