Nova Voyager Drillpress Mobility

[Bob Moss]

Although it runs counter to the manufacture's instructions, I will need to periodically move my Nova Voyager. Can anyone have any experience with a mobile base on a Nova Voyager? Any recommendations for a very low to the floor mobile base? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Bob M

[David M Peters]

I have my 17" floor standing drill press on a mobile base and occasionally move it out of its corner to work on long boards.

It's this style of base with two layers of 3/4" ply filling the middle. The drill press is then bolted to the plywood. It's stable enough for me - but if you really wanted to you could of course tip it over.

[Darrell Bade]

Have mine mounted on a grizzly bear crawl mobile base. As the other poster did it is bolted to a base of 2 glued together pieces of 3/4" plywood to give it a wider base.

[Tom M King]

I built my own drill press mobile base. It works amazingly well. I needed to use it, so didn't take time to paint it yet. 5" good quality casters, and it only sits 1" higher than if it didn't have a base. A 5 year old child could move it.

[Aaron Inami]

As a drill is pretty much over 60% top heavy, it is recommended to make a wide enough base to resist tilt. This is critical when you are rolling over cords and cracks in the garage cement. If you just put a mobile base on the existing bottom, you are likely to accidentally tilt and drop the machine during movement.

[Alan Lightstone]

Could you make a wider base and fill it with concrete to make it less top heavy?

[Tom M King]

That base of mine shown earlier is Really stable. I think it's 26" wide, if I'm remembering correctly. I had to make it wide enough so the rear casters would swivel, and just made the front the same width. I put the swivels with locks on the back so they wouldn't be in the way of feet so much on the front. One lock is enough to secure it in place for use.

Angles are 4x4x1/4", so plenty of weigh just in the steel.

One unexpected bonus is a 35 gallon trashcan fits on it, and catches most of the metal shavings if I'm drilling metal. It also just makes a good place to keep the trashcan rather than taking other floor space.

[Derek Cohen]

Although it runs counter to the manufacture's instructions, I will need to periodically move my Nova Voyager. Can anyone have any experience with a mobile base on a Nova Voyager? Any recommendations for a very low to the floor mobile base? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Bob M

Bob, the mobile base must be as low as possible - not just because this promotes better stability, but the Voyager controls are higher up than most.

I used one of these adjustable steel bases …



What I might do differently is set it sideways to move the wheels completely out of the way. However, they have not been intrusive.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mike Wilkins]

Mine sits on a Bora mobile base with plywood on it, which is bolted to the drill press base. Don't move it often but it is stable.

[Jim Becker]

I have an old, old, old and typical "put it together" mobile base with foot operated raise/lower levers for the swiveling wheels. It's served fine, but I'm thinking that when I move from the temporary shop to the new building, I may wrestle the tool off the base and recondition it, perhaps with a piece of plywood to stiffen it up like Mike mentioned in the previous post. I agree with Derek that keeping things as low as possible is important with a very top-heavy machine like a DP. If I was buying a new DP like the NOVA, I'd seriously consider finding a stouter/stronger base including with a larger footprint for more stability.

[Bob Moss]

Thank you to everyone for your helpful replies. I really appreciate what a great resource this forum can be. I am off to find a suitable base...

Bob

[Greg Parrish]

If you are going to buy one, I think the large wheel versions would give added stability and easier movement. Here are two:

If you catch these on sale, I think it would make a nice mobile base for the Nova. If you scroll through the customer reviews, about half way down page 8, there is someone's review with a PM drill on it and half way down page 12 of reviews is a Nova with pictures for reference.
https://www.rockler.com/rockler-all-...SABEgIrnvD_BwE

When I had my prior Nova Voyager, I had it on a Portamate cart if memory serves and that is also a nice cart. I used a double layer of 3/4" plywood as a base. Bolted the plywood to the steel cart and then bolted the drill press base to the plywood. Was very stable this way. Bora now has a large wheel version similar to the Rockler All Terrain. https://boratool.com/bora-high-clear...bile-base.html

[Bob Moss]

Thanks very much Greg. I will check this out.

[Larry Frank]

I have mine on a j mobile base but only move it very short distances. It weighs around 300 pounds and I worry about it tipping because of the weight and high center of gravity.

[Pat Rice]

E2FF9FD4-B537-4627-A9E8-11D897C01B67.jpg
I built a base from plywood and 2x4 that works well. The storage cabinet is separate from that base with it’s own casters so I can move it out to lower the table on those rare occasions when needed