Advice Sought: Making my jointer & planer portable

Is putting them on rolling bases out of the question? If not, I’d go that route if the floor is suited for it.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Portable planers can be mounted on a ladder-type
infeed/outfeed table and hoisted upwards with a
block and tackle arrangement.

My jointer is on a hydraulic scissor table and stashes under
the wing on my table saw. The arrangement would
probably be unacceptable to you.

Doss, any suggestions on shop made rolling systems?

Loren, any pictures of the ladder-type table?

THANKS!

-- Beer, Beer, Thank God for Beer. It's my way of keeping my mind fresh and clear...

What are the sizes of the bases and approximate weight of the planer and jointer?

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

I read about in in a Jim Tolpin book… probably “Working at Woodworking”.

Maybe he put the planer away somewhere and would bring down
the “ladder” for infeed/outfeed support.

I don’t use a portable planer, personally, so it’s not a solution
I’ve tried.

Oh, I don’t know they weights, but it’s a lot. I can lift the planer (and mess up my back), but that jointer must be 50+ years old and is a beast! Weighs a ton.

I need to look into rolling bases I think…

-- Beer, Beer, Thank God for Beer. It's my way of keeping my mind fresh and clear...

Well, places like Woodcraft carry universal bases:

http://www.woodcraft.com/Category/1001153/Mobile-Bases.aspx

And Amazon has them too of course.

You may be better off with a custom one though. It will require some angle iron or square tubing, a little plate steel, some casters, and a welder. If you don’t have a welder, you could drop it off and have it welded for pretty cheap since it’s only a few welds. You could get large casters to help roll across uneven, bumpy floors too. Just make sure you get some that lock and possibly incorporate them into a design that lifts the wheels when stationary (or get casters that raise up). You could come out significantly cheaper or more than a universal depending on the quality of materials you use, but it’ll probably exceed the strength of a universal base.

I’ll try to get a picture of the one I had welded up for me.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Doss, that would be great. I might need to do that for the table saw (a Delta Uni).

-- Beer, Beer, Thank God for Beer. It's my way of keeping my mind fresh and clear...

Hey guys, just wanted to update you on my search. Look at this page I found over at Tool Crib

http://www.toolcrib.com/blog/2008/10/15-free-mobile-base-plans-put-your-power-tools-on-wheels

Also, one of our very own, Greg Wurst, had a cool, coooool idea:

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/8831

Enjoy!

Milo

-- Beer, Beer, Thank God for Beer. It's my way of keeping my mind fresh and clear...

Yep, both of those solutions in the links will work. I prefer metal b/c I have access to it.

I also like having larger casters when possible (4-6”). It makes it a lot easier to move things around on surfaces that aren’t entirely smooth.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss

Milo – those links are great, especialy Greg Wurst’s link. I have said it before – we lumberjocks are to woodworking what HAM operators were to the electronic industry. We are the ideas driving the industry… the inventors in the field. Greg’s idea is a good example – a simple improvement to the expensive mobile solutions out there.

Not that my idea can help you because of the weight of your tools, but I’m proud of a small shop solution I developed featured in post # 39419 in this ame forum. We LJ’s may not be the company engineers but I’m sure we are being watched by the big game players and we are being collectively noticed as an important driving force.

-- Bernie: It never gets hot or cold in New Hampshire, just seasonal!

I have a bunch of machines on mobile bases, but I also have
a “mini” pallet jack which I use to move my table saw, which
has slots in the base for it, and for moving my shaper, which
is on a 4” tall base made for this purpose in about half an
hour out of some 2×4 pine and a piece of plywood.

I also move other stuff on the pallet jack from time to time
and the thing makes such work deliriously fun.

I have a 550 pound plainer, and a 350 pound joiner. The plainer is on a home build welded base with HF locking casters. The joiner is on a commercial base, but I have a smooth floor in the shop. The 750 pound table saw sits where it is, but my outfeed table/assembly table is on 6 HF locking casters so I can move it around a bit. If you look in my projects there is a picture of the outfeed table.

-- Life is to short to own an ugly boat.

Once the machines get over 350 lbs or so (Unisaw weight)
they start to have serious mass and even with mobile bases
they take some muscle to push around. I have a couple in
the 500lb+ range on mobile bases and they prefer to stay
put. The pallet jack is more than a match for such machines
though, if you can get it under them.

Worst case, bolt your machinery to some pallets and buy a pallet jack. :-)

Yeah, one of our worktables we use for welding is 4×8 3/8” plate steel with a tray at the bottom that we put a bunch of tools and supplies on. It has wheels on one side that touch the ground when you put a car jack under the other side. It does not like moving at all. I think it wouldn’t be as much of an issue if the wheels were larger though.

So, when the machinery gets heavy, start using larger casters. You may have to offset them on the side to keep them from making your machinery too tall, but it’s worth it any time you have to move it.

Sorry, didn’t get a picture this weekend. I attended a beerfest and that pretty much relegated the rest of my weekend to recovery.

-- "Well, at least we can still use it as firewood... maybe." - Doss