[Yoyizit]

Does anyone make 4' long shims, 1/4" thk at one end and zero at the other end?
Do you cut your own with a fixture and table saw?

This is one of those how-I-should-have-done-it questions.

 

[hayewe farm]

Table saw and taper jig or circular saw and straight edge guide.

 

[Florringtrouble]

I don't know if I am in the right place. I am having trouble installing this st. james laminate flooring. The company gives you long, short, and medium length pieces. However, I can't establish a set pattern to laying out the flooring. can anybody help?

 

[Yoyizit]

Table saw and taper jig or circular saw and straight edge guide.

What's your taper jig look like? Is it manuf. commercially?

 

[Shamus]

Table saw and taper jig or circular saw and straight edge guide.

Same here.

I do have a 10' pc of 2" aluminum angle that comes in handy for a straight edge when I need some really long shims. With a circular saw it's pretty easy to get what I need.

 

[hayewe farm]

There are plenty of commercial jigs like http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2076&filter=taper%20jig and a lot of the woodworking sites have plans to build your own.

 

[vsheetz]

I don't know if I am in the right place. I am having trouble installing this st. james laminate flooring. The company gives you long, short, and medium length pieces. However, I can't establish a set pattern to laying out the flooring. can anybody help?

The flooring section would be better place to pose the question.

Why are you trying to esablish a set pattern? Just install randomly, with varying the shades and lengths as best you can. It will come out fine.

 

[hayewe farm]

I don't know if I am in the right place. I am having trouble installing this st. james laminate flooring. The company gives you long, short, and medium length pieces. However, I can't establish a set pattern to laying out the flooring. can anybody help?

As stated above. The primary concern is to make sure end joints are stagerd.

 

[Yoyizit]

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=2076&filter=taper%20jig

Thanks; now that I've seen it I know what is wrong with the one I built!:thumbsup:

 

[hayewe farm]

Here's a couple of freebies I found on line
http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/etip020607wb.html

http://www.antiquesbuiltdaily.com/jigrefer.pdf

 

[Yoyizit]

Here's a couple of freebies I found on line
http://www.woodworkingtips.com/etips/etip020607wb.html

http://www.antiquesbuiltdaily.com/jigrefer.pdf

Thanks; I think what I'll do is use two strips of wood with a hinge on the end and a wood screw on the other end that serves to separate the strips at the non-hinged end.
The hinge screws will be going into edge grain so maybe I'll glue blocks on the ends so the screws go across the grain.
If I counterbore for the screw head I can get all the way down to zero taper and then back out the screw to get a vernier adjustment for the taper.

 

[VaViaCo]

rip 1/4" shim 4 inches long.
rip 1/8" shim 4 inches long.
With your worm drive.
Put the 1/8" shim in the middle.
Put the 1/4" shim on the low end.
Put the plywood down and nail it.

 

[Yoyizit]

Thanks, folks!

 

[Ron6519]

I don't know if I am in the right place. I am having trouble installing this st. james laminate flooring. The company gives you long, short, and medium length pieces. However, I can't establish a set pattern to laying out the flooring. can anybody help?

Better to start your own post in the flooring forum.
There is no "set" pattern in random length flooring. It's a free form pattern that has only a few rules. You stagger the flooring seams so they are at least 6" apart from row to row. You shouldn't repeat the seam for 3-4 rows. Assemble the first row. Then lay out the remaining rows half way accross the room making sure you stagger the ends. Leave a row and a half space to slide the next row over and install it.
When you finish 1/2 the room, lay out the next 1/3 of a room doing the same procedure.
You want the first row and the last row to have a similiar width, so you might need to rip the first row to a narrower size.
Ron
'

 

[Ron6519]

Does anyone make 4' long shims, 1/4" thk at one end and zero at the other end?
Do you cut your own with a fixture and table saw?

This is one of those how-I-should-have-done-it questions.

Why would you need a shim 4 feet long?
Ron

 

[Yoyizit]

Why would you need a shim 4 feet long?
Ron

I s'pose with a bathroom floor 4' or 5' wide, depending on how flexible the subflooring would be and how forgiving the tile grout would be, I need to support the newly levelled subfloor along almost the whole length of each supporting joist?
Yet there are 14.5" between joists and that somehow works, so maybe just a few long shims along each 5' joist would be enough.

 

[Willie T]

I s'pose with a bathroom floor 4' or 5' wide, depending on how flexible the subflooring would be and how forgiving the tile grout would be, I need to support the newly levelled subfloor along almost the whole length of each supporting joist?
Yet there are 14.5" between joists and that somehow works, so maybe just a few long shims along each 5' joist would be enough.

I think what Ron means is why do you need a long, one-piece shim?

If you had one.... and cut it into three, or five, or seven or eight pieces.... then nailed each piece down in the same order you cut them, wouldn't you have the slope needed? The wedge, itself, isn't going to really support much of the flex you may want to alleviate. Shorter, progressively fatter wedges aren't too difficult to cut.

You could also just use long, flat pieces, and shim them progressively higher with two opposing, perpendicular wedges under them, about every six inches. One nail through the top piece and the wedges, and you're set. This would be better,too, if each of your joists happened to be a different height on top (variances between each one).

Personally, I'd just run strips perpendicular to your joists. about a foot apart, each one a little thicker (1/4"?) than the last one. Didn't someone already suggest this?

 

[Yoyizit]

Personally, I'd just run strips perpendicular to your joists. about a foot apart, each one a little thicker (1/4"?) than the last one. Didn't someone already suggest this?

Yeah, that's another way to do it, and the strips would be uniform thickness.

 

[RegeSullivan]

Is it really worth correcting 1/4" over 5' of an existing floor. Sometime you create new problems especially if a doorway is involved.

Rege