Wooden level care

[rick carpenter]

I just bought a new, discontinued 48" Johnson 748 wooden (not the current bamboo) level. Proper periodic care is to hit it with BLO and check for trueness every so often, no problem there. Proper storage is to hang it, again no problem. But what about transport? Quite often I go on week-long worktrips and now want to bring this level for door install/etc. I've looked at Johnson's plastic case and it doesn't seem very sturdy from the pic. So how about a homemade pvc pipe case? Has anyone tried this? It will typically end up in a trailer or van or suburban stowed as carefully as possible, but you never know what might happen when others toss tools in and rummage through to pull tools out for a week!

[Mark Bolton]

I just bought a new, discontinued 48" Johnson 748 wooden (not the current bamboo) level. Proper periodic care is to hit it with BLO and check for trueness every so often, no problem there. Proper storage is to hang it, again no problem. But what about transport? Quite often I go on week-long worktrips and now want to bring this level for door install/etc. I've looked at Johnson's plastic case and it doesn't seem very sturdy from the pic. So how about a homemade pvc pipe case? Has anyone tried this? It will typically end up in a trailer or van or suburban stowed as carefully as possible, but you never know what might happen when others toss tools in and rummage through to pull tools out for a week!

Those levels use to come with a plastic case with a screw on cap that had a hanging loop but that my have been a stanley level too that Im remembering.

Sadly those wooden levels in the trade are mainly a masons level (one they beat on with a hammer to align block and brick with a string) and in all honestly they are just looked at as a disposable item. On the house we just finished the mason sub contractor came over to one of my guys a couple times and grabbed the sawzall from him and chopped one of those levels to a specific length he needed for a small pocket.

They go out of plumb/level regularly and you almost always see one of any age with an arrow pointing to the one good side and another pointing to one end which must be kept up.

Too risky a venture for me. I'd opt for a stabila or one of the many other aluminum levels that will hold for a very very long time. The stabila is guaranteed for life as long as the extrusion isnt dented. I have several stablias that have been through the ringer and are still dead nuts.

Id think your idea of a piece of PVC with a cap glued to one end and perhaps a female adapter with a plug in the other. What may be nice is if you could find some 2 1/2" thin wall so it'd be less bulky but Im not sure how lucky you'd be to find that.

[Mark Bolton]

Here is the case I use to see all the time. I think I may have one or two lying around somewhere but likely tossed them.
296106

[Mort Stevens]

Get a piece of pipe insulation that the level will fit in tightly - the kind sized for 2" pipe will hold a torpedo level - I've use pipe insulation for storing my precision levels and straight edges for years now and if the fit it tight enough it won't accidentally slip out.

http://www.insulationfabricators.com/images/k-flex-seam-seal-overlap.jpg

[Brian W Smith]

Build a "sheath" out of some hdwd and 3/8" ply.

The masons 'round here all use Smith's.....and they definitely aren't disposable.

http://www.smithlevelcompany.com/index.html