This week’s question comes from Maurice. He writes:
I just finished a 5′ fern stand in poplar ready for spray in Cloud White. The problem is, despite accurate dimensioning and execution of mortise and tenons etc, the piece wobbles ie. it is fractionally unlevel. What is the best way to correct this problem? Thanks for the feedback.
And here was my reply:
“Hey Maurice. I would place the stand on your tablesaw or similar dead flat surface. Put some weight on the top so that the stand stays in one position (doesn’t wobble easily). Now here is the trick. Lay a sharp pencil down on the saw and trace a line around each leg. Now simply cut each leg exactly to the line. If you marked properly and cut to the line, the stand should be perfectly even with no wobble. And the closer you get that pencil to the table, the less material you will need to remove. So consider sanding the pencil down so one end is nice and flat and the point rests about 1/16-1/8″ above the flat surface. Make sense?”
9 Responses to “Leg-Leveling Technique”
Marc – Just to make sure I’m getting this correctly… If one of the legs is uneven and you put the stand on the TS and held it down, won’t it make the top unlevel after the cut? I get the idea but if one leg is longer than the rest (or one shorter) and you put it on a flat surface, your marks won’t make the table flat and level, will it? HELP! :-)
Thanks, Mike
If that doesn’t get it perfect, put some psa sand paper on a flat surface and rub the stand back and forth till it is perfect
OK Marc, I did that. I cut it six times and its still too short!
Hey Mike. From what I gathered, the discrepancy is not too great. So it shouldnt cause the table to go too far out of level. Certainly no more “un-level” than the floor its sitting on. :) If it were a major discrepancy between the legs, I would use weights and shims to get the table in a stable level position, then apply this technique.
Herman- Keep cutting. You’ll get there. :)
How many legs does this stand have? If it only has four, you only need to determine which of the four is long and slowly/carefully work that leg gradually down to get rid of the rocking motion overall.
Thanks, Marc! Makes sense now… I just had to visualize it a little better. Me brain don’t work so good sometimes. :-)
I appreciate the feedback!
I have found that if you are putting anything on a floor, especially hard wood floors, that it is going to wobble initially wherever you put it. No floor is dead flat so using a tension box or table saw top is only step one. After that is done and the table saw/tension box gods are pleased and shone on the project with delight, you are still going to have to shim it once it gets to its final resting place. I have found that the least obtrusive way of shimming is to get some clear plastic circle pads and place them under the project with the paper still covering the sticky back. Place them in a spot that deletes the wobble, sand if needed, and then peel off the sticky back and place permanently. The other thing that I have found that works for “slight” wobbles is using felt pads. The weight of the project, over a little, time crushes the felt pad on the foot that is carrying the most weight. Now if the piece is moved “reshimmying” needs to be done, but who doesn’t like a little shimmy?
why dont you just get some of those screw in adjustable feet?
heres some they come in 7/8”
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=1691
I appreciate the comments regarding my original question.
This is seemingly such a simple problem however nothing undermines the quality of a piece than a wobble.
Splayed legs are particularly prone to this problem, to the degree that one should assume a final trim as normative and/ or resort to LordLQQK’s suggestion to use a levelling shim.
I did some follow-up research before executing the procedure recommended by Marc :
I concurrently found an illustrated solution to this problem in the most recent “Tips, Jigs and Organizers”, from the editors of Wood magazine (on local news stands).
Check out page 124 at the back…how to…” make legs four-of-a-kind and flush to the floor”. Essentially similar to Marc’s solution placing the piece on the table saw as a level surface…
“In a piece of 1/4″ plywood, cut a hole larger than the diameter of the leg. From the same stock, cut three more small shims. Place one leg in the hole and trim the leg using a flexible flush-cut saw. Move the hole jig to the next leg, shim the just-cut leg and repeat the cutting and shimming process for the remaining three legs.”
If the language is not clear see the illustration.
I successfully used the shim-jig as described in the article as a marking guide and then took the piece to the table saw for trimming.
Lee Valley has self-levelling glides… ” the glides are self-levelling to prevent furnture wobble…”. . See their hardware catalogue, pp 179.
Maurice