Dilemma - I have to lift a 20 inch thickness planer.

[Chris Fournier]

I'd go with Thomas' suggestion and creative use of blocks and a solid crowbar will allow you on your own to get the base out from under your machine. Visit a few metalworking forums and search for machine moving. It is no big deal to move a 1000 pounds on your own, just be safe. I have two metalworking machines in my basement that are both over 1500 pounds and I moved them in there myself with no special equipment.

[Kevin Nathanson]

You have no shortage of people telling you what to do, so I'll break the trend and tell you what NOT to do. DON'T lift it by anything other than those steel rods. Especially don't lift it by putting a long board in it and hoisting from the board. Those rods are there for exactly and only the reason you surmised; to lift by. Doing anything else will most likely knock the important level and square bits out of alignment.

I have a 20" planer that I have to move on occasion, with no mobile base at all. I have the luxury of a forklift that I use by wrapping lifting slings around those extended rods (they slide out wide giving more grip area) and hooking the slings over a fork. A cherry picker—as many have suggested—would work as well. Another option might be to rig up a cradle support of sorts from under those rods, and then use a floor or bottle jack to lift it one side at a time, and then block up the area under the cradle so that it can be lowered so that it rests on the blocks supporting the machine by those bars while leaving the base elevated.

K

[bill tindall]

I faced the same problem. I had floor joists overhead. I put two 3/4" bolts through two optimally positioned joists, hooked two come-alongs to the bolts and machine and effortlessly jacked the machine into the air.

[John Piwaron]

The problem is with the casters, the rubber on the wheels delaminated and peeled off. I have decided if I just want to replace them or replace the whole mobile base with something else. It is a heavy duty Woodstock mobile base and has been nothing but trouble since I bought it. I was thinking of building something and use very high quality casters.

When you say "building something" you mean welding a metal frame to attach those casters too, then go for it. I was too cheap to buy the metal mobile base for under my Unisaw (~650lbs) so I used the mobile base kit that I had under my previous saw. One of those with the metal corners joined with wood. Even though I used hard maple, sized the wood up to be as large as could possibly fit into those brackets (~2.5" square) and joined 3 of them with M&T at the corners (couldn't do that all around due to caster placement), it's still not rigid enough. It flexes. Now I wish I'd have spent the $ for the factory build metal mobile base.

[Mike Wilkins]

Something like the previously mentioned railroad bar is what I would use. It is amazing how much leverage you can exert with something like this. I unloaded and moved a 1000 pound sliding table saw into my shop solo. Leverage and wheels, not my back is what it takes. I would just replace the wheels if that is the problem. Check the Grizzly catalog for some good high-quality wheels.

[Mark Bolton]

If you dont want to spend any money at all, and you have blocking (cribbing) avaialable, you can simply crib up a few piers and stretch a 4x4 or couple 2x4's spiked together under the lifting rods. When you say handles pass through the base it makes one think of the standard 20" import planers with the rods that slide through the lower motor housing. 4 cribbing piles, (scrap 4x4's, 2x4's and so on) and two longer 4x's would get the machine up easily.

I have one of these planers (if its the same as yours) and I can rock/move it easily alone. Getting it hanging in mid air wouldnt be that much work if you had the scraps.

I crib up machines fairly often in our shop and while an engine hoist may be handy, for as often as I'd use it, and the space it would consume (even folded), wouldnt be an option I'd consider.

[Dan Blackshear]

As was mentioned before, you can just replace the wheels.

I had the same problem with the rubber wheels on the mobile base for my TS. I had the grizzly mobile base and I'm sure it's made pretty much the same as most of the others. I saw on the grizzly site that they also had a version with steel wheels and did a little more hunting till I found these. http://www.grizzly.com/products/Fixe...r-D2058A/D4176

The process was as simple as raising the side I was working on with a pry bar and blocking it with a wood block, removing the axle bolt and switching out the wheels.

No hoists and the price was hard to beat.

[Jim Matthews]

Crib on either side of the base to just under the hard mount lifting points.

Slide a sheet of 1/2" plywood through.
Drive in wooden wedges from each side to raise the works.

If you can get four screw driven car jacks, you can raise them steadily and slowly.
Do you suppose you could get four from the people you know?

Block the base up off the ground when you have sufficient clearance.
DO NOT rely on wedges to hold a static load - they will move, when it's least convenient.

You can also generate large lifting forces with tires, place on their sides.
The limit of the load they can lift is the same as required to unseat the bead.

You don't have to go far, just enough to get the old caster off.

[Keith Weber]

Jim,

Four car jacks? Really? I'm having a hard time visualizing what you wrote, but there is no way that you need four car jacks to lift a little 1000 lb planer. One jack, and some blocks -- Easier, more stable, and faster. This is a simple job. It should take no time at all. People are over-analyzing this in a big way.

[Mark Bolton]

Jim,

Four car jacks? Really? I'm having a hard time visualizing what you wrote, but there is no way that you need four car jacks to lift a little 1000 lb planer. One jack, and some blocks -- Easier, more stable, and faster. This is a simple job. It should take no time at all. People are over-analyzing this in a big way.

Lol.. I would be looking at a pile of boards and a long screw driver. If its a 20" import I can rock it up on a single corner alone.

It would be fun to see cartoon parody's of all of our options haha..

[Mark Bolton]

DO NOT rely on wedges to hold a static load - they will move, when it's least convenient.

Did you mean to say "dynamic" load? Houses, brick buildings, lighthouses, all over the planet have been moved/relocated many miles sitting on large hardwood wedges driven in on top of jacks and dollies.

I have personally raised several homes with jacks and then crib'd them up and wedged while moving other locations or overnight (because jacks leak off).

I guess maybe he would try to run the planer while its up on the wedges but Id still guess it'd hold.

The tire trick would be interesting.

He said he didnt have a slew of friends but Id guess if he had four friends who would loan him the jacks they may just help him boost the planer.

All tongue in cheek.. good read

[Pat Barry]

You can probably rent an engine hoist for around 50 bucks for 4 hours. Go there late in the afternoon, rent the tool, bring it back in the morning. You will have it all night for the 4 hour price (at least that's how my local rent-all works). Be safe, not sorry - don't screw around with getting all your neighbors and have a jacking party sounds like a recipe for disaster.

[Mac Cambra]

First I really appreciate all of the replies, thanks.

This caster problem has happened to me before, and the first time I did the crowbar blocking method to replace one caster at a time. It worked fine but the second set of "improved" casters from Shop Fox only lasted marginally longer. I won't make that mistake again.

The only reason I am asking is if I was to replace the mobile base. I was thinking of laminating 2 layers of 3/4" plywood to serve as the base for this tool with 4 new heavy duty, high quality casters. Is the plywood going to be trading one problem for another?

Would I be better off simply retrofiting new castors to the old metal base?

BTW: I will probably buy a engine hoist, to lift the beast if this replacement altogther is the better plan. I don't want to deal with this again.

Thanks,

Mac

[Jim Matthews]

You could make the base to whatever height you chose,
if you can raise the feed table to just above the height of your tablesaw (for example)
it could become an outfeed to catch longer boards.

I've always felt that the main appeal of a powered planer is for things longer than 30".

Plenty of plywood bases in service that are stable after years of regular use.

An engine hoist is designed for stability and will eliminate most of the worries in hoisting something so top heavy.

[Jim Matthews]

Lol.. I would be looking at a pile of boards and a long screw driver. If its a 20" import I can rock it up on a single corner alone.

It would be fun to see cartoon parody's of all of our options haha..

The OP has reported a history of poor results with prior methods.
He'll likely be working alone, and attempting to raise it higher than he has before.

While it can be done with nothing more than a J-bar and railroad ties,
he can't be close enough to slide cribbing under - securely while hoisting.

For the first few inches, this presents little risk.
Once the center of gravity is raised above the center of rotation,
he's at risk to tip the works over, or have it slide off any platform.

The suggestion to use four car jacks isn't frivolous, it works and is stable over a longer period of time.
That, and it the load rating of most car jacks is far in excess of a 20" four poster.

It would be trivial to turn a few screws, and inch at a time until the base could be rolled out from under.

It's too easy to bulldog something like this into scrap metal and trip to the ER.