Ok, spent part of the afternoon wandering through Lowes. As expected, the only 2x2’s the sell are pressure treated ones intended for deck railings. No surprise there, I’ll jus thave to get 2x4’s and have them ripped, or just use 2x3’s like I did before.
Now here comes the problem. Witht he previous layout, I didn’t intend to move it anywhere with the legs the way they were. So I added no levelling options. I just clamped the legs insto position and leveled everything, then drilled holes to bolt them on. However, my apartment has hardwood floors, so I need some sort of part on the bottom that I can set inside those furniture cups to keep from scratching the floor. The traditional method is to drill a hole in the bottom of the leg, hammer in a T nut, and screw in a carriage bolt. So I visited the hardware section of Lowes where they keep these kinds of things, and got a sever case of sticker shock. A T nut is over $3 EACH. The carriage bolts come in packs of 4, but that’s about $8. So $5 each just for the hardware, plus the wood, plus the floor protector. I think I need some alternatives here. I suppose I could get the cheap tap-in felt pads and drive those into the bottom of a leg and then level it and make it a fixed leg like my previous layout. Any other bright ideas?
How much is a bundle of cedar door frame shims? Long and narrow…should do the job for you, particularly if you run two side-by-side in the opposite direction under each leg. They’ll be quite stable.
I’m sure that the 3/8" lag bolts I used weren’t that expensive! And my wife picked up a four-pack of those furniture leg saucers for under $2 at Wal-*art.
Of course, I bought my lag bolts at Home Desperate, not Lowe’s.
I too used 2x2 legs, and put rubber furniture pads under each. It worked like a charm, but of course the layout was never moved. All the screw type adjusters I’ve seen will cost you dearly. The one suggestion to use wood shingle shims “2 pieces facing each other on a leg” may be your best bet.
By the way, the Lowes down here does sell regular 2x2s, but they tend to be “hidden”. Frankly most are warped, and it took me quite awhile to get all I needed 14 years ago when I built the present layout. Like you indicated, you might be much better off with good 2x4s ripped with a quality blade.
I’m beginnign to think 1x4’s or maybe even 1x3’s would work fine for legs. The whole thing is lightweight - extruded foam, so why not? I can get the slightly better grade pieces like I did for the frames, it’s much more solid and straight. Plus it comes in already cut 4’ lengths - would make the base track height 52" which is about right where I want it. Add some 1x2’s for bracing… bottom of each would get one of those cheap nail-in floor protectors.
The hardware store where I bought my T nuts and carriage bolts for leveling my 2x2 legs had them available in quantity in boxes that were considerably cheaper than the separate prices you quote, which sound very very wrong to me.
On the subject of legs, I have used 2x2s – some of them ripped from 2x4s but others squared on every edge. The quality kept getting worse and worse (someone told me that the fast growing planatation pines yield this poor quality lumber) and some of them looked like cooked bacon. Fortunately I had most of what I needed when the quality really took a nose dive. But at about that time Jim Hediger of MR had an article about a layout he built that had legs ripped from plywood, formed into an “L” and screwed or glued together. I built two workbenches for my artist wife entirely out of 5/8" plywood, including the legs. They are surprisingly sturdy. Where I needed to adjust the height I used adhesive backed felt to build up height,
I decided to forgo leveling the benchwork perfectly. I got the benchwork resonably level and used risers to level (or unlevel) the trackwork. The tops of my legs stand proud of the benchwork about 2 inches, and have a series of holes about 1 inch apart, so I can make rough adjustments to the benchwork.
I spend so much time in Lowes I should have my own parking space, that being said I’m sure your looking at the nice shiny plated hardware. Unless your building a boat and need the protection of plating go with the non plated or even galvanized hardware a whole lot less expensive. As far as T-nuts go how many legs are you talking about 4, 6, 8? if it’s what you want spend the money now or you’ll be kicking yourself every time you look at them. As far as leveling goes why do you need the adjustment in the first place? Level the bench work by using a couple of spring clamps first, get it exactly where you want it and drill a pilot hole and use a couple of deck screws to hold the leg in place. Now drill your hole and set your carriage bolt and tighten em up. Unless you plan on moving the layout there should be no need for levelers. If you worried about scratching the hardwood floors find a carpet remnant and cut a few small squares and slip one under each leg. Even a couple of wraps of good Duct tape with prevent the legs from scratching the floor.
I have 4 of the mini sliders under my layout, these things are unbelievable, I can move my layout very easily and cheaply. Once you use them, you will never go without. I have moved tons of house hold things so easily its like they are on wheels.
Problem (mostly) solved. Dunno what’s up with Lowes, but I was at Home Depot tonight and the t-nuts there are less than a quarter each. Carriage bolts - 18 cents. I guess I will have to shop both to get the things I need - Lowes has decent quality pine for only a little more than their ‘normal’ (read ‘useless’) grade stuff, and offier it cut to various shorter lengths. But they don;t have 2" extruded foam and as seen above some of their hardware prices are literally nuts. Home Depot has good prices on the hardware, and they carry the 2" foam, but they only have the better quality lumber is full 8’ lengths. Home Depot does have 2x2’s, but after pickign through a dozena nd stuill not finding a single straight one, I gave up. They have 2x2’s in hardwoods, but at 2.75 a foot - forget it. Overkill anyway. 2x3’s like the last layout, or maybe ripped 2x4’s if they’ll cut them for me.
As I may have wrote earlier, we have a Lowes and Home Depot within a half block of each other and about 2 miles from the house. I’m a regular at both, and you used to typically find the stuff for “new and pretty” at Lowes, and basic construction and repair at Home Depot. But, not always, as they have changed a bit over the last few years.
When I built the existing layout 14 years ago, I spent a lot of time with my # 2 son going thru the delivered bundles of 2x2s. We managed to get enough for the 36 legs, but finding that decent piece of wood was a real hunt.
Quick story… I’ve got a lot of tools and equipment, but never got a table saw as it took up too much room (and the large band saw and chop saw handle most of my needs). But, when it came time to build the layout I needed one, and got a Craftsman thru the local neighborhood resale paper for $150, and the guy brought it to the house for me to boot! After I finished the benchwork, I put it back up for sale and sold it for $175, and of course the buyer came and picked it up! Maybe you could do something like that and make it worthwhile.
McMaster-Car sells T-nuts really cheap. They have a box of 100, zinc plated T-nuts for 1/4" bolts for $6.52. I use T-Nuts frequently on various projects out in the garage. My benchwork for my trains is put together with T-Nuts (legs to frame, section to section), in case I ever have to take it town to move it (I am in the military, so a move is very probable). I buy boxes of T-nuts from them (mail order off internet) in a few different sizes and just keep them on hand.
As for the floor protector, try cutting small squares of some scrap wood (cut offs from the legs?) and drill into them slightly with a forestner bit (or regular bit if that’s all you have), fill that cavity with some epoxy and then glue it to the head of the carriage bolt that will be screwed into the bottom of the leg. taper the edges of it a little, maybe glue some felt or carpet scraps under them and you are good to go.
I made the legs on mine fixed. I glued carpet strips to the bottoms of the legs so they don’t leave an impression in the linoleum tiles. Liquid Nails worked great for this.
Think I will make the legs the way they did for the Beer Line modules. Basically a little L girder with a 1x3 and 1x2, with a piece of 2x2 at the bottom for the foot. MR used casters, I’ll use the T nuts and carriage bolts. Not sure that floor-level 1x2 between the leg sets is needed - I’d probably extend the diagonal braces a little lower ont he leg for better support. This also solves the problem of junk 2x2’s - I can just find the best of a bad bunch and it won’t matter too much if it’s slightly warped over the entire length, as I will only be cutting off short pieces to fasten at the bottom of the leg.