Concrete Mobile Base

[Bob Wise]

I hadn't seen this done before.

I wanted a big stable base (but still on rollers) for my DW20. I wanted something with a bunch of weight at the bottom to further reduce tippyness. Decided to take a crack (bad choice of words, no doubt) at a mobile slab base.

I'm really happy with the way it is working. Raises the saw up a bit, but I'm tall and at the "like my work surfaces higher" end of the spectrum.

4" form with 1/2 rebar

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Poured...

2014-11-02 20.35.56.jpg


Ready to go...
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On base...

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Saw mounted... used epoxy on the bolts.

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[Adam Levitt]

Very cool base and great idea in order to reduce the top heaviness of some machines.

Great build.

[Matt Zettl]

Bob, that is a great idea, and very, very well executed. I'm impressed with your concrete finishing skills!

Matt

[Matt Day]

Very nice! I bet you could cast casters into the concrete and not need the mobile base, assuming the rebar is sufficient.

Out of curiosity, what is a DW20?

[Erik Loza]

Great idea! I had a local guy actually cement his bandsaw into place. Whacky to do it that way but it was his machine. Yours is a great solution. Thanks for sharing.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[glenn bradley]

Cool idea. I did it with a plywood box to hold the cement still in dry form.

2 DP Base Filling.jpg3 DP Metal Base.jpg

Yours has a much higher "cool" factor IMHO though ;-)

[Bob Wise]

Very nice! I bet you could cast casters into the concrete and not need the mobile base, assuming the rebar is sufficient.

Out of curiosity, what is a DW20?

Casting the castors in is a good idea. Maybe for my next one! I need to do the drill press next. :-)

DW20 = Davis and Wells 20". It's about 1200lbs of saw, but tall and tippy. Needs that wide heavy base.

[Bill Adamsen]

Or simply cast in the bolts. For metal building foundations sometimes we would "weld up" the j-bolts into a cage that could then be easily set into the concrete ... that ensured the pattern was correct if not the placement. I could see welding up the rebar with the various bolts (to hold casters and saw) welded into place, then cast the concrete and wait 30 days or so for it to achieve full strength. That would make a very clean base.

[Bob Wise]

Or simply cast in the bolts. For metal building foundations sometimes we would "weld up" the j-bolts into a cage that could then be easily set into the concrete ... that ensured the pattern was correct if not the placement. I could see welding up the rebar with the various bolts (to hold casters and saw) welded into place, then cast the concrete and wait 30 days or so for it to achieve full strength. That would make a very clean base.

Casting in the bolts for the castors would work pretty well.

I intentionally did not cast in the bolts for the saw because I did not have a reasonable and safe way to lift the 1200lbs of bandsaw up high enough and carefully dropped back onto the bolts. In any case, I've had some experience with earthquake retrofit work, and the Simpson construction concrete epoxy is really, really good.

I also drilled the holes through and stuffed some plastic bags underneath the holes with the idea of creating a bit of an epoxy bulb to even further prevent any notion of pull through.

This also let me position the saw first and THEN drill the holes, which is a lot more convenient.