Hinged base for TS

[Duke]

Reluctant to buy a mobile base and not thrilled with building an apron type base, I had another idea. Watching the NYW with Norm's movable assembly table, it got me thinking of using a similar technique as a mobile base for a contractor style TS. I'm thinking of 2 parallel strips of hardwood or ply that are hinged to the inside of legs of the saw. 4 casters would be attached to the bottom of the wood. The part I haven't worked out is a way to make the wood push or drop "down" to lift the tablesaw "up" making it movable. Release the downward pressure on the wood and gravity (maybe too forcefully?) sets the saw down again. I guess a board attached to the rear strip and on top of both pieces of wood could push the pieces down, but it would seem like it would get in the way of day to day operations with it sticking out the front.

Anyone built anything like this?

-- Cheers! Duke

[Mark Jerde]

Yup, a simpler version, for my Delta bench saw. I cut two 2x4's to go from the bottom of each front leg to the back leg. I ripped a wedge off the bottom of each 2x4 so it was flat to the floor. Fixed castors at the back, swivel castors at the front of the saw. The swivel castors were too wide to get 4 screws in so I turned them diagonal and just put in two. If it didn't work I was going to add width to the 2x4 so all 4 screws could go in. But two held it just fine.

The front castors locked, but the saw was so light it still tended to push around. As a stopgap measure I'd just lift the front of the saw & put a 2x4 on the floor behind the front wheels, like airplane chocks. Easy to do with that lightweight bench saw and it worked fine. If it slid around I was going to tack a pieces of a mousepad or old tennis shoe sole to the bottom of the "chock" 2x4 but it wasn't necessary.

I was going to make a more "elegant" solution, but I got a Griz contractor saw and didn't have room for both in my single car garage shop. I sold the Delta to the neighbor across the street.

-- Mark

[Mark Jerde]

P.S. Besides lever-actuated feet that would lift the castors off the ground, the other improvement I was going to do was cut grooves in the 2x4s parallel to the ground and make a drawer for the wasted space under the TS. It already had a box immediately under the saw with a connector for my shop vac for dust collection.

-- Mark

[JMWEBER987]

I did something similiar to the previous poster. I mounted casters to standard door hinges and put them 2 x 4's. Mounted the 2 x 4's to the saw stand legs. At first I put the casters on the inside of the legs but the saw was a little unstable so I lengthed the 2 x 4's and put the casters on the outside a couple inches for stability. Kind of like outriggers. I used bungee cords across each set of casters (front and back) to lift the casters up when I lifted the edge of the saw. The bungee cords run up and over another piece of wood mounted across the leg brace to help pull upward. Tied a small rope loop between each set of side casters for pulling them out when mobility not wanted. A small magnet in the middle of each rope keeps the cord attached to the underside of the table extensions and out of the way. This method does necessiate lifting each side of the saw a couple inches when changing caster positions but it was cheap and works okay. Hope this explanation is clear. Mike in Arkansas

[Greg Neill]

You might want to see if your local Home Depot has a Ridgid tablesaw with its mobile base. You could probably duplicate its function.