Continuing Saga of a Heavy Sander

[David Winer]

I hope you all are not tired of hearing my adventures in acquiring a bulky 500 pound machine—a Delta 31-396 edge sander. I reported here on its arrival four days ago and how the delivery men managed to stash it inside the workshop.

As I uncrated the beast it dawned on me that getting it off its pallet onto the accessory mobile base was going to take some thinking. Translate that into worrying. No amount of my shoving and grunting would budge this mass.

Then this afternoon while attending a birthday party for my next door neighbor’s kid, he volunteered to drop by afterwards with some of his burly guests. Four strong guys subsequently appeared. We quickly set up the mobile base (nuts and bolts job) and placed it next to the pallet. After unbolting the sander from the pallet we dragged the machine almost off, and then a final heave onto the base. It fell into place perfectly. What a relief! It was actually easy. With all that muscle.

This story has a moral: Have strong friends. And a second moral: Don’t overlook getting an accessory base exactly made to fit. Now I can press on a lever with my foot and convert the base into a tricycle to roll the sander around by myself.

[Jason White]

Friends are good, but I bet you spent at least $40 on beer to get them over there! :D

For the same amount, I went to the rental yard and borrowed an engine hoist for the day and did the same thing.

I think your way was probably more fun, though.


I hope you all are not tired of hearing my adventures in acquiring a bulky 500 pound machine—a Delta 31-396 edge sander. I reported here on its arrival four days ago and how the delivery men managed to stash it inside the workshop.

As I uncrated the beast it dawned on me that getting it off its pallet onto the accessory mobile base was going to take some thinking. Translate that into worrying. No amount of my shoving and grunting would budge this mass.

Then this afternoon while attending a birthday party for my next door neighbor’s kid, he volunteered to drop by afterwards with some of his burly guests. Four strong guys subsequently appeared. We quickly set up the mobile base (nuts and bolts job) and placed it next to the pallet. After unbolting the sander from the pallet we dragged the machine almost off, and then a final heave onto the base. It fell into place perfectly. What a relief! It was actually easy. With all that muscle.

This story has a moral: Have strong friends. And a second moral: Don’t overlook getting an accessory base exactly made to fit. Now I can press on a lever with my foot and convert the base into a tricycle to roll the sander around by myself.