This disclosure relates to apparatus, systems, and methods for leveling millwork and other objects.
There are many issues that must be considered when constructing a building, but perhaps foremost among those issues is ensuring that a building is level. Many factors affect how level a building is, generally, and how level a floor is, specifically, within that building. For example, the building's foundation may set unevenly and cause a slight sloping or warping of the floor and any floors built thereupon. As further examples, the framing material used in creating the building's infrastructure may not be cut or measured to exactly the same lengths, the flooring material may be of unequal thickness or the flooring material may, itself, be warped—all of which may potentially cause unevenness throughout the structure.
Any unevenness within the general structure of a building will perpetuate to any structures attached thereto, including, for example, millwork. Millwork includes many ready-made carpentry elements installed within a building such as, for example, cabinets, doors, and window casings. If a floor is uneven, it will affect any millwork attached to it. For example, some cabinets rest on the floor, and an uneven floor translates to an uneven cabinet if the cabinet is simply attached thereto without any adjustments. This may cause myriad issues and annoyances, including, for example, a cabinet door or drawer that will not remain closed, an aesthetically unappealing cabinetry façade where one or more cabinet faces are angled or skewed from level, and/or an uneven work surface (e.g., a countertop) attached to the top of the cabinets.
Some adjustable posts are known in the art that allow for leveling, for example, cabinets. In particular, adjustable posts are singly applied to the underside four corners of each cabinet such that each cabinet has four adjustable posts supporting it. This provides the advantage of being able to individually adjust the height of each corner of the cabinet to ensure a level installation.
Unfortunately, it is difficult to manage and adjust the individual posts associated with each cabinet, and furthermore, it can be cumbersome to connect a toe kick to the cabinet while simultaneously avoiding interference with the labyrinth of adjustable posts. Accordingly, there remains room for improvement in the area of leveling millwork.
Implementations of the present disclosure provide systems, components, and methods for leveling millwork. In one or more implementations, a millwork leveling device comprises a track and a leveling post that is movably positionable along the track. The height of the leveling post is selectively adjustable. The device may further include a plate that is associates with the leveling post. The plate can include one or more through holes configured to attach to a finishing piece.
In one or more additional or alternative implementations, the leveling device can include a second leveling post that is movably positionable along the track. The second leveling post may have an adjustable height.
In one or more additional or alternative implementations, the plate that is associated with the leveling post can freely rotate about the leveling post. The plate may, additionally or alternatively, to attach to the finishing piece utilizing the one or more through holes.
Implementations of the present disclosure further provide methods for leveling millwork. In one or more implementations, the method may include the step of positioning a leveling device on a first surface. The leveling device may include a track, a first adjustable height leveling post and second adjustable height leveling post movably positionable along the track, and a plate associated with the first leveling post. The place may have one or more through holes to facilitate attachment to a finishing piece. The method may include the step of associating a millwork with the leveling device, where the millwork has at least a horizontal axis. The method may also include leveling the millwork with respect to the first surface by adjusting at least the height of the first leveling post.
In one or more additional or alternative implementations, leveling the millwork may comprise adjusting at least one of the first adjustable height leveling post and the second adjustable height leveling post until the horizontal axis of the millwork is perpendicular to a line representing the force of gravity.
Implementations of the present disclosure may also include a kit for leveling millwork. In one or more implementations, the kit may include a track and two leveling posts (a first leveling post and a second leveling post) that are movably positionable along the track. In some implementations, the first leveling post has a first adjustable height and the second leveling post has a second adjustable height. The kit may further include a plate associated with the first leveling post. The plate may have one or more through holes configured to facilitate attachment to a finishing piece.
Additional features and advantages of exemplary implementations of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by the practice of such exemplary implementations. The features and advantages of such implementations may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of such exemplary implementations as set forth hereinafter.
In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the present disclosure can be obtained, a more particular description will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the disclosure and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the embodiments will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
The present disclosure extends to systems, components, and methods for leveling millwork. In one or more implementations, a millwork leveling device comprises a track and a leveling post that is movably positionable along the track. The height of the leveling post is selectively adjustable. The device may further include a plate that is associates with the leveling post. The plate can include one or more through holes configured to attach to a finishing piece.
In one or more additional or alternative implementations, the leveling device can include a second leveling post that is movably positionable along the track. The second leveling post may have an adjustable height.
In one or more additional or alternative implementations, the plate that is associated with the leveling post can freely rotate about the leveling post. The plate may, additionally or alternatively, to attach to the finishing piece utilizing the one or more through holes.
Implementations of the present disclosure further provide methods for leveling millwork. In one or more implementations, the method may include the step of positioning a leveling device on a first surface. The leveling device may include a track, a first adjustable height leveling post and second adjustable height leveling post movably positionable along the track, and a plate associated with the first leveling post. The place may have one or more through holes to facilitate attachment to a finishing piece. The method may include the step of associating a millwork with the leveling device, where the millwork has at least a horizontal axis. The method may also include leveling the millwork with respect to the first surface by adjusting at least the height of the first leveling post.
In one or more additional or alternative implementations, leveling the millwork may comprise adjusting at least one of the first adjustable height leveling post and the second adjustable height leveling post until the horizontal axis of the millwork is perpendicular to a line representing the force of gravity.
Implementations of the present disclosure may also include a kit for leveling millwork. In one or more implementations, the kit may include a track and two leveling posts (a first leveling post and a second leveling post) that are movably positionable along the track. In some implementations, the first leveling post has a first adjustable height and the second leveling post has a second adjustable height. The kit may further include a plate associated with the first leveling post. The plate may have one or more through holes configured to facilitate attachment to a finishing piece
Throughout this specification, reference is made to millwork. A millwork can comprise any individual ready-made carpentry element that an owner or installer can install within a building. For example, a cabinet, a door, and a window casing are each, individually, millworks. The disclosure, however, is not limited to the foregoing examples, but also extends to any ready-made carpentry element that an owner or installer can install within a building. For the purposes of this disclosure, a millwork may also include non-carpentry elements that serve the same or similar function as their wood or wood-based counterparts. For example, a cabinet, door, or window casing made of metal, stone, plastic, thermoplastic, or other non-wood-based material is intended to be included within the understanding of the term millwork as used herein.
With reference now to the figures,
In one or more embodiments, each leveling post 104 may be associated with a plate 106. For example, a manufacturer may weld or otherwise fixedly attach the plate 106 to the post 104. The plate 106 may, in one or more embodiment, be stationary and/or immovable with respect to the post 104. In another embodiment, a manufacturer may fixedly attach the plate 106 to the post 104 in a way that still allows the plate 106 and/or the post 104 to be movable relative to one another. For example, the plate 106 may rotate about the post 104 and/or the post 104 may rotate relative to the plate 106. As another example, the plate 106 may be removably associated with the post 104. In one or more embodiments, this may include snapping to the plate 106 or magnetically attaching to the plate 106 to the post 104.
In one or more embodiments, one or more of the leveling posts 104 associated with the track 102 may not have an associated plate 106. For example, a track 102 may have three leveling posts 104 where one of the leveling posts 104 is disposed of between the other two leveling posts 104, and the leveling post 104 between the other two leveling posts 104 may not have an associated plate 106, whereas both of the flanking leveling posts 104 do have an associated plate 106. Alternatively or additionally, only one of the three leveling posts 104 may have an associated plate 106. In one embodiment, the track 102 depicted in
In some embodiments, the track may include one or more pre-defined positions along the track. The one or more pre-defined positions may accept a leveling post. For example, a track according to the foregoing embodiment, may include leveling post docking points at measured, pre-defined, and/or user-defined intervals along the track that may, for example, snappingly receive a leveling post.
In one or more embodiments, the leveling posts 104 may be, as depicted in the various illustrated views of
Referring now to
In one embodiment, the threaded rod may include (e.g., in its structure) the height adjustment device and/or the functional equivalent thereof. Additionally or alternatively, a manufacturer may form the threaded rod without threads, but still in a manner that enables a user or installer to adjust the height of the height adjustment device along the same or similar axis.
Referring now to
In one embodiment, an installer can attach the finishing piece 137 to the millwork leveling device 100 by associating and/or attaching the finishing piece 137 to the plate 106 via one or more through holes 108 (See
In one embodiment, the cabinet 130 is a floor level cabinet (e.g., kitchen cabinet) and the surface 136 is a counter top, desk top, or other functional surface. The positioning of the millwork leveling device 100 and the attachment of a finish piece 137 (e.g., a toe kick) provides the expected aesthetics and functionality of a recessed toe kick.
In some embodiments, and similar to embodiments represented by
As depicted in
In some embodiments, a user or installer may rotate the plates 106 associated leveling posts 104 such that the faces of plates 106 are parallel with the front faces of cabinets 134. An installer can then associate a finishing piece (e.g., finishing piece 137 in
Referring now to
In some embodiments, cabinets 134 may be a millwork containing multiple cabinets, and in other embodiments, the cabinets 134 may be a single cabinet.
Referring now to
A manufacturer or installer may associate the plates 166 with the millwork leveling device 160 and/or position the plates 166 parallel to the front face of cabinet 150. An installer may associate a finishing piece with the plates 166 (e.g., by attaching the finishing piece to the plates according to any of the embodiments described above for associating a finishing piece with a plate). The finishing piece may be a piece of molding or any other finishing piece described herein or in accordance with the scope and intent of this disclosure.
The height of any and/or all leveling posts depicted in
In one or more embodiment, the millwork leveling device may be associated with a vertical surface of a structure and to a vertical surface of the millwork (e.g., the backside of a cabinet). A user or installer may level the millwork in a similar manner as described above by adjusting the height of associated leveling posts.
The present disclosure also includes methods for leveling millwork. With reference to
The method 180 may further include selectively moving at least one of the first and second leveling posts along a length of the track so that the first and second leveling posts are spaced apart by a desired distance (step. For instance, one or both of the first and second leveling posts may be moved along the track so that the first and second leveling posts are spaced apart a distance generally equal to a length of width of a millwork. By way of example,
The method 180 may further include associating a millwork with the leveling device (step 186). For instance, associating a millwork with a leveling device may include positioning the millwork on the leveling device (
The method 180 may further include leveling the millwork with respect to the first surface by adjusting at least the first height of the first post of the leveling device (step 188).
In one embodiment, method 180 may further include leveling the millwork by adjusting at least one of the first height and the second height until a horizontal axis of the millwork is perpendicular to a line representing the force of gravity.
One embodiment of the present disclosure includes a kit for leveling millwork. The kit may include a track, first and second leveling posts, and a plate. In one embodiment, the first and second leveling posts may be height adjustable. Additionally or alternatively, the first and second leveling posts are movably positionable along the track. In one embodiment, the plate may have one or more through holes. Additionally or alternatively, the plate is associated with at least the first leveling post and can have a finishing piece attached thereto.
In one or more embodiments, the kit may include one or more posts where each of the one or more posts includes a plate fixedly attached thereto. A weld may attach the plate to the post. In one embodiment, a manufacturer or installer may releasably attach the plates to one or more posts. A manufacturer or installer may additionally or alternatively connect the plates to the posts in a stationary and/or immovable manner. In another embodiment, a manufacturer or installer may fixedly attach the plates to the post in a manner that allows the relative movement therebetween (e.g., rotation of the plate or the post relative to the other). As another example, a manufacturer or installer may associate the plate with the post in a removable manner.
In one embodiment, a kit includes one or more posts and one or more plates wherein a user may attach the one or more plates to the one or more posts. In one or more embodiment, this may include snappingly attaching a plate to a post, magnetically attaching a plate to a post, or otherwise removably or fixedly attaching a plate to a post.
The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. Thus, the described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope.
This application claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Patent Application No. 62/301,812, filed on Mar. 1, 2016, and entitled MILLWORK LEVELER, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US17/19926 | 2/28/2017 | WO | 00 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62301812 | Mar 2016 | US |