Ultra-Thin Leveling Clips
cbut8995
| Posted in General Questions on
Hi All,
Has anyone ever used 1/32 leveling clips or even thinner? I see mostly HD carries 1/16. I want our GC to use leveling since most of the chinese contractors in NYC use toothpicks to be very thin but it never seems to be perfectly level.
Any opinions on thinner than 1/16 as I see a few projects that use 1/16, they seem kind of thick to me and I cant seem to find any 1/32 ones.
Thanks GBA community!
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Replies
I've seen guys use playing cards as Shims when it comes to that kind of precision.
Heavy cardstock paper is another option. But I prefer the permeance of the plastic playing cards.
Jamie
If you go to a plastics supply house, you can get high density polyethylene (HDPE) sheet in many thickness below 1/16". It's usually listed in hundredths of an inch, so 0.060" is ~1/16", and other common sizes are 0.050", 0.040", 0.030" (about 1/32"), 0.020" and 0.01". 0.01" is 10 mils, and below that you're usually measuring in mills instead of hundreths of an inch (one mil is one thousandth of an inch).
Vivak (PETG) is another commonly available plastic that is available in thin sizes, as is polycarbonate (which is a bit more expensive than Vivak). Don't use arylic though -- it will fracture too easily if you drive a nail or screw through it.
The nice thing about HDPE is that you can cut the thinner sizes with shears. You can do that with Vivak and polycarbonate too, but not as easily as you can cut HDPE.
Bill
Your local tile store should be able to get you 1mm (a hair over 1/32") leveling clips, they are stock item at one near me. They are also available from your friendly on-line retailer.