That moment I stopped trusting my level on an Otis install

I had been doing door gib adjustments for years in the Portland area, always using my trusty 4-foot level. Then a senior mechanic watched me work and just shook his head. He showed me how the bubble was actually saying the rail was plumb but the door frame was twisted. The whole time I had been fighting the wrong thing, adjusting gibs against a false reading. It took me 2 hours to redo three landings I thought were perfect. Has anyone else caught a bad level messing up their alignment work?

2 comments

2 Comments

beth_mitchell17d ago

Wait hold on, you mean the level itself was good but the frame was twisting the door? That's wild. I always just assumed if my level was flat and bubble was center I was golden. Now I'm sitting here thinking about all the elevator jobs I did back in the 90s where I probably made the same mistake without even knowing it. Makes me wonder how many times I cursed a door for being stubborn when it was actually me the whole time. I gotta go check my current level against a known straight surface tomorrow.

emerymoore17d ago

What gets me is nobody ever talks about how the level itself can be off too. I ran into this on a fencing job a couple years back where I kept checking my level against itself and it was fine but the posts were all coming out crooked. Turns out the level was actually warped from sitting in a hot truck all summer. Had to hold it against a scrap piece of aluminum i knew was straight to even catch it. So maybe the frame was twisting the door, or maybe your level was just giving you bad info either way. Thing is once you start suspecting the tools you waste half a day double checking everything instead of just working.