Powermatic 15" Planer Casters

[Mark Evans]

I love my Powermatic 15" HH Planer. It does an excellent job at planing wood. What I hate are the casters - they only move in one direction and often get hung up.
Has anyone replaced them with 360° swivel casters? Has anyone put it on a Bora cart (or similar brand) to help move it around better? I really would like to have the ability to manuever it in all directions.
TIA
Mark

[Russell Hayes]

I've seen at least 3 older PM 15" planers with similar non-steerable casters that were upset and broke the main table casting (at a minimum). 15" 4 post planers are inherently top heavy, and the PM wheelbase is too narrow. Mine is bolted to the floor, but if I wanted it mobile, I would want a wider base for stability.

[Mark Evans]

I've seen at least 3 older PM 15" planers with similar non-steerable casters that were upset and broke the main table casting (at a minimum). 15" 4 post planers are inherently top heavy, and the PM wheelbase is too narrow. Mine is bolted to the floor, but if I wanted it mobile, I would want a wider base for stability.

I can see that. Would you recomment building a low profile wide base with say, 1" casters out of heavy plywood or some other material and mounting the planer to it?

[Russell Hayes]

I think that would work, anything to position the casters wider than the base to give it stability.

[Mike Burke]

I have my Jet 15" planer (similar to the powermatic) on a Grizzly mobile base. I like it and its easy to move around.

[Russell Hayes]

I wanted my planer to sit about 4" higher so I built a base from 2x6 construction lumber. I cut a 2" deep rabbet that fits inside the base on the left and right sides and used the caster bolt holes to attach it. You could do something similar but wider and with wheels.
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