Buying and then Moving a new SawStop PCS

[Jeremy Thornton]

Since I know there will be a few people who are fortunate enough to get a SawStop this Christmas season, I wanted to share how I brought the SawStop PCS home and moved it into my shop by myself.


Before purchasing a SawStop PCS I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I could move this thing on my own. I assume that, once you have decided on the PCS you also looked at how much it weighs. I don't live in a place where the liftgate delivery service is an option (and given the price of the saw, I couldn't stomach another $150.), and I also don't have friends that can help me move it. I searched the internet and there were a few people who did it themselves, which gave me the confidence that I could figure it out.


I bought the saw at a Rockler store. (I think they get a commission at the store, so it was important to me to actually go in and buy it.) Before purchasing my wife was worried about how I would get it into my shop and I told her that I had a plan. When they called a few weeks later to tell me that the saw arrived at the store, my wife found out that my plan to bring it home and unload it was to "figure it out." You can imagine how this went over.


I rented a UHaul van (not a moving truck) and drove to the store. The van cost me $30. At Rockler, they loaded the saw and accessories (it comes with several boxes) into the van with a forklift. It is important to make sure that they keep the saw ON THE PALLET....the Pallet is needed to move this thing.


When I got home I put three 2x6x8s up against the van to make a "ramp." (You want to make sure that your 2x6s aren't angled too steep.) I thought I could push the saw onto the 2x6s with my legs and then use gravity to move it down the lumber...I was wrong. It did not move at all.


So there I was: Staring at this cabinet saw, which took months of saving to buy, in the back of a UHaul van. I looked around the shop for ANYTHING that might help and there it was: a wooden dowel closet rod that I kept after I redid my wife's closet. SCRAP. It was about 5 feet long and about 1.5 inches in diameter. I used the rod as a lever: I placed it under one corner of the pallet at a time, lifted, and shimmied the pallet to the 2x6s. Once it got onto the 2x6s, gravity did most of the work but the weight of the saw kept it from sliding down uncontrollably.


At the bottom of the "ramp" I had a 12" x 12" furniture dolly that the previous owners left behind at the house (it is four pieces of wood with four wheels attached). I got a portion of the saw on top of that dolly and wheeled it into the shop (once some of the weight is transferred, moving it with one person is doable.) It is important to note that the dolly was not centered under the pallet. Once I got it to the shop I tilted the saw onto the floor and kicked the dolly out from underneath. Again, some of the weight was resting on the floor so keeping it lifted was doable.


I share this because I know someone out there will "google" - like I did - how to move a saw stop on your own. You can do it. You saved enough money to afford this expensive piece of equipment - you'll find a way to get into the shop.

[Cliff Polubinsky]

Here's how they told me to do it at Woodcraft if you have access to a pickup.

Put 2 - 2x10x10s in the bed. Have the store put the saw on the boards closest to the cab. The saw should be on its side with the top nearest to the cab.

When you get home pull the boards out the back of the bed, bringing the saw with it.

As the saw starts to clear the bed the boards will tip allowing the saw to slide to the ground.

It worked beautifully.

Cliff

[Rick Potter]

As I read this, I kept thinking you were going to roll it on the closet dowel. Fooled me.

[Bill Dufour]

A Johnson Bar is designed for this. A crowbar is a cheap substitute. Horrible fright has. a 60" bar for about $25. You could weld on a axle if you got ambitious.
Bill D.

[Justin Rapp]

So my thoughts when I was ordering my sawstop, as I could have picked it up at a Woodcraft store in Delaware. Would save me the $250 delivery fee (and sales tax actually as DE has now state salestax). Woodcraft would have charged me about $2 a mile to deliver it, and I am 75 miles, so the deliver would have been $300. Lucky I have the ability to get liftgate service, where they drop it in the street and the delivery guy uses his pallet jack and moves it into the garage.

I thought about renting a pickup truck. It would have cost me maybe $75 or so to rent the truck, gas and tolls, on the low end. Than deal with getting the saw unloaded. Plus the cost of 2x8 or 2x10 for a ramp. In the end, i'd save $125? Is $125 worth all that effort when spending 4K on a saw and some of the accessories. Nope. $250 and it was dropped in my garage. If I didn't have lift gate service ability where I live, and my semi local store would deliver it for $150, it would be a no brainer to me. In the end, how much did you really save after renting the truck, fuel, wood for the ramp, possibility of damaging the saw or you on unloading it yourself.

So - why don't you have lift-gate service? If you can drive a pickup truck to where you are putting the saw, lift gate should work fine. I've had them show up in a semi-small box truck with a lift gate. They bring the saw down to the ground on a pallet jacket and use the pallet jacket to go up my driveway into the garage. The pallet jack even goes up the bump to get over the curb apron to get up the driveway.

[Christopher Charles]

Hi all,

A bit off topic, but I found a SS used and rented an appliance dolly from u-haul for $10. Made it straightforward to tip up into my pickup and even easier to tip out onto a ramp and wheel into place.

IMG_0974.jpg

[joe maday]

In the 80's when I bought my PM66, I picked up the saw in a pick-up truck. When I got home I drove across the lawn up to the side door...Then while the saw as in the truck I took it apart...table top, motor, electrics, trunnion assembly, (the wings were already separate) and carried them one by one down the stairs to the basement shop....then two people were able to pick up the main cabinet and carry it down the stairs into the basement shop. Once all the "parts" are were there. I assembled it all on a movable base.

[Paul Haus]

I bought a Grizzly G1026 cabinet saw about 10 years ago. I have a basement shop and had to have it dropped in the street so that's my starting point. I have an appliance dolly so I strapped it to the dolly and got a little muscle from the driver to get it over the curb and up the 3 steps to the sidewalk to the house. Once around back it's up 3 steps into the house and that's where it got interesting. I unpacked it in the kitchen and pulled everything I could to lighten it up. I wrapped it in moving blankets and strapped it onto the dolly with the narrowest side to the dolly. Then it was through 2 doorways, down 3 steps, turn then down another 8 steps to a landing and another turn and then the final step down to the basement floor. It went down just fine that way. It's the same way I've moved everything down to my shop including things like a metal lathe, planer., jointer, wood lathe, 60 gallon compressor and every other piece of heavy equipment in my shop. Heaviest piece is around 500 lbs and I moved every one of them by myself. When going down the long set of steps, I sat down on the steps and let the belts on the bottom of the dolly ride down the steps, that gave me better management of the weight vs. trying to do it standing up.
If you're planning on doing a bunch of heavy moving, an appliance dolly is mandatory in my opinion.