Getting Saw Horse Legs level

[Curly Qsawn]

My first project with my BT was a new set of saw horses like Tom Silva and Norms. I was not careful enough assembling and of course the legs are not square. I just want to get the horses not to rack. Should I shim the short legs or plane the long legs and is there a method or just adjust, check, adjust, check, start over. Thanks for any tips.

[LCHIEN]

quote:Originally posted by Curly Qsawn

My first project with my BT was a new set of saw horses like Tom Silva and Norms. I was not careful enough assembling and of course the legs are not square. I just want to get the horses not to rack. Should I shim the short legs or plane the long legs and is there a method or just adjust, check, adjust, check, start over. Thanks for any tips.

"adjust, check, adjust, check, start over"

that sounds like trial and error and you could end up with real short legs this way.

First thing you gotta realize is that few floors are really flat - flat. So if its rocking where you placed it will it rock the same elsewhere?

So once you've decided your floor is flat and all the error is due to the legs and that levelling the legs to flat now will make you happy because all the floors you'll ever set it on will be equally flat ()...

1. using scraps and bits of stuff, place them under the short leg until all the rocking is gone. The stuff could be sheets of non-corrugated cardboard, for example, or even sheets of paper.
2. Measure the total height of the stuff. This is the correction you'll make to the closest leg. (this assumes a small correction - you just said that you wanted the sawhorse not to rack and I thus assume you don't care if the sawhorses are not totally level to each other).
3. Assuming the legs are at some angle, the amount to be cut off is longer than the amount you meaured. THis involves geometry and 1/cos(angle). I make it easy for you.
If you know the angle of your leg (from perpendicular), use this table. If you don't know the angle of the leg, assume its around 20 degrees, typical of sawhorses.
Angle ----------Multiply by this factor
10---------------1.015
15---------------1.025
20 ---------------1.06
25---------------1.10
30---------------1.15

in most cases the added length due to the angle is small, and probably not significant.

For example, you determine you need 1/4" to take off. And you assumed 20°
the amount to cut off the longest leg is 1.06 x .250" or .265.
To the nearest 64th that would be 17/64ths or 1/64th more than 1/4"

you could probably get away with cutting off 1/4" and not miss that 1/64th.

[LarryG]

What Loring said. The problem may not be with the sawhorse, especially if it's sitting on a concrete slab. The acceptable tolerance for flatwork is 1/8" in 10' and while that doesn't sound like much, it is to anything with four legs (except dogs and cats, which are self-leveling). When one of my sawhorses is rocking around on a concrete floor, I simply move the sawhorse a little. Usually an inch or so is all it takes to find the "sweet spot" in that region of the floor. Wood floors are usually better but they can be seriously out of whack, too.

[JR]

I've got a couple of plastic shims. I just shove one of 'em under a leg if Larry's kick method doesn't work the first time.

Then there's the old ashtray and a stack of sugar packets trick I learned at Starbucks.

JR

[Curly Qsawn]

Thanks all. I'm making the assumption that a 1/2 bubble off level won't make much difference for my use. Since one diagonal is 38 1/4 and the other is over 40 I'm pretty sure I don't need to fret about the garage floor right now. I've got a whole box of old business cards just waiting for their chance to help me out with fine tuning. What I really learned is that the screws I used to fasten the legs to the beam didn't pull the two together like I thought they would and I should have used clamps to hold the two together, but too big of a hurry. Once I get these legs sorted out I can at least have a work surface other than the garage floor to help out. Thanks again.

[Tom Miller]

quote:Originally posted by Curly Qsawn

What I really learned is that the screws I used to fasten the legs to the beam didn't pull the two together like I thought they would....

You need to drill a pilot hole in the leg big enough so the threads don't catch on this piece. Then it'll snug up to the beam when you tighten.

Regards,
Tom