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Pro tip: an old timer in Cleveland showed me his 'feel' method for leveling rails, and it made me question everything I do with a gauge
I was helping swap out a controller on a 6 stop unit in downtown Cleveland last winter, and the guy they paired me with had 38 years in. We were setting the car rails, and I pulled out my digital level like always. He watched me for a second and then said, 'put that away, I want to show you something.' He put two fingers on top of the rail and slid them along it, closed his eyes, and said he could feel the twist. Then he had me do it. At first I thought it was nonsense, but after about 20 feet I actually started to notice small dips my level had been averaging out. Here is my problem: part of me thinks this is real skill you only get after decades, and part of me thinks he was just lucky and my gauge is still the safer bet on a job where a few thousandths matter. I have tried it on two more cars since and I am still not sure if I am feeling the rail or just fooling myself. Any of you old hands actually trust your hands over a level, or is this one of those things that only works for the guy who invented it?
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craig.olivia8d ago
Man, that feeling is real but it takes forever to trust it. I ran into the same thing with an old head in Chicago, and what worked was using the hand drag as a heads up, then checking the spots that felt off with the level instead of the whole run. That way you get his skill plus your numbers, and you stop wondering if you are just making stuff up.
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