Moving a cabinet saw

[M Toupin]

Tom,
An appliance dolly will move the saw with no problem. You can make it easier to move by pulling rails and wings, I'd leave the top on myself. At that point you have just a compact box to move. To get it into a tuck bed you can just flip it onto it's top on the tailgate of your truck as long as your tuck isn't jacked way up. Pulling the motor would make it lighter also, but it's a bit of a pain to get out an even more to get back in! Another option is a couple of 2X12s for a ramp and roll it up into the bed. Not the best way, but doable. Probably the easiest is a small trailer, the smaller ones are fairly low to the ground, a tilting bed trailer is even easier. I've moved uni's with all the above and even just 4 guys and and brute strength (not recommended). The tilting trailer is the easiest, both on and off, but the others are doable.

Mike

[Luciano Burtini]

I want to thank everybody for their ideas.
so I was wondering if any of you had been able to get a cabinet saw up into the bed of a pickup truck...

Leave the top on, remove the fence, back up to the saw with the tailgate down. Two guys flip the saw over onto the table and into the back of the truck. Very easy, done it several times with no problems. The added advantage to travelling with the saw upside down is that it is now stable - all of the weight is near the top of the saw. Good idea to have a sheet of plywood in the box of the truck to provide some protection to the table.

Should have taken a picture I suppose

[[Looks like I just repeated some of Mikes suggestions above.]]

[Dave MacArthur]

Tom,
I recently bought and moved a used Powermatic 66 40 miles across Phoenix, did it 100% by myself, and didn't even strain a muscle. Here is what I did:
1. Bought a "shop crane" from Harbor Freight. The 1 ton version is fine, and it happens to be on sale Jun 1-3 for $99! It has foldable legs and can be stored against a wall, OR PLACED IN YOUR PICKUP... which I did.
2. Rented a U-Haul Motorcycle trailer for 20$.
3. Drove to guy's house with crane in pickup, folded up on it's side and trailer.
4. Oh yeah, also bought a 10' chain with hooks at HF for 7$. I wrapped this around the PM66 under both extension wings.
5. Hook up the crane, hand pump the thing up a foot, and roll it on the mobile shop crane (4 wheels...) with very light pressure over to the motorcycle trailer, and lower it on. You MIGHT be able to lift the thing high enough to just place the 400 poundish saw in your pickup bed!
6. Drive home.
7. Reverse process.

Another good point is that I use the crane to make my PM66 "mobile", and get the great stability of no base and firmly sitting on the floor. Takes 3 min to hook it up and move it around if needed.

Good luck!

[Greg Narozniak]

When we moved houses, I moved my own shop equipment and I rented a Yellow Box truck witha power lift gate and it was as simple as rolling the saw onto the gate and hitting the switch. very simple and worth every penny.

[Dave MacArthur]

Sorry to resurrect old thread, just adding picture showing shop crane use... I refer to this thread so often when folks ask about moving band saws and table saws, decided to beef it up as "the source thread"

Hmm... I can upload a picture from my computer fine, but I CAN NOT figure out how to link to a picture already on the site, and have it show up... just get the URL

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

I know this is old, but I moved my Unisaw by myself, and only removed the fence rail. I backed my pickup to the garage door. Placed a sheet of plywood or mdf on the floor, up against the base of the saw. Grab the extension wing, and tilt the saw and spin it up on to the sheet. Then just tilt it and "walk" it over to the tailgate. I have a Dakota RT, and the tailgate is pretty low. As the saw is top heavy, I tipped it so the extension wing was resting on the tailgate. Then just pick up the bottom, and swing it into the truck. Most of the weight is resting on the tailgate, so it's pretty easy to do. If you don't have a bedliner, a sheet of wood in the truck would be helpful to slide it in.

[Tom Welch]

Put the table saw on a low trailer to haul home, slide it to the rear, remove the wings and use the bolt holes to rig up slings. Pick up with a shop crane. I picked this one up at harbor freight on sale for $125. Then you can set it on a couple of 2 X 4's and push it to where you want to set it, and raise it up again, remove the 2 X 4's and lower it to it's final resting place or lower it on to a mobile base. My shop fox base fit under the legs of the crane no problem. I have used this method for a Delta shaper, Original Saw radial arm saw, Jet deluxe Xtasaw, even used it to hold my jet air cleaner up close to the ceiling to hook up the chains to the ceiling hooks. One man show.

[Dave Cav]

Leave the top on, remove the fence, back up to the saw with the tailgate down. Two guys flip the saw over onto the table and into the back of the truck. Very easy, done it several times with no problems. The added advantage to travelling with the saw upside down is that it is now stable - all of the weight is near the top of the saw. Good idea to have a sheet of plywood in the box of the truck to provide some protection to the table.

Should have taken a picture I suppose

[[Looks like I just repeated some of Mikes suggestions above.]]

One more vote for this method. A HD shaper can also be moved the same way. I would remove the extension wings and rip fence rails, and would consider removing the motor (only requires removing one pin on a Unisaw). When this is done one person can flip it upside down onto the table. A blanket on the truck bed helps. I just moved a shaper this way.

[Carl Beckett]

Another thought, depending on whats available, is to move it under a beam/tree and lift it in the air with a come-along, then back the truck under it.

Choose your tree/beam/other structure wisely, but this has worked for me on occassion. (since I own comealongs, but not a fork/engine/other lift.

[Will Rowland]

Last year I moved a Unisaw and was able to rent a drop bed trailer from Lowes for $60. The entire bed of the trailer lowers all the way to the ground using a battery powered hydraulic set-up. It worked like a charm...I was able to just roll the saw (on it's mobile base) on and off with little effort.

[glen pickren]

Enclosed cargo trailer with ramp door. If on mobile base just roll it up the ramp and tie it with straps inside. If no mobile base, use furniture mover's dolly ($14 @ Harbor Freight). Tilt saw and slide dolly underneath. Roll into trailer. If trailer has e-tracks or similar tie downs you can strap saw with it still on dolly to make it easy to unload.

On unload it is a good idea to have an assistant as the saw is hard to control by yourself rolling down the ramp. I use a rope with my wife belaying it. Worked very easy.

Did the same thing with a floor stand drill press.

[Philip Rodriquez]

I moved a few years ago and I had to move it all myself. The heavy stuff included a 700lb ICS SawStop, a 1,000 lb Jointer, and a 350 lb shaper.

Since a truck with a lift-gate is expensive, I suggest renting an engine hoist. A rental place should have one of the tow-behind models for you. You can rent them for $40 bucks a day in my area (Denver). They have a higher capacity than the HF models, a much larger reach, and they are easier to move around.

If they only have the smaller one, it will work for you. I just onloaded a 1,100 lb granite inspection plate, a few weeks ago, using one. How is that for an assembly table!

[Alan Lightstone]

(snip)... a 1,000 lb Jointer...

1,000 lb jointer!!!!!!!!!!!

What size cut does that behemoth take???

I like the idea of the engine hoist personally. I installed a HF hoist on the ceiling of my shop. It helped immensely with placing my jointer/planer, band saw and table saw on their bases. Pretty cheap too, but they won't help you with your initial loading.

Lowes doesn't rent trucks by me anymore. Just HD. That cost them a bunch of business recently.

Who rents engine hoists?

[Van Huskey]

1,000 lb jointer!!!!!!!!!!!

What size cut does that behemoth take???

Probably 12", for reference the "new" Oliver 12" weighs around 1,500 pounds and the 16" is in the ton weight class. 12" jointers with a modern amount of steel (not all cast) are usually in the 850-1100 pound range.

For engine hoist rental most equipment rental places carry them. BUT if you compare the rental costs one of the cheap HF hoists may be worth it over the long haul.

[Philip Rodriquez]

It is an older 10" Griz, with a SC. The entire thing is cast iron with an 84" bed.