And a different kind of mobile base

[Lewis]

Hi, I wanted a base that would allow full support for a five-foot extension table, allow easy movement over a not-so-even garage floor, and allow easy levelling on that floor. My solution was to bolt the saw legs and the legs that support the extension table to a pair of sturdy rails. I drilled holes in the saw's legs, and raised it up 3/4". The rails are 1/4" thick steel 4" X 4" angles. There are four 1.5" casters per rail, and a leveling foot next to each caster. It's not as easy to go from immobile to mobile as simply stepping on a lever, but a minute spinning up the levelling feet and it rolls easily. Even though it's mobile, I plan to leave it in one place most of the time. Overview:

and levelling foot: table legs: all painted JET almond, of course! Lewis

[igor]

Looks good. Questions: Considering the size of the steel, might two leveling legs & casters/rail been enough? (That is the size steel I have for lintels in the first floor of my three-story (including the basement) brick house.) Of course, maybe the legs and casters could fail, but not the steel, IMO.

Also, how did you secure the knobs to the levelers -- as I can see some substantial stress there? TIA. -- Igor

[Kevin Craig]

Good job, and it's certainly stiff!

Just for aesthetics, I think I'd have turned the rails around so that they pointed in, though. You'd lose just a bit of depth between the casters, but I don't think it would be in any danger of falling over.

Kevin

[Lewis]

Hi, I wanted to use small casters so I wouldn't raise the saw very much. The casters I ended up with are only good for about 150 pounds each, and with the hills and valleys in my floor, I was afraid of collapsing one if I used just one at each corner. That's probably being overly cautious; two per side probably would have been fine, and three would surely have been plenty. The levelling feet are 3/8" thread and go through tapped holes in the rails. The knobs are just threaded on to them in the picture, but I plan to put on jam nuts. Lewis

[Lewis]

Thanks! But turning the rails inward would mean the saw legs would need to go on top of the horizontal portion of the rail. Here's a closer look at the way the legs are bolted to the rail:

of the height of the casters, turning them around would raise the height of the saw table about 2 inches. I'm not that tall, and that's more than I wanted. You're right, though -- it would look better! Lewis

[igor]

So the knobs are fake, you say?!!! Reminds me of a woman I once knew.

If over-engineering were a sin, I'd have long ago gone to Hell. I think your design is great. (Being tall, I like the suggestions Kevin made.) -- Igor

[Fourleaves]

I like it! Nicely done.

Question: I can't be certain from the pictures, but it appears the mounting plates for the castors are not parallel to the floor due to the splayed legs of the saw. If this is so, do the castors have any trouble swiveling?

[rob]

Thats a nice mobile system! Do you have any pictures closer up of your overhead guard system? I have been thinking about putting something together and I'd like to see how you mounted this to the ceiling. Is it positionable or fixed? My saw is mobile and I use it multiple locations depending on the other tools I have set up. I'd like to figure out a way to connect something to the ceiling and make it relocatable easily.

Thanks for the pics. Good work.

Lewis wrote:

extension

drilled holes

[Lewis]

Hi, I put spacers between the rails and the top hole on the saw legs. This reduced the splay somewhat -- there's still a little, but the casters work fine. Lewis

the

[Lewis]

Hi, There's more about the guard in the thread titled "Yet another way to do an overhead blade guard."

Some more pictures are at

and It is fixed, but fairly easily removeable (just run out four lag bolts). If I end up moving the saw a a lot, I'll replace the lag bolts with threaded knobs and T-nuts. And if I find there are one or two other preferred spots for the saw, I'll just set up one or two more sets of T-nuts. It would require a little creative use of dust collector hose, but that's fairly simple, too. Lewis