Shortening the legs of a stool – removing ‘screw pins’ – Is there an easy way to get these out?
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at
5:00 am
I need to shorten the legs of a bar stool. at the bottom of each leg is a plastic floor protector peg that screws in. The metal sleeve that these screw into in inside the stool leg. Is there an easy way to remove and reuse these? (Or a difficult but possible way)
Tagged with: bar stool • floor protector • legs • metal sleeve • peg • plastic floor • screw • screws
Filed under: Your Community Center
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The metal sleeve is a T-nut. You should be able to pry it out, it’s just pressed into a hole drilled into the leg. You can either reuse the T-nuts or just cut the legs off and leave it that way. If you reuse the nuts, you’ll have to drill new holes for the hardware. Make sure it’s deep enough for the threaded part of the plastic insert.
Funny, that you would ask this question! We just bought two bar stools for our kitchen counter, They were on sale, a great buy, but too tall!
My husband, who is quite tall, says, "No problem", but for me…I feel like I’m going to topple off and kill myself!
I’ve had him check them out and you have described the situation perfectly. I, personally, think you could measure carefully, of course, and cut the legs down a bit. Then, you could examine the metal sleeve more easily. Perhaps cut lengthwise along the wood and extract it. (?)
I don’t want to reuse the metal sleeve, but I sure would be happier with shorter stools. I’m still going to work on my husband to saw these legs off…or perhaps when he isn’t looking…. =D
Without an image of the glides and how they are fashioned and attached, you may not get much help here.
The shortening process can be tedious, but I have a suggestion or two.
Without knowing the substance of the legs, IE: WOOD/ Tubular Steel; etc. you might get hold of a level first. determine the Height/cut off amount and craft a "TOOL" using lumber and an awl or pencil; seated in that TOOL on an also LEVEL surface. Scribe or draw a line around each leg. In part this aids leveling; most especially if the legs are CANTED outward from the stool as opposed to perpendicular/straight down.
Once you have the line you can make the cuts. I assume you understand my suggestion in that an angled leg dictates an angled bottom cut; IF you in fact want the FOOT parallel to the floor.
With all due respect; and if you can deal with aesthetics; you might consider NEW glides…even adjustables; allowing for issues of NON level; should you move and use the stool in another area.
Steven Wolf
The metal sleeve is only as long as the screw that goes in it, so if you are cutting the legs down more than that, you won’t have a problem. If you are cutting down less than the length of the screw, try using a hand saw instead of a power saw. Cut a ring around the metal sleeve and once through, pull off the wood leaving the metal exposed and cut it with a hack saw.
You can also use a jig saw/circular saw/miter saw with a metal cutting blade.
Check the angle of the cut. Most stools have legs that splay out so the bottom is not 90 degrees to the leg. If you have an adjustable square you can copy the angle easily. If not just copy the angle onto a piece of paper and use that as your guide. You can get new floor protector pegs at the hardware store that just push it like a nail (no screw or sleeve required)
there are different kind of screw driver’s. you need to find a driver thats thin enough to go into the whole to get to the screw. that’s if i’m sure that i read you question right.
good luck