Replies

1. 
   paulandre | Jul 01, 2007 07:46am | #1

   zero  pitch wood or plastic shims. You may also use old floppy disks.

1. 
   caseyr | Jul 01, 2007 07:56am | #2

   Old floppy disks I have plenty of - unfortunately, they are stored about 600 miles away. I don't have a table saw that can cut a uniformly thin shim. I would prefer not to use the tapered shims from the lumber yard, but perhaps because I don't know how to properly use them. How closely space should they be if the entire 10' needs to be uniformly raised 1/16"? I have a sheet of of plastic that I am going to use to back the laundry sink that is probably about the right thickness. Maybe cutting some strips from that will do the job.

1. 
   Geoffrey | Jul 01, 2007 09:03am | #3

   Casey

   Shims should be placed under each end of a cabinet, or under both if there are 2 fastened together. Counters should be dead level or slightly pitched back toward the wall, this keeps any liquid or round objects(fruits) from heading toward the edge and then to the flor below, or the front of your dinner slacks you just put on (BTDT).

   You should start by setting the cabs as you want the counter to be, either level or back-pitched slightly.

   As for the shims at the lumber yard , that's what you use, slip the thin edge under the cab(s) and set them as needed. Get underlayment graded white cedar shingles.

                                                                        Geoff

2. 
   JulianTracy | Jul 01, 2007 04:36pm | #4

   Buy a tile of the cheap self stick vinyl variety and cut into small peices. Level the front and the rear can be leveled via how you mount them to the wall.JT

3. 
   Piffin | Jul 01, 2007 05:31pm | #6

   "perhaps because I don't know how to properly use them"Probably not. Nothing ccould be easier.Place the cabinet, Start the thin end of the cedar shim under it where it is low, set the level on top of the cabs, and tap shims in until it is level. Only need shims at the structural sidewalls of the cabs or under the feet if that is how they were designed.Usually need a few at back to wall also here and there unless the wall is a perfect plane.After all is right, you cut the projecting cedar off with a sharp utilitiy knife. If it is such a small amount of shim needed that the thin edge of cedar is too much, you probably don't really need to shim, but you can use scraps of 30# or card stock 

    

   Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!

1. 
   Snort | Jul 01, 2007 06:07pm | #7

   Level floor, what's that?<G> We keep a shim box with everything in it from old credit cards to 5/4 stuff...all carefully separated into bins, right!We shim the lowest point at the back of the cabs, then level off that, putting more shims where ever the cabinet sides fall. Fasten the shims to the floor with nails, or adhesive on tile.Set the cabs on the shims, then use whatever it takes to get the fronts level to the backs, and lining up the bank's faces and tops...it's always a compromise...but what isn't LOLFWIW, I like tapered cedar shims because they score and snap so easily, but using them at the backs is sketchy since the tapers would have to be in exactly the right place, not always so easy. Someone's got it in for me, they're planting stories in the press
   Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out but when they will I can only guess.
   They say I shot a man named Gray and took his wife to Italy,
   She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me.
   I can't help it if I'm lucky.

   Edited 7/1/2007 11:10 am ET by Snort

1. 
   caseyr | Jul 02, 2007 06:51am | #8

   Thanks folks. That is the way that I thought shims were used, it is just that a shim at each end seems like a pitifully small bearing surface. However, I guess if such a system has held up zillions of cabinets for many years, it must be able to do the job...

2. 
   rez | Jul 01, 2007 04:44pm | #5

   Without meaning to be controversial or rile anyone up, this is an ideal situation for a Festool or EZ guide system.

   I have thus a tight shingled and plastered house, ten feet wide by fifteen long, and eight-feet posts, with a garret and a closet, a large window on each side, two trap doors, one door at the end, and a brick fireplace opposite.
   -Thoreau's Walden