Hi Val:
I wouldn’t use ½ bolts to level the legs. Our club tried ¼-inch bolts and these bent. The 3/8-inch bolts have held up to use at 12 shows so far with no deformation. There’s two kinds of bolts that work well. Carriage bolts and elevator bolts. The elevator bolts are best as they have a flat “bottom” to sit upon the floor and this is what they are made for, leveling things. Carriage bolts have round heads. Get either one in about a 3-inch length so you have +/- 1-inch adjustment and still will have 1-inch bite. Drill a 7/16-inch hole in the bottom of your 2x 2 legs and insert a “tee” nut into this. Some of these nuts come with holes in the flange so you can secure them into the leg with nails or screws. Be sure you cut the bottom of the leg square, drill the hole square into the leg and insert the tee nut square into the hole or when you screw in the bolt it will rub on the inside of the hole and be very difficult to adjust for a very long time.
Of course, if you’re not planning to move this layout often you can chuck the expense and effort for the above and just stick a matchbook under the wobbly legs! We can’t do this for shows; we’d have to buy a whole box of matchbooks for each show! But for a home layout it’s what I’d do. Well, actually, I’d probably get a cedar shim pack and use them to level any trouble spots.
Regards,
Ted
I wouldn’t use ½ bolts to level the legs. Our club tried ¼-inch bolts and these bent. The 3/8-inch bolts have held up to use at 12 shows so far with no deformation. There’s two kinds of bolts that work well. Carriage bolts and elevator bolts. The elevator bolts are best as they have a flat “bottom” to sit upon the floor and this is what they are made for, leveling things. Carriage bolts have round heads. Get either one in about a 3-inch length so you have +/- 1-inch adjustment and still will have 1-inch bite. Drill a 7/16-inch hole in the bottom of your 2x 2 legs and insert a “tee” nut into this. Some of these nuts come with holes in the flange so you can secure them into the leg with nails or screws. Be sure you cut the bottom of the leg square, drill the hole square into the leg and insert the tee nut square into the hole or when you screw in the bolt it will rub on the inside of the hole and be very difficult to adjust for a very long time.
Of course, if you’re not planning to move this layout often you can chuck the expense and effort for the above and just stick a matchbook under the wobbly legs! We can’t do this for shows; we’d have to buy a whole box of matchbooks for each show! But for a home layout it’s what I’d do. Well, actually, I’d probably get a cedar shim pack and use them to level any trouble spots.
Regards,
Ted