Mobile Base

[phil p]

Hi,

I'm going to make a mobile base for my tablesaw and I'm looking for the easiest way.

I normally do my cutting outside and wheel the saw down a small ramp I made as theres around a 2 inch drop.

The legs are 2 inch angle bar, however they taper towards the top so I'm a little unsure how ro fix it down as there's nothing on the bottom of the bar to put any bolts through.

I was just going to use a few bits of 4 x 2.

Any suggestions?

Regards
Phil

 

[Rorschach]

Put some blocks around the corners that the legs fit inside, then drill through the blocks and the legs and add a bolt in each corner.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Can you post a picture, Phil?

 

[Eric The Viking]

Wot 'ee said.

I made one for my planer/thicknesser recently entirely out of 19mm MRMDF. It has a 25mm lip all round the outside (two extra thicknesses of MDF from offcuts), which steps up to be 58mm deep at the corners. Three of the four castor bolts for each wheel go through that.

The first try was just in plywood, just with reinforced corners carrying the castors, but the castor plates ended up directly underneath the legs. This wasn't a good idea: as they swivel the centres of the wheels can move significantly inboard of the ends of the legs, making the machine unstable.

So version two has the plates as far out to the corners as possible, making the minimum rectangle formed by the wheel centres bigger by about 25mm each way. It seems to work well. The lipping, combined with the thicker MDF is showing no sign of bending, and the whole thing moves around far better than the original version.

There's only the machine's weight keeping it on the trolley at the moment. If I had to move it on a significant slope, I think I would bolt through, as R. suggested. With a tall lip, that's easy to arrange, and probably just using some M6 studding right across the tray would do it. But my planer trolley has horizontal "stretchers" too, so I could go down from those straight through the base. That's even easier (there are pre-drilled holes, I think for a shelf), but I wanted to use the base as storage for things like the fence, so they would have interfered.

The screen-grabs below are the only ones I have presently (SketchUp challenged until I rebuild this PC). I'll try to get some proper photos later if it helps. Biscuits were used in the glue-up for alignment of the lippings, but I still needed to have at it with a sander to make it look tidy on the outside. It's simply finished in Zinsser BIN white paint.

 

[Ttrees]

This is what I'd do for that application
post1106514.html?hilit=mobile%20base#p1106514

Tom

 

[Droogs]

hi Phil, have a look here for casters:
http://www.vk-castors.co.uk/castors/transport-wheels/

rated up to 400kg each

 

[phil p]

Thanks for all the help lads.

I went for the blocks, with a slight taper for a better fit, and drilled through the legs.

Regards
Phil

 

[deema]

When I started and worked out of a garage I used a scissor pallet truck to move stuff around. All my machines were raised on C section steel with a Web of around 4”. Two pieces per machine cut by the stockist and then I drilled and taped them for the machine bolt down holes and adjustable screw in feet (M14 bolt of feet off auction site), this not only gave me an extremely stable platform for each machine but also raised them to a ‘proper’ working height. The scissor lift was selected as opposed to a pallet truck because when not used to lug stuff around a simple top made it into a saw horse, outfeed table, adjustable height assemble table etc etc. They aren’t that expensive secondhand off an auction site especially if you offset the cost of proper castors.

 

[E-wan]

I'm going to be making a base shortly for a large pillar drill. Still in the process of converting half my garage into a workshop.

A slot will be cut in the work surface behind the Pillar in this photograph.

I'm planning to mount the pillar on a mobile base with strong casters so that I can slide it forward a couple of feet depending on what I'm trying to drill with it.

Planning to make the base extend back behind the end of the Pillar so as to make it more stable and stop the possibility of the drill tipping backwards. Perhaps using 6 castors 1 at each corner and a couple in the middle of underneath where the pillar joins the base.

I have plenty of offcuts of 12mm ply and thought that perhaps if I laminated two of these together and reinforced it with some lengths of 4x4 underneath I could do that with scraps I have to hand but perhaps something more substantial would be better.



What do you reckon the strongest sheet material is to use for a base on something this heavy?


Thanks

Ewan

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[Eric The Viking]

I don't quite understand why you think it might tip over: are you intending to swivel the head round so you can drill on the bench rather than the drill table?

If you just arrange a "gate" across the slot in the bench, to retain the pillar, that ought to take care of it (assuming the base is fastened down reasonably well, obviously., but it looks like the leadscrew for the table will be a nuisance if you fit it that way.

Personally, I wouldn't trust castors in this context. Can you mount angle iron to the floor (two pieces parallel and at right angles to the bench), and just slide the base in and out on those when you need to? You ought to have a means of clamping it down too - they aren't intended really to free stand.

And they are designed to stand free of obstructions. I have a modern floor-stander and it's close to a cupboard on one side, which is a jolly nuisance. When I re-site it eventually it will be well away from benches, cupboards, shelves, etc. I understand space may be an issue, but this probably isn't the best approach.

The restoration is really nicely done, by the way. Should we congratulate you or someone else?

 

[E-wan]

I don't quite understand why you think it might tip over: are you intending to swivel the head round so you can drill on the bench rather than the drill table?

If you just arrange a "gate" across the slot in the bench, to retain the pillar, that ought to take care of it (assuming the base is fastened down reasonably well, obviously., but it looks like the leadscrew for the table will be a nuisance if you fit it that way.

Personally, I wouldn't trust castors in this context. Can you mount angle iron to the floor (two pieces parallel and at right angles to the bench), and just slide the base in and out on those when you need to? You ought to have a means of clamping it down too - they aren't intended really to free stand.

And they are designed to stand free of obstructions. I have a modern floor-stander and it's close to a cupboard on one side, which is a jolly nuisance. When I re-site it eventually it will be well away from benches, cupboards, shelves, etc. I understand space may be an issue, but this probably isn't the best approach.

The restoration is really nicely done, by the way. Should we congratulate you or someone else?

Afraid I can't take any credit for the restoration I bought it in this condition

I had also thought that sliding might be a more stable idea but hadn't quite envisaged how it could work.

So were you thinking just a couple of metal bars along the floor to act as runners for the base to slide on? If so would cast iron be best to match the base or does it not much matter.

Thanks

Ewan



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[Ttrees]

If you intend to have this pillar drill mobile you need a dang heavy thing with low center of gravity...
not easy to accomplish with such a tall tippy machine.
Like probably at least 100 kilos worth of a base to bolt the base to, make retractable casters for it etc
Maybe a big hunk of hardwood timber or what have you, with a big enough area that you can stack plenty of heavy metal on top of around the base...
You may have noticed it may be tippy on the floor...these things get bolted to things, and don't just sit on their own without affixing.