Would this be a good option to use to level a mobil base?

[busbus]

My shop is half of a two-car garage and I use a homemade mobile base for my table saw and will need to do the same for additional equipment.

My problem is that the floor has one heck of a concave shape to it going to the drain, so I have to finagle the saw until it sits solidly. Of course, this isn't always the best position for all cuts.

I have tried a lot of things to help level it with various degrees of success, but none that I am happy with (yet).

I was wondering if camper stabilier jacks, like these, would work:

seem straight-forward, easy to use, and seem like they would certainly stabilize the saw.

Any thoughts?

Thanks, ray

[A.M. Wood]

Minimum length is 11.5" Do you really need that much of an adjustment?

[Lee Michaels]

I am not sure that a ratchet type jack would offer a small enough increment to really level the tool.

Have you thought about the crank type lifting unit that are often found on boat trailers?? It seems to me that those are truly incremental. although I don't know how strong they are.

[DanG]

Can you make a custom bearing pad that always goes in the same place on the floor? A rubber doormat or similar would keep it from skidding, stand it in the corner when not using.

(top posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[Leon]

Try a simpler solution, Your TS dos not have to be level. If you are having a stability problem use only 3 wheels on your mobile base. 3 wheels sill set solidly on any surface. My HTC Jet mobile base has 2 wheels just left of the center of the saw cabinet and 1 wheel under the extension table.

[busbus]

I was also thinking about the crank kind...they are just a little more expensive and I though this type would have a smaller footprint. Also, it seems like they are on a 15-degree-or-so angle which I thought would make them even sturdier.

But I did have the same thoughts as what you are saying about them being ratchet-type jacks. I talked with a friend who has a camper and he has the post kind...I can ask him if those type are truly incremental.

[busbus]

No, I certainly do not need that much adjustment! I was thinking about mounting them about 12" up the sides of my homemade base. That way I could retract them and roll the saw around on its wheels. When I wanted to use the, rachet the jacks so the saw would be level.

[busbus]

I thought about this solution, too, but there is not one perfect spot in the garage where I can make all my cuts. I am finding, especially with wide or long work, I need to move it this way and that; changing the position of the saw bewteen rips and cross-cutting. In addition to the floor situation, I have that durn post holding up the I-beam that always seems to be getting in the way, too.

I was trying to find a nice solution so's as I can move the saw and level it wherever I find the best place I could make my cut. I am now seriously thinking about what Lee said and put out the extra $30 and get a couple of the crank post-type jacks.

[alexy]

FWIW, this is not unique to garages with drains. I find the same on my poured basement floor with no drain.

Several:

Wedges. Simple, cheap, easy to "set".

T-nut on the bottom of the feet, with adjustable feet from the Borg.

Drill through the front feet, with a T-nut on the bottom, and a bolt through the hole, so that the height can be adjusted with a wrench from the top of the foot.

A cam-action lever on a foot to turn an eccentric bearing until it forces a foot to the floor.

I like the wedges

[Dave]

Alexy named my solution to the exact same problem. I have a wedge I stuff under the low corner. Actually it is a scrap of BB plywood from a past project. It was close at hand when I needed to keep my saw from rocking. I figure it was free.

[TWS]

I second this motion. I use scraps cut from tapered legs. The scrap is long enough to reach from front to back and I use two back to back (taper sides facing each other) to make a rectangular wedge. Easy to adjust and take down. Two pairs does it.

TWS

[gpdewitt]

Not sure what your mobile base looks like, but if you can rig up some threaded rod on two adjacent corners, such that the rods come nearly up to the height of the saw, threaded thru a t-nut near the wheels on the base, it is much easier to adjust from a standing position. I notice the older I get, the more tolerant of wobble I become if I have to get down on the floor to fix it!

[busbus]

Well, I do use a couple freebie wedges now that are nothing more than scrap moulding. They do work fine and the price is right. There is still some wobble to the machine, though, and it sorta scares me at times (especially when I am cutting larger pieces). This is because, one time, I was cutting a bunch of larger pieces and while I was getting one piece into position, I must have been too rough ad one of the wedges slipped out and all hell almost broke loose.

Now I know it probably culd have been avoided but the fact of the matter is that it happened, as accidents do. Ever since then, I have been unbelievably anal about the saw being as sturdy as it can be. I check those two wedges about 1,000 times before each cut. It is starting to annoy me but I can't help it, I sorta like the body parts the way they are and where they were put!

I am not necessarily looking for the cheapest way out. I guess I am looking for the best way to make the saw as sturdy as it can be without going TOO crazy. $30-$40, in my opinion, isn't all that much to pay for piece of mind.

[Dan Oelke]

No - they won't work. I have those kind of legs on my pop-up camper and they work great for that, but I can't imagine them working well to level a piece of equipment. The problem is that you need to extend them a little beyond the length you want, and then as you put weight on them they will shorten (just a little) and lock in place. With the camping trailer it works great to use the front jack to tip it just past the level point, drop the legs, and then go back with the front jack to put the load on them. With a saw you would have to be lifting that side of the saw and trying to set the length all at once.

If you go for the scissors style jack, then you can just turn the wrench on each corner to level it out. Gives you nice easy fine adjustment. Those stabilizer legs that you showed are only coarsely adjustable, and not very good at that.

Dan