This looks cool!

[Jason White]

Anybody here have a "portable carpentry workshop?" Looks like a great solution for a small workshop.

http://www.rollingtrades.com/

[Cliff Holmes]

It's a cool idea, but at almost $5K that's a lot to get a compact home workshop.

[Chris Harry]

Yeah saw this on "Under Construction" on DIYnet.

Great product if you are a pro, I guess. high price makes it out of reach for most shop guys. 5K can buy me a lot of nice tools!

[Mitchell Andrus]

Anybody here have a "portable carpentry workshop?" Looks like a great solution for a small workshop.



I see at the bottom of their site that they are looking for a firm to mass produce these. Yikes. Are they still in prototype?

Yep, this is a cool idea. This is a very heavy unit built for serious duffers with little space. It reminds me of those all-in-one contraptions that do it all, just not all at the same time. At a commercial site, you need to be able to use more than one tool at once when you've got 3 or 5 guys working. If you don't have 3 guys at the jobsite, you won't be able to get it off of the truck. I hope they split the concept into 2 units. A line of workers waiting to get at the miter saw is tough to put up with.

At nearly 5K it ain't cheap but if it lasts 20-30 years.....
.

[keith micinski]

I have been working on one of these for the last few days out of scraps I have had in my shop. I am only going to have about 50 bucks into mine. I am pretty sure 5,000.00 is about 4,800 to much for that.

[Paul Steiner]

I think most guys on this site are capable of building something equivalent to that customized to what they use or like to do or need for well under 5k.
The problem I for see is that you need so many different configurations and locations for tools eventually this thing would stay on the truck. Currently I am doing flooring on a 3rd level of my house, it would not be easy of cost effective to walk down to my saw and back up.
In my area alot of pros use small box trucks. This gives them enough room to have basically a rolling shop.

[Phillip Bogle]

My son said that your should never try to sell a product that someone looks at and says "I can make that" because they will make it, or won't pay the money for you to do it.

I like the concepts and I am surprised that no one has plans or what not. The parts are available at any one of a number of sellers, like Rockler, Woodcraft, Lee Valley.

I thank Jason for posting this.
Thanks,
Phil Bogle

[Mitchell Andrus]

I have been working on one of these for the last few days out of scraps I have had in my shop. I am only going to have about 50 bucks into mine. I am pretty sure 5,000.00 is about 4,800 to much for that.

I'm figuring that the hardware alone is above $600.00. Price the 6" castors, hinges, latches, multiple drawer sides, door stays, rollers......

The price is only a little high if you compare to high-end shop boxes and benches. I'm guessing it weighs 300 pounds empty. That's a lot of steel.
.

[Scott Hildenbrand]

It's basically a mobile base for a table saw. In fact, someone just posted one with a Jet cabinet saw on it.. Theirs looked really mobile, too.. ;)

That said, it's nifty how they added in the miter saw. But beyond that, there's really not that much more functionality over a well thought out, home built mobile saw cabinet.

[Jason White]

Yeah, the miter saw functionality is what really got my attention.

I'm with you guys, though. I'd probably try to make something similar myself before buying one.

Jason


It's basically a mobile base for a table saw. In fact, someone just posted one with a Jet cabinet saw on it.. Theirs looked really mobile, too.. ;)

That said, it's nifty how they added in the miter saw. But beyond that, there's really not that much more functionality over a well thought out, home built mobile saw cabinet.

[Greg Sznajdruk]

Looks like you would have to invest in a power tail gate to get in or off the truck.

Would not want to try and ramp that up into a truck.

Greg

[doug faist]

I'm a little slow in my old age; it took me two "watchings" of the video to note the big sign that said "Does NOT include tools." Whoa, that means you have to buy the miter saw, table saw, all those router bits and all the boxed tools shown in the little cubbyholes, in addition to the $4,850 for what amounts to a heavy duty rolling platform.

Seems a bit out of line for the non-professional. $6,000 to $7,000 will pretty well equip a very nice, basic workshop.

I agree, too, that hefting that thing on and off the truck would be the work of two strong men and a couple horses.

Doug

[Paul Incognito]

I guess I'm what you guys are refering to as a "pro" so I'll weigh in.
I regularly set up a shop on my job sites, table saw, chop saw, router table, festool saw, shop vac dust collector, etc. I would have no use for this thing at all. It makes more sense to me to have individual work stations for each machine. That way they don't conflict, and I can set up the shop myself.
Just my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions...
PI

[Van Huskey]

$5,000 worth of Festool on a $300 commercial cart would do a better/cleaner job in an indoor environment, on an outdoor worksite 2,500 in tools would do a better job and more than one person can work. Plus I got the impression it doesn't include tools so figure $1200 or so for the TS SCMS and router and it looks like a gimmick or at best "something I could build for less".

[Peter Quinn]

It looks like a three stooges skit waiting to happen. Larry is trying to miter some casing, Curly tries to rip down some trim boards while Moe is making some cove molding on the router table (mold one side and spin, mold the other). Yup, that little box will make any team of carpenters feel just like three stooges.

I notice in their adds that one is being lifted with a fork lift, another being hoisted by three guys with a lift gate. Can you say HEAVY? I guess any Knack box left on a job side is going to be heavy, and that might be more useful than a big hole full of tools like a Knack box, but that seems excessively expensive and excessively heavy for daily transportation, unless you usually bring a fork lift or a bobcat to the job site for the off load. And clustering the tools in one small area? Totally three stooges.

[Dennis McGarry]

I would be more interested in a enclosed trailer, that would house all the tools, TS, BS, J/P lathe etc..

Fully insulated, and wired for power, Options could include generator ran or 110 or 220 live feed.

take a page from travel trailers and include slide outs to House the tools allowing for more work space.

DC built in, and completely portable and secure.

Hmmm maybe time to dust off autocad and do something.

[Paul Incognito]

I would be more interested in a enclosed trailer, that would house all the tools, TS, BS, J/P lathe etc..

Fully insulated, and wired for power, Options could include generator ran or 110 or 220 live feed.

take a page from travel trailers and include slide outs to House the tools allowing for more work space.

DC built in, and completely portable and secure.

Hmmm maybe time to dust off autocad and do something.

I've seen a set-up like this. It was really nice, but really expensive.
It would also make it difficult when trimming a house...unless you're getting paid by the mile.
PI

[Dennis McGarry]

I've seen a set-up like this. It was really nice, but really expensive.
It would also make it difficult when trimming a house...unless you're getting paid by the mile.
PI


Only added expense would be fuel, but then again you would most likely have a trailer already.

So this would just keep you in one spot and your own little portable workshop.

I know the idea is out there, but other options could be to use it in locations that you can not build a shop, or have room for one, if you can park a trailer you have a shop

Just a bored mind at work, back is almost better just need to get some cash together now and get some kits to make some pens.. DM er and meds are expensive!

[Richard Dragin]

In the real world you have stock next to the saw not all your tools or a desk. You want a miter saw in the room you are working on preferably, not everything you brought with you.. I can't think of a real good use for it.

[Paul Incognito]

Only added expense would be fuel, but then again you would most likely have a trailer already.

So this would just keep you in one spot and your own little portable workshop.

I know the idea is out there, but other options could be to use it in locations that you can not build a shop, or have room for one, if you can park a trailer you have a shop

Just a bored mind at work, back is almost better just need to get some cash together now and get some kits to make some pens.. DM er and meds are expensive!
Yea, I can think of a few jobs where this kind of set-up would have come in handy. Center city (Philadelphia) row homes are kind of tight.
Hope your back heals up quickly.
PI

[Jeff A. Smith]

I was just telling my wife the other day, "I'm tired of products that say, "built by <fill in the blank> FOR <fill in the blank>". And then this posts... "built by carpenters FOR carpenters." How original! Sorry, but wouldn't it be unbelievable if someone posted "Built by cobblers FOR physicists?" Or something a little different... JUST ONCE?

Okay... Sorry... I know this isn't pertinent to the tool. Just trying to be humorous in my over-cynical way.

I do love the all-in-one look of that thing!

Jeff

[Mitchell Andrus]

I was just telling my wife the other day, "I'm tired of products that say, "built by <fill in the blank> FOR <fill in the blank>". And then this posts... "built by carpenters FOR carpenters." How original! Sorry, but wouldn't it be unbelievable if someone posted "Built by cobblers FOR physicists?" Or something a little different... JUST ONCE?

Okay... Sorry... I know this isn't pertinent to the tool. Just trying to be humorous in my over-cynical way.

I do love the all-in-one look of that thing!

Jeff

It's steel.... Built by welders for carpenters..

[guy knight]

new a finish carpenter who had a trailer with everything built into it table saw planer jointer router table csms backed it into the garage and all he had to do was plug it in