Pallet truck vs. casters? Isues?

[Cliff Holmes]

One thing you can also look at if you can handle a larger pallet jack are "dual direction" versions. If you lift them all the way up it tilts over onto a second set of perpendicular wheels, allowing you to move sideways instead of sawing back and forth to get the right position.

Overall, I think the minis are the best bet. I wish I'd bought this one from Grizzly instead. In fact, it's on sale right now, I'll probably get one and sell my old one.

UPDATE: Ok, mine's on the way. Off to craigslist I go ...

[Lewis Cobb]

Another option is sort of a hybrid between casters and a pallet jack. Called a "semi live skid" - it's a mobile base like thing with 2 fixed wheels and 2 levelers. There's a little "hook" on the front of the base that allows you to place a lever bar that has a couple of casters on it and tilt the thing up and then steer it around with the lever bar. Some call them "Johnson" bars......a bit vulgar so I use the term lever bar

Here's a concept I have been sketching up for my shop. It does require some welding and metalfab but that's ok - why buy something for 100 dollars when you can build it for 140.....

[Cliff Holmes]

One other thought: I had the Great Lakes casters on my bandsaw and absolutely hated them. Unless your floor is really smooth, you have to raise the foot quite a bit or it'll catch every time the caster dips into a low spot. And raising/lowering the foot is slow and difficult. I have four of them if someone wants to make me an offer ...

[ian maybury]

Good stuff there guys. I posted because there seemed to be a bit of a 'you've gotta not just use casters, but also have 'X' caster to be cool' vibe developing on some other forums.

The posts have brought out very nicely the 'horses for courses' aspect of machine movement solutions - there's the beginnings of a good set of guidelines there. As usual it's a case of being very clear on needs/situation/advantages/disadvantages, and making intelligent fact based choices in figuring solutions based on these.

My situation is much like yours I think Cliff - a dodgy previously injured back, and working alone. For sure the one major disadvantage of the pallet truck is that it can be unstable in some loading/turning situations - the chassis can even twist. I discovered the bandsaw instability issue too . (fortunately without harm)

My sliding table panel saw will hopefully stay put, and hence in alignment. The shaper, planer thicknesser (only very occasionally) and bandsaw look like only needing to be moved in one direction in each case - to handle extra long workpieces.

I spent a lot of time with paper cut outs on a scale layout. Twisting the several machines lined up along one side of the shop about 20 deg away from straight line astern layout opened up an enormous amount of space - by making it possible for the respective infeed and outfeed areas to extend well past the previous/next machines. (if left in line astern the machines obstruct each other)

The layout fortunately means that this is the natural direction in which the forks are easily inserted, and the truck rolls.

The multi directional pallet truck is new to me, but sounds like it might get past what's at least one big difficulty with the solution - how hard they are to maneuver/position if you can't get where you need in a straight line, or by a simple three point turn using the steering.

I've not looked carefully at casters. One obvious caution with them from this range is that unless used with a strong base frame they will feed heavy point loads into whatever they are bolted to. Which may or may not be an issue depending on the situation.

ian

[Will Blick]

> why buy something for 100 dollars when you can build it for 140.....

this is just tooooo funny.... and its also the reason I buy lots of stuff I can build... sometimes just the material cost alone supersedes the cost of
the ready-made stuff...

then toss in mistakes, lead times to get the parts, your time, bad design (heck its your first try)...

For my shop, I went with ratcheted casters.... I can raise and lower the wheel relativley quickly... but not cheap, but the ease of movement is incredible vs. pallet jack. Having all 4 wheels swivel is an incredible advantage in tight spaces...

My biggest issue is lifting the machines to get the stands under them. An engine hoist is good for most low tools, but not for high tools like a 20"+ bandsaw... I used tripods from HF, and purchased a very thick 4x4" metal beam, worked well for all tools... still not easy, and a bit dangerous for the avg. weekend warrior.

I agree with an above poster also.... tool weight is a major issue... under ~600 lbs, its pretty easy....its the heavier tools 800lbs+ that beocome harder to deal with the movement issue. This is something most people overlook when buying tools. It seems 80%+ of wood workers are cramped for space and sooner or later must deal with the tool movement issue.

[Keith Outten]

I like the pallet jack idea, in fact if I was in the process of building a new stand for a machine I would design it to have pallet jack access points.

Now I am wondering why all of the machine manufacturers don't build their stands with pallet jack access as a standard feature. Every machine has to be moved, even if it is only once during the installation, so it makes perfect sense that machine stands include this kind of feature as a standard.

I dislike mobile bases, they just aren't stable enough for heavy machines in my opinion. Heavy duty caster's are the preferred method of adding mobility but they are expensive and add height to the tool that can be a problem for short people.

If Grizzly or any other manufacturer started providing pallet jack access points in all of their machine bases it would be a major plus in my mind and I wouldn't mind paying a bit more for the feature knowing that I would save money over purchasing casters. Moving a band saw with a pallet jack would be a snap if the stand had built-in access points because you wouldn't have to lift it but an eighth of an inch off the floor and it couldn't tip over.

Cliff, thanks for the link to the Mini Pallet Jack. I have been sitting here thinking about how I could modify my existing machine bases by welding two pieces of channel iron to the bottom of the base that will fit the mini pallet jack.
.

[Jim Becker]

If I were going to move my 1500' sliding table saw, I'd rent a pallet jack in a heartbeat. That's what I used to get it into place after delivery. For my other gear, most had mobility kits from the factory. I don't generally move anything around, however.

[Rod Sheridan]

Another option is sort of a hybrid between casters and a pallet jack. Called a "semi live skid" - it's a mobile base like thing with 2 fixed wheels and 2 levelers. There's a little "hook" on the front of the base that allows you to place a lever bar that has a couple of casters on it and tilt the thing up and then steer it around with the lever bar. Some call them "Johnson" bars......a bit vulgar so I use the term lever bar

Here's a concept I have been sketching up for my shop. It does require some welding and metalfab but that's ok - why buy something for 100 dollars when you can build it for 140.....

This is a photo of my B3 Winner, showing the wheels I added, as well as the tow bar attachment for the bar I use for both my Hammer machines.

The wheels on the B3 are from electrical power supplies that were scrapped, they're roller bearing wheels running on 5/8" inch shaft.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...31+mobile+base

The above link illustrates the semi-live skid mobile base I built for my A3-31 since the Hammer kit moved the planer in the wrong axis.

Regards, Rod.

[Jim Becker]

Lewis, your design is almost identical to the Vega mobile base that I keep around to move my Stubby lathe on very rare occasions. I can slide it apart into two ends to allow my to get it under the machine by jacking up one end at a time.

[John Petsche]

Great ides

[David Kumm]

Hi Ian, as you have noticed there are lots of different choices within each shop. Anything I can get a pallet jack to gets 3x4 blocks bolted to the base. Wheels with a lifting bar are particularly good if you just need to move things back and forth, and four casters work for lighter stuff. I found I could barely move my 2700 lb planer and found a used electric jack. It gets used more than the regular one. While the newer steel bandsaws are a little top heavy- due mainly to the cast iron upper wheel- the old cast iron ones were bottom heavy and not prone at all to tipping. My Oliver 116 moves easily with a pallet jack although it is pretty scary to watch something nine feet high lift off the ground. You do want to put something rubber under the skids as the pallet jack can drop stuff a little hard. Dave