Table Saw Mobile Base

I haven't heard to best of things about the factory made mobile bases which can start around $75. Plus they all keep two wheels on the ground permanently. I wasn't sure if only two stationary feet would be enough to keep it from shifting on me. I didn't want to take that chance after I had bought it. Plus, I love to build stuff, so I saw this as a challenge and time passer. There are a few ideas that I saw online which were effective, simple, and **cheap**. The very respectable genius engineer, Matthias Wandel and his mobile base design uses ball bearings to roll on a track which pull the table saw up after pulling on a lever. There were two downsides for me to use his design. The first is that for the four bearings alone, it would have been at least $25. I'm a college student; so the idea that I could save $25 bucks is enough for me to brainstorm other options. The second downside is I wasn't quite sure how easy it would be to lift up my really solid and heavy Delta Rockwell Cabinet saw. Mattias was only lifting up a contractors saw.

Well, it turns out that I went on the BYU campus and found a treasure pit for free junk that can be useful for someone with my passions. Behind the science building the maintenance workers throw out random stuff every week. I happened to stumble on lots of steel beams and pulleys that were used for heaven knows what. I became the proud owner of about (12) 4" pulleys that had bearings with a 5/8" ID. I also found some very sturdy tracks for the pulleys to ride in. I'm trying to figure out what to with those. Maybe a homemade panel saw. Who knows. The pulleys were heavy duty too. If I were to buy these, it would have set me back at least $75.

Well, I realized that I could use these pulleys to roll the saw on like Matthias does with his. So now the money for new bearings was not an issue. But I still opted that the saw would be really heavy and the 5/8" shaft would not hold up unless it was steel. And again, steel rod is pricey enough for me to figure something else out.

The next video I saw was titled Shop Built Mobile Base by par5endos562. His design deserves two thumbs up for simplicity and low cost. So I went to Home Depot and cringed to learn that four hinges set me back $10. But I bought them anyhow. I took two and bolted them to the base of my bandsaw. I quickly found out that the leverage was not too easy with the design limitations that I had; and my bandsaw doesn't weigh as much as my table saw. So I returned two of the hinges and kept the two I used. The biggest problem I have is that my bases have to be built on the outside of the tools. In other words, the tools are enclosed on the bottom so I have to design something that goes around the outside and then I have to make sure that nothing sticks out too far.

The next video I saw was Tablesaw Outfeed Table by DaveatWOODmag. His design seemed to be the most logical for my circumstance. I just had to make everything really beefed up to make sure it could take the strain. I used fairly thick piping for the axle, 3/8" rod steel for the cross arm that attaches the lever to the axle. Now I wanted the motions of lifting the table up to be simple, quick and sturdy. That's when I got creative in designing the levers and locking system.

I was determined to make a mechanism that's as easy to operate as sliding off a greasy log backwards.
I went through different ideas that were even simpler in design than this one, but this one is the quickest to operate. So for a couple more hours of building, I got a simple to use locking lever.

To cover all the ugly mechanics, I put a piece of ¼'' plywood on the outside and lacquered everything black. I bought a set of (12) 3" casters on Ebay for $32.00 out the door. (6) regular and (6) swiveled. For the casters, it was $10, about $5 in hardware and $5 for the black spray can lacquer.

This saw weighs over 400 lbs with the motor and fence attached.

After seeing all the work that others put into making videos for the mere benefit of others around the world, I decided that I would contribute to the YouTube community and post my ideas with the hope that someone will benefit as well.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• cabinet
• saw
• mobile
• base
• table
• tools
• shop
• built
• home
• made
• wheels

[MrHarborFreight]

Very Nicely Done! You are a smart guy! Thank you for taking the time to make and post this vid. I am going to duplicate your idea and also make it out of more rigid material. Thanks again man!

[ASTARIOSS]

GREAT

[yellvett76]

Nice job, and a great video. Thanks