Shop Made Cabinet Levelers

glenn bradley

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Location
SoCal
I seem to make these up as the project demands. Stopping to do so sometimes gets me off track and I lose more time than they warrant. I am making a drawer unit for under the right tablesaw wing and the need came up again. I decided to grab some scrap oak from an old front door, mill it down and make a batch. Most of us have a method or could figure it out easily enough if the need came up. Maybe this will help some of the newer folks or trigger some ideas for others.

Stop blocks assure repeatability.

Shop Made Levelers (1).jpg

I drill a counterbore for the t-nut and a through hole for the threaded stem.

Shop Made Levelers (2).jpg

I also counterbore for the t-nut's shoulder.

Shop Made Levelers (3).jpg

The vise seats the t-nuts without a lot of pounding on things.

Shop Made Levelers (4).jpg

A cheap VIX bit assures centered screw holes.

Shop Made Levelers (5).jpg

And now I'll have a batch of spares for next time ;-)

Shop Made Levelers (6).jpg

They can be adjusted with a wrench from below or a screwdriver from above.

Here's some previous and some of the new ones installed:

CoD Levelers (5).jpg . Shop Made Levelers (7).jpg . Shop Made Levelers (8).jpg
 
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They're from Rockler. I normally don't pay a buck-or-so each for a t-nut but, they had a sale and free shipping so I bought a bunch which brought the actual cost per each into reasonable territory. I have used regular friction-fit t-nuts without issue on smaller pieces. Some of my pieces weight a few hundred pounds. I don't want a call when someone tries to shove a chest of drawers or a display cabinet over while rearranging a room or to retrieve something that fell behind. The extra $5 gets lost in the project cost, gives the client a better piece and me a good night's sleep ;-)
 
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