Derek Arita
11-11-2016, 6:29 PM
I've been asking a lot of questions about how to, etc., concerning leveling castors, so I thought I'd post the end result, as someone will probably have the same questions that I had about mounting this type of leveling castor to an MM16 bandsaw.
First, as I understand it, Great Lakes Castor is now Castor Depot. On earlier posts, there was talk that GLC had Zambus type castors that were a fraction of the cost of the Zambus. They did, but apparently no longer do as they were much less duty. Now they carry a very close match to the Zambus leveling castor, called Footmaster. After speaking with Jason Popma at Castor Depot, I ended up with Footmast Model GD-60S leveling castors. I'll spare you the specs, only mentioning that they are rated at 550lbs/ and have an M12 thread to mount with. These things are a little smaller than the size of my fist, very heavy duty and very nicely finished.
So, my main questions were about how to mount these suckers to the base of the MM16. The other example I saw was an MM20, but there seems to be a slightly different configuration of what's under the base. On the MM20, you simply have to use the existing M12 leveling screws and screw them into the threaded Footmaster castors...easy. Of course with my MM16, it's a bit more complicated.
You will see by the pics that I had to gain working access to the bottom of the base, drill mounting holes, then I could mount the Footmasters to the base. Using this method actually allowed me to get the castors mounted a bit further apart, so that added stability.
Now that the Footmasters are mounted, the saw rolls and turns so easily, it's amazing. I have a garage shop, where space is at a premium and every nook and cranny is used. Whenever I have to use the saw, I have to maneuver it out of it's storage space. With the OEM setup, that maneuvering was a real pain. Now, it's no sweat at all. Once in place, lowering the feet is easy enough to do with fingers...I was pretty surprised about that.
I'm glad I finally made the switch from OEM to these Footmasters. Hardest part by far, was laying the saw down to work on. Now I have to figure out which Footmaster castors to use on my FS30 Smart, Jointer/Planer. :D Thanks for looking.http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/derekarita1/IMG_0972_zpszmfqfud1.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/user/derekarita1/media/IMG_0972_zpszmfqfud1.jpg.html)
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/derekarita1/IMG_0968_zpsimcf4qor.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/user/derekarita1/media/IMG_0968_zpsimcf4qor.jpg.html)http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/derekarita1/IMG_0970_zpsemstiiuh.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/user/derekarita1/media/IMG_0970_zpsemstiiuh.jpg.html)http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/derekarita1/IMG_0974_zpspvnymxfa.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/user/derekarita1/media/IMG_0974_zpspvnymxfa.jpg.html)http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/derekarita1/IMG_0975_zpss5jjohre.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/user/derekarita1/media/IMG_0975_zpss5jjohre.jpg.html)
First, as I understand it, Great Lakes Castor is now Castor Depot. On earlier posts, there was talk that GLC had Zambus type castors that were a fraction of the cost of the Zambus. They did, but apparently no longer do as they were much less duty. Now they carry a very close match to the Zambus leveling castor, called Footmaster. After speaking with Jason Popma at Castor Depot, I ended up with Footmast Model GD-60S leveling castors. I'll spare you the specs, only mentioning that they are rated at 550lbs/ and have an M12 thread to mount with. These things are a little smaller than the size of my fist, very heavy duty and very nicely finished.
So, my main questions were about how to mount these suckers to the base of the MM16. The other example I saw was an MM20, but there seems to be a slightly different configuration of what's under the base. On the MM20, you simply have to use the existing M12 leveling screws and screw them into the threaded Footmaster castors...easy. Of course with my MM16, it's a bit more complicated.
You will see by the pics that I had to gain working access to the bottom of the base, drill mounting holes, then I could mount the Footmasters to the base. Using this method actually allowed me to get the castors mounted a bit further apart, so that added stability.
Now that the Footmasters are mounted, the saw rolls and turns so easily, it's amazing. I have a garage shop, where space is at a premium and every nook and cranny is used. Whenever I have to use the saw, I have to maneuver it out of it's storage space. With the OEM setup, that maneuvering was a real pain. Now, it's no sweat at all. Once in place, lowering the feet is easy enough to do with fingers...I was pretty surprised about that.
I'm glad I finally made the switch from OEM to these Footmasters. Hardest part by far, was laying the saw down to work on. Now I have to figure out which Footmaster castors to use on my FS30 Smart, Jointer/Planer. :D Thanks for looking.http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/derekarita1/IMG_0972_zpszmfqfud1.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/user/derekarita1/media/IMG_0972_zpszmfqfud1.jpg.html)
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/derekarita1/IMG_0968_zpsimcf4qor.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/user/derekarita1/media/IMG_0968_zpsimcf4qor.jpg.html)http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/derekarita1/IMG_0970_zpsemstiiuh.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/user/derekarita1/media/IMG_0970_zpsemstiiuh.jpg.html)http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/derekarita1/IMG_0974_zpspvnymxfa.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/user/derekarita1/media/IMG_0974_zpspvnymxfa.jpg.html)http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h151/derekarita1/IMG_0975_zpss5jjohre.jpg (http://s63.photobucket.com/user/derekarita1/media/IMG_0975_zpss5jjohre.jpg.html)