Grizzly 17" bandsaw mobility mod

[Kevin Groenke]

Rather than buying/building a mobile base for my Grizzly 0513 to sit on, I just added wheels beneath the base for ~$30 in materials. The structure underneath the saw base permits the install of unidirectional wheels by simply drilling 4 holes in the corners for axle bolts and making 4 "stand-offs" to screw the axle bolts into. I used 2" square steel tube for the stand-offs, but they could also be hardwood blocks. If Grizzly added a couple pieces of sheet metal to the base, this could easily be a factory install. A simple thumbscrew acts as a wheel brake.

The wheels are ~ 1/4" below the base, so it's quite low profile, it doesn't significantly affect the stability of the saw. I only need to move the saw away from a wall, so the unidirection wheels are no big deal. Turning a bit is not a problem but you're not going to want to do donuts with this mod - you could do that with the addition of a drop-down swivel workbench caster on one side.


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[Geoff Crimmins]

Inexpensive, simple, and it looks like it should work great. Thanks for sharing.

[Jeff Qualmann]

I used 2" square steel tube for the stand-offs





358826

Nice! So are the 2" square tubes tack welded in place, or held there via the axle bolt?

[Kevin Groenke]

The 2" tubes are just held in by friction and the threaded axle bolt. This could result in the axle creeping away from the base and the wheel getting pinched but since I only move the saw a couple feet back and forth so it isn't a problem. The length of the unthreaded portion of the axle bolts are such that the bolt is tight but allows the wheel to spin freely. Welding in some 1/8 x 2" dividers would be easily done and probably a better solution, but not entirely necessary in this case.

[julian abram]

Great ideal Kevin. I just bought a 513x2 and Shop Fox mobile base last week, seems kind of "tippy" on the base. Anyway, I do like your ideal, and you're thinking outside the box.