I'm about ready to order the Grizzly G0555 bandsaw, but I'll need it to be mobile in my shop. The obvious solution is to purchase the Shop Fox mobile base for $70, but I'm curious if the G0555 could be mounted to a wood cart I build myself? This would let me build a cabinet area under the saw, rather than just waste the space with the stand.
I already have my drill press and portable planer mounted on a homebuilt cart, so it would be nice if I could build a cart for the bandsaw too. Keep things matching as best as possible. :)
From what I can tell, the motor mounts to the saw and not the stand?
Am I overlooking something by going with my own cart idea?
I don't see why not. There's four holes on the bottom of the bandsaw's cast iron frame that allow it be bolted to the metal stand that comes with it. I don't see any reason why you couldn't mount the saw to something else if you wanted. Of course you're still going to get the metal stand, whether you want it or not. :)
Right. Unlike some of the Delta saws, the motor is mounted to the cast iron frame of the bandsaw and not underneath in the metal stand. So the G0555 could pretty much sit on anything that will properly support it.
The only gotcha will be that you're going to need some help lifting the saw as it's probably too heavy (about 166 pounds or so) to lift by yourself. I needed help to lift mine off the floor and onto the metal stand. So if that's problematic, you may want to plan around that so you only need to do it once. SWMBO wasn't any help to me on this one, so I had to go dig up some help from one of the neighbors.
If you wanted to start building something now and have it ready when the saw arrives, but weren't sure what dimensions it might need to be . . .
My G0555's metal stand is about 25"-26" high. It currently sits at 25-1/2" as it's sitting on the Shop Fox mobile base. If you want to emulate some of the dimensions of the metal stand that comes with the saw the bottom is 17"x24" which tapers up and in to a platform that's 20-1/2"x14".
On my tools, I mounted Shopping cart wheels to the rear legs and a pair of swivel casters on a platform near the front legs set up so that I could lower the front wheels allowing the re wheels to make contact and lift the saw to move it to the new location, lower the front (raise the front wheels) and saw saw saw.
Did it with a table saw and my RAS when I had access to lots of 1" square tubing and welding equipment. But you can bolt it all together easily enough. Won't match your other rolling bases, but it makes for a neat mover that lets the equipment rest on its original feet/legs when not being moved - nice and stable.
Thank you, I appreciate the dimensions. I was thinking 24" square, with whatever height was needed to get the table height about the same. So, it sounds workable.
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