Leg Leveler Hole Size

Smaller-diameter leg leveler pins are convenient, but may not be as strong. August 29, 2006

Question
I was reading a post concerning leg levelers and noticed that several others were using the 15mm and some the 20mm holes for their leg levelers. Has anyone tried the Camar legs that only require a 10mm hole? This would allow me to reassign a drill spindle on the router as I already have a 10mm bit for the suspension block holes. We currently drill a 15mm hole for the knock in portion of the legs. Downsizing to a 10mm is attractive but I am a bit concerned with its strength versus the 15mm.

Forum Responses
(Cabinetmaking Forum)
From contributor A:
I never tried the 10mm and didn't know they existed. The strength in the 20mm that we use is the expanding pin that we hammer down into the center. These things cannot be removed except with a sharp chisel and hammer. The leg will break before the insert plate will. Try the 10mm and test it out.

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From contributor B:
We have been using the 10mm Camar legs for years. They also have the expanding pin. If you need to remove the receiver for some reason, you can pry the pin out with a small sharp screwdriver and remove the receiver without damaging it. The receiver also has 4 screw holes in it that can be used if necessary.

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From contributor B:
I used the 15mm until we got our CNC (approximately 9 years), and switched to the 10mm for the reason you describe (one less tool to deal with), but I have found that they do not hold as well, and will be switching back to the 15mm very soon. My experience has been that one will come off from time to time when standing a larger cabinet up, and I never had that happen with the 15mm version. If I need to remove a leg that has been driven in for any reason, the socket will come out instead on one out of two legs. I never had that happen with the 15mm version.

Another less painful attribute of the 10mm version, but aggravating just the same, is that the dowel has to be driven in with a typical hammer rather then a dead blow mallet to sink it all the way. I preferred the feel of the dead blow mallet, and not having to worry about whether the leg would go all the way into the socket or not in the field.