Doyle Alley
04-25-2006, 9:33 AM
A recent thread on replacing a Delta universal base with a tool-specific Delta base got me thinking about how I put together my universal bases. I have one Delta universal and half a dozen of the Harbor Freight copies (which don't seem to be available any more). All but one are put together with 1 1/2" steel tubing. The steel is a pain to work with, but once in it does provide advantages.
The question is how to attach the tool to the base. Since I had nobody to teach me otherwise and the holes in the base triangles didn't match up with the holes in my tool/toolstand feet, I decide the best way was to bolt a plywood deck to the mobile base and bolt the tool or toolstand to the plywood. Not only did this give me some extra rigidity and bottom heaviness (not that I needed it with the metal stretchers) but it also gives me an extra shelf to accumulate junk. In the case of my Delta 34-670 table saw, it turned a very tipsy machine (due to the extremely small footprint) into a very stable machine.
Is anyone else using plywood decks between their mobile bases and tools?
The question is how to attach the tool to the base. Since I had nobody to teach me otherwise and the holes in the base triangles didn't match up with the holes in my tool/toolstand feet, I decide the best way was to bolt a plywood deck to the mobile base and bolt the tool or toolstand to the plywood. Not only did this give me some extra rigidity and bottom heaviness (not that I needed it with the metal stretchers) but it also gives me an extra shelf to accumulate junk. In the case of my Delta 34-670 table saw, it turned a very tipsy machine (due to the extremely small footprint) into a very stable machine.
Is anyone else using plywood decks between their mobile bases and tools?