Bandsaw Mobile Base

[jeffrey bailey]

I recently purchased the Porter Cable band saw and was going to put a mobile base on it. Yesterday I was studying it and thinking about which base to use. I noticed the door on the front of the band saw cabinet/base goes all the way to the bottom of the cabinet. Any base would block the door. Has anyone came up with a work-around for this? I really need to put it on a mobile base, but dont want to lose the use of the cabinet.

[Al Weber]

I have a Rikon bandsaw which doesn't have the same design but I built a double thickness plywood base so the saw sits on a flush surface and mounted a low profile locking caster (don't remember the brand anymore). I suppose you could use a commercial mobile base and built up the inside with blocking or sheet stock to accomplish the same thing. If you do a flush mount, make sure you bolt the saw down to prevent it from tipping.

[Carroll Courtney]

Raise the floor up using a 2x4 frame laying flat,bolt it to the moble base then set the BS on the wooden frame and bolt it down.Or take a piece of 3/4 ply and cut it the same size of the moble base frame and bolt it down on top of the frame then bolt the BS on the ply maybe using some T-nuts---Carroll

[John Hays]

As a matter of fact I'm in the process of modifying a Harbor Freight mobile base for my PC bandsaw as we speak. I haven't quite gotten it to the point where all of the bugs are worked out of it yet, but I hope to have it solved soon.

Like Carroll suggested, I decided to use 3/4" ply to bolt to the bottom of the saw's cabinet. Unfortunately, the HF base doesn't have any holes pre-drilled in the corners to bolt the plywood down, so I'm debating if that's going to be a problem or not.

[jeffrey bailey]

I thought about that but really dont want to add much more height to the table. It seems to be at a comfortable height now (without a base).

[John Hays]

I thought about that but really dont want to add much more height to the table. It seems to be at a comfortable height now (without a base).


Well, the only other option is designing some sort of hurc-U-lift contraption for the inside of the cabinet, which would be a little complicated to say the least.

Even using the LV-1710-NYP-S-M12 (http://www.greatlakescaster.com/proddetail.php?prod=LV-1710-NYP-S-M12) casters from Great Lakes is going to add much more height than the inch or so from the method that I chose. But, if you do find a good solution, please let us know.

Good luck :)