Moving Unisaw

[Craig Ryder]

Hi:

Just bought a used Unisaw and need to move it. I am thinking just use a good dolly and truck with ramp.

Anything special I need to do prior to moving? Is there anything I can mess up or throw out of alignment and need to be careful about? I assume trying to lift it at all by the table is a mistake?

Thanks,

[Cary Falk]

Take the fence, wings and motor off. Back you truck up to it. Flip/roll it into the back of the truck onto it's top. Unload in the opposite order. It is ok to lift by it's top as long as you are not lifting it by it's wings.

[Norman Hitt]

Craig, when I bought my new Powermatic 66, (20 yrs ago) I was remodeling a house for my daughters (360 miles from my home) and when I finished, I had a lot of things to take home. I rented a large truck that had a pullout heavy aluminum ramp to haul it all.
I left everything intact except the right side extension table that was mounted between the Biese 52" commercial fence's rails which I removed so my daughter could have access to push on the base of the saw. I had a good strong dolly, (not even an appliance dolly) and I tilted the saw enough for one of my daughters to slide the lip of the dolly under the base of the saw and then I tightly fastened two straps around the dolly and the saw, (one around the saw horizontally just under the table top and another vertically, under and over the saw and through the crossbars of the dolly). I tilted the saw back and pulled the saw, (backing up the ramp) and my daughter pushed the base of the saw, and we loaded it onto the truck, strapped it to the hooks inside the truck and drove home. I got a friend to help me and reversed the procedure, (I went forward pushing the dolly to the ramp so I could hold back on the dolly and saw as gravity pulled it down the ramp. My friend was in front of it keeping pressure on the base of the saw. It worked perfectly and only took maybe ten minutes to load and five to unload. I was lucky that my dolly tires fit just inside the raised lips on each side of the ramp.

I'm not suggesting you rent a truck, but if you have a low trailer with a solid ramp, and put some blocks under both the front AND the rear of the trailer to keep it from bobbling up and down as you load, it will be a relative easy matter without having the hassle of disassembling and reassembling the saw.

Note: Two friends on the bottom end would be safer though, because it is heavy, and with one on each bottom corner they could control any tendency for the saw to tip over while on the ramp. It would be even easier than my move since I had only the one helper and the much longer ramp up to the high floor of the truck I had. DO ask your helpers to NOT lift or push on the fence rails though, then screw or nail a short piece of 2 x 4 to the trailer floor against each side of the base of the cabinet and Strap it down good to both of the sides and front to back of the trailer.
Good luck and have fun with your new saw.

PS: I should mention that for balance with the rails & fence tube still in place on the saw, I put the dolly under the saw from the right side between the fence rails.

[Charles Lent]

I moved my 30 yr old Unisaw much like Norman did, but I used an appliance type hand truck. I left the motor in place, but removed the Unifence and the side table. The hand truck was slid under the back edge of the Unisaw and the single strap on the hand truck was wrapped around the base of the saw below the cast iron top and then secured. With pushing help from the seller I was able to pull the Unisaw and hand truck up the ramp into my 6 X 12' box trailer where I secured it in place. My trailer has metal strip tie downs with straps that clip into them like the moving vans have, so securing the saw in place in the trailer was quite easy. I left the hand truck attached to the saw during transport (about 100 miles) and was able to unload it by myself when I arrived home, but I needed a push from my son to get it up the ramp into my shop. A few hours later I had the fence and side table fully re-assembled and the saw running. A calibration check showed that the fence and top were still in perfect alignment with the blade. The next day I gave it a good cleaning, lubrication, and a new set of belts and it's been running like a new saw for the past 3 years.

With the right equipment and know-how it isn't difficult to move heavy items of this size all by yourself, but you do need some experience to keep from getting hurt. If I had a pickup truck I would likely have loaded and moved my Unisaw upside down the way Gary did. In fact, my son purchased a Delta Contractor saw last year and we brought it home (about 250 miles) in his pickup truck this way. We didn't even use a hand truck as it was easy for the two of us to just carry and flip the relatively light contractor saw upside down and into the truck for transport.


Charley

[Craig Ryder]

Thanks Charley, Norm and Cary. That is interesting and helpful.

I am renting a small U-haul truck. Mileage is minimal and the cost is under $50. I have two options if I understand correctly.

1) I can dolly it up the ramp. I only have an appliance dolly but it a pretty good one.

2) I can flip it onto the truck upside down without hurting anything or causing alignment issues. I was not aware of this. Can I do this without taking the motor out?

-Also, I can use the table itself to lift the saw without causing alignment issues. This is my first real cabinet saw so I was sure the table was meant to withstand that kind of lift coming from the underside.

-screwing 2x4s to the floor is a good idea too. Thanks for that.

Cheers,

[Cary Falk]

I wouldn't wory about messing up the alignment. You will want to go throught and tune it up yourself. Cabinet saws are realy easy to align. I heard of people flipping the saws onto trucks without taking the motor out. That is a lot of weight hanging off that mount bouncing around the back of a truck. It just makes me nervous. If you do transport it upside down you will want to put it on a blanket to avoid scratching the top.

[John Petsche]

nice ideas shared.

[Charlie Velasquez]

I wouldn't wory about messing up the alignment. You will want to go throught and tune it up yourself. Cabinet saws are realy easy to align. I heard of people flipping the saws onto trucks without taking the motor out. That is a lot of weight hanging off that mount bouncing around the back of a truck. It just makes me nervous. If you do transport it upside down you will want to put it on a blanket to avoid scratching the top.
This...
I have moved or helped move 4 cabinet saws. One (me) removed the motor. The other three decided not. Two had no issues, one cracked a trunnion (? I think that is what it is called). The cracked trunnion owner took about a month looking all over the internet to find a replacement (ended up being a guy just a few miles from him in North Liberty, Iowa), cost $$ (don't know how much- he didn't offer to disclose and I didn't ask), and time to replace the part.

It takes about 20 minutes to remove motor and put back on. If I did a cost to risk ratio, removing wins.