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Shoutout to whoever invented the string line level. Just found out it wasn't a thing before the 1970s.
I was reading an old fence building manual from 1965 that my grandpa left me. No mention of string levels at all. They just eyeballed it with a carpenter's level and hoped for the best. Can you imagine setting a 300 foot run of post and rail by eye? That's wild to me. Any old timers here remember doing it that way?
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jason5624mo ago
You mentioned that old manual had them using a regular level and eyeballing it, but what did they use for leveling the string itself once it was up. Were they just running a long 2x4 with a level on top every few feet to get the line straight?
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emma6844mo ago
...and that's exactly how a lot of those old timers did it, yeah. They'd pull the line tight between stakes, then run a straight 2x4 along it with a level on top every few feet, checking the bubble. But here's the thing, you can get away with that if your string is pulled drum tight and the stakes are solid. If it's sagging even a little bit, you're chasing a ghost. I've also heard of guys just using a water level for the string itself, filling a long clear tube and marking it, which is about as low tech as it gets but works okay. Honestly though, once you do it enough, you get a feel for what's straight by just looking down the line, right?
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