unboxing a heavy contractors sawstop and getting on the stand by myself

[Mike Kreinhop]

Pretty awesome, Mike. But isn't that a chicken and egg scenario? Don't you need a saw to cut the lumber to make the jig to assemble the saw?

I bought some wonderful Atkins saws from Mike Allen, and they went through the timber like butter.

[Stephen White]

OK saw is on base. Took me about an hour this morning just working slow and steady. The part I was moving by myself was 140lbs. Not that heavy but more than I can dead lift by myself and with the dust chute extending past the bottom, making it where it cannot sit flat made it more challenging I think than some heavy stuff. Lots of great suggestions and I will definitely add a ceiling type lift in the future if this comes up again.

This time I just used about 20 50lb boxes of clay to walk it up. Piled them in various places around stand to make sure it didn't move at all. My 2 1/2 car garage is a woodshop/clay studio and I have about 40 50lb boxes of clay along one wall and while I was considering options and was thinking of cinder blocks I was leaning against the boxes of clay looking at the saw :-) Kind of a Forest Gump moment and I started stacking the clay the way I figured I would use cinder blocks. Tilted the saw out of the box on 2 boxes and then lifted it up on another 2 boxes pushed in from the other side leaving a nice center gap to protect the dust exhaust chute as I added boxes of clay on each side until the saw top was a few inches above the stand and then just slide it into place. I was very very careful when sliding because the two surfaces are powder coated iron and slick and if you just slid it over the whole thing could just go flying and I see that as prob the biggest risk to doing it this way. Could end up being an incredibly easy way to launch your saw across the stand and watch is drop a few feet to the concrete. A hoist with a strap would prob eliminate that risk and prob would have done that instead of the blocks if I hadn't used the clay I already have. My way was prob not real smart because as I slid it over what was really just a inch and a half rail on each side it could have easily slipped off on one side and the 140 pounds would have probably kept it falling even as I tried to stop it. I could see this being a possibility before I did it and just decided what the hell and just did it. Worked out and bolted down now.

Feels great to have that done. I am lucky that I am just now getting the big heavy stuff so will just get mobile bases for everything. I originally skipped the mobile base and just figured I'd add it later if I needed, not realizing that its not as easy as that. Now I know!

Again thanks for all the great input.

[Marc Fenneuff]

OK saw is on base. Took me about an hour this morning just working slow and steady.

Good work.

Remember, critical thinking is what separates us from the animals (well, that and air conditioning).

[Matt Day]

So much for all the advice we gave, you did it your own way!

[Stephen White]

So much for all the advice we gave, you did it your own way!

but I got a lot of great ideas of ways to handle these types of situations and like I said my way was really prob kind of dumb.

One of those situations where my wife would have come out and choked back a smile as we both stood and looked at my smashed saw top sticking halfway out of the garage door after I launched across the stand. I am almost 60 years old and have remodeled a couple of houses pretty extensively and built a finished out clay studio building and have done some incredibly stupid things that have always managed to work out. That's one reason I bought a sawstop, figured my luck is gonna run out.

edit: One thing I will say in my defense is I do spend some time working out my stupid plan and always do it carefully and methodically, so my problem is not being in a hurry but rather getting out on the edge of the right way and accepting risk of equipment, product damage that I prob shouldn't. Not safety though. I care about that. Youtube helps a lot.

[Will Blick]

Lifting machines is BITscht@!@#$
But we all have to do it, seems help is hard to find, and too much potential liability
Mike K, that is a brilliant contraption!
seems a one size fits all solution is not possible.
much depends on how tall the machine is.
lifting a TS vs. a 20" Band saw, different problems...
engine hoist will not work with BS.
I finally hung a hoist from an over head beam...hoping I don't bring the beam down.
but considering most machines are under 1K lbs, should be safe...
I use it constantly....