Thread: mobile bases

Tony,
have you considered a pallet jack? You just mount your machines on some skids and away you go. I bought one at super cheap auto on sale for about $250. You can make the skids out of scrap for $0. I move my benches as well as machines with mine.

Mick

Originally Posted by Tonto

I may need several of these suckers for different peices that are acumalating.
The commercial price gives me the willies, so if I was to make the same out of angle iron what size and thickness. Any ideas and is this a good idea.

Thanks Tony

Gday Tony, do you have a welder?

If you do I definitely think you should have a go at making your own mobile bases. Much Cheaper and stronger than any bought ones.

I have made a few now and I recommend you use box section steel and 100m cast iron castors with 2 swivel castors and 2 fixed.

Here is a Sketchup video of the base I made for my BP 16A bandsaw and a pic below. This one is good for 400kg.







I have also made one for my buzzer in the thread here.









and another one I beefed up for Waldo.

That be what Iam looking for. Ha you be da man thanks. You reacon 38mm sq is strong enough?

Tonz

Originally Posted by Tonto

That be what Iam looking for. Ha you be da man thanks. You reacon 38mm sq is strong enough?

Tonz

38mm x 38mm x 2mm will be plenty strong. You could use 25mm.sq if you wanted, it all depends on how you design it. Just think about where the weight and forces are when you design it.
They way I make mine now generally only raises the machine by about 1" total.

I have been using these castors of late. 100mm cast iron wheels rated at 140kg each. I think it was about $90 for 4. The bigger the diameter of the wheel, the better they ride over bumps/rough surfaces.

Depending on how much moving of the machines you do the cheapest way is a sheet of 19mm ply and castors under then screw fix the machine to the ply.

The only drawback is it lifts the machine 75mm higher but as I'm 1830mm tall It is ideal for me.

Hi

Originally Posted by Tonto

I may need several of these suckers for different peices that are acumalating.
The commercial price gives me the willies, so if I was to make the same out of angle iron what size and thickness. Any ideas and is this a good idea.
Thanks Tony

Here's my take on the subject

While I agree that the larger wheels do go over rough spots more easily, I think they generally take up too much space.

For my needs I want the toolbase to have MINIMAL impact on both the HEIGHT of the machine and the machine's surrounding space, ie I DON'T want the mobile base to make the machine much wider.

My workshop is already tiny and with the "other stuff" in there, sometimes occupying floor space, I don't want to keep moving stuff just to get the mobile base around the floor.

So this is the design I came up with. Part of the design - the wheels WITHIN the frame - came from someone's mobile base (in the USA) where they can readily obtain and use a product called UniStrut. Unistrut is basically a heavy duty but lightweight (gauge) steel channel.

I used 50x25mm RHS (Rectangular Hollow Section) tube and 40x40x4mm angle. I find that welding the angle to the tube is an easier join than angle to angle, as you are just welding to something "flat" (it's no big deal though, just convenient).

As I mentioned and is shown in one of the images, the fixed wheel is held WITHIN the tube of the base that runs along the side of the machine (bandsaw in this case). This is a 50mm heavy duty plastic wheel. The swivel casters are DUAL wheel units that can carry a very heavy load, I don't remember the specs but I "think" it was 200kg(?) per dual wheel (single caster).

As you can see, I mounted the two swivel casters on a pivoting RHS tube. This pivoting tube is fastened to one of the angle irons that hold the two outer tubes and on which the feet of the bandsaw sit. This means that the swivel casters are within the frame and the overall width of the frame is only a little over 50mm wider than the base of the bandsaw itself.

The angle iron used was 4mm thick, so as you can see in one of the images, the overall height increase of the bandsaw is ONLY 19mm. This is the 15mm clearance I left between the floor and the mobile base, plus the 4mm thickness of the angle iron.

The whole unit moves very smoothly and easily and *I* think the dual casters help substantially in the "steering" action.

The tube on which the swivel casters are mounted is held in the down position by two "clips" (made from the angle iron) that swing over the top of the casters tube. To lower the rubber feet to the floor (and firmly hold the bandsaw in place) the saw is lifted/tilted slightly to relase the pressure on the angle iron "clips" which are then swung down, allowing the caster tube to lift thus moving the casters off the floor.

As you can see in the image, there is a huge clearance between the foot and the floor when the swivel casters are in use, but it drops right down to only 15mm clearance when in use.

It works for me. If it helps you in anyway then that's great

If you click on this link...

http://www.multiline.com.au/~psander...k/woodfram.htm

...you can see a few more mobile base images, including the mobile base I made for my table saw. I used "BIG" wheels to allow the TS to be wheeled on and off a trailer more easily. The wheels are of one of those hand trolleys.

I like your ideas also, damm this could lead to some extensive welding work. Whered you get the double castors from please.
regards Tonz

Tonto,

Soundman was selling these things a while ago at a pretty reasonable price. I bought two of them from him and am very happy with them. I remember thinking at the time that it wouldn't be worth the fiddling around making one at the price. I can't remember exactly what they cost and thus wouldn't want to pull a figure off the top of my head but they were very competetive.

Cheers,
Keith

Soundman's source dried up.

Timbcon have one on special here till the end of this week.

Mobile Machine Base - 275kg Capacity
MB-275
Don't want to skid your machines across the floor any more? This very useful stand will allow almost any machine to be mounted so that it is always mobile. Simply push down the pedals to engage the wheels and move it at will. Size base of machine 280x280mm to 895x895mm or equivalent rectangular shape.
Was $109
Now $79!

you think its worth buying one then making my own roughly to that design without breaking copyright principals .
I like the designs that Martrix & Mr Fixit have used and this could be another way round the answer.
just checked out freight $27. no thankyou ok back to the above formities ideas
regards Tony

Originally Posted by Tonto

you think its worth buying one then making my own roughly to that design without breaking copyright principals .

You can do that. You are allowed to make copies for yourself, copyright is breached when you make exact copies for sale.

I like the designs that Martrix & Mr Fixit have used and this could be another way round the answer.
just checked out freight $27. no thankyou ok back to the above formities ideas
regards Tony

Mine cost me LESS than $27 in materials and casters to make!

Sorry Tony, I don't recall the name of the supplier. They are in Balcatta WA, but the products they sell are items that are sold worldwide. The casters are a well known brand, it's just that I don't recall the brand name

If you DO need more info from me, I can go back to the distributor, they are only a couple of km's away and get more details.

DId you check out my TS base with the BIG wheels

Peter dont worry about chasing them up, again I'd probobly spend more on freight than what they're worth so I'll chase them up locally hopefully at the WWWshow in July (sigh ....2 months)
And yes I think the big wheels are great.
What Iam hoping to do is build all the trolleys and stands so that every machine finishes up on the same work level then build a series of flat tables that will be either covered in laminate or small roller balls so that any table(s) can be moved to any machine
Haha the world is filled with good intentions. But ya gotta have dreams. Man Ive got to do something so I can start making something from all the jarrah and redgum thats collecting around this place.

regards Tony

As an idea to raise and lower the wheels, you could set up a cam arrangement.

Depending on weight load Supercheap has really cheap locakable casters. I used some for a light mobile bench and work fine jsut locked in place.