Got MIG??? Home made mobile bases

[John Bush]

I bet you all were thinking of Angelina Jolie with 2% homogenized on her upper lip and a welding helmet on. I had posted in several threads about mobile bases and I thought others may be interested in how I handled mobility for some heavy new iron. I got a MIG so I could use it to make "things" in the shop and then I had to buy several new machines to make "things" for.

I initially got four leveling castors from Great Lakes Castors for a lathe I got last July(~1200#s with bed extension and large banjo)



Then before X-Mas got a new BS(~600#s) A bit fuzzy



another view:



In action:




Jointer base~800# machine)



In action:



The two sets as delivered:



The castors are $12.00 each and the steel was ~$60.00, playing with the MIG without burning down the shop-----priceless!!

In mobile phase the castors allow 360 deg. rotation so you can spin the machine with ease. To lock down you rotate a cogged wheel within the housing with you finger and a rubber "foot" lowers to make contact with the floor. No movement at all, even with a large, unbalanced block on the lathe. I googled several different leveling castors and found these as the best value, and their performance has been great. Rustoleum even has a matching Griz color in the hammered finish. For those that have seen this posting before, my apologies and hopefully this info will be helpful to all the others. Thanks for looking. John.

[Jim Becker]

Very nice work! Good sturdy mobility solutions are always nice to see.

[John Bush]

Thanks Jim,
They are likely overbuilt but they sure are stable. JCB.

[Steve Clardy]

Nice work!

[john tomljenovic]

john. you are righteously proud.

for those in the know, your casters look like Zambus knockoffs I have seen other copies as well. I own a mig machine but havent found a need to build a mobile base yet, that looks to change. anyway keep up the good work.

[Matt Robinette]

Thanks Dave I have been looking for casters for my MM bandsaw the mobility kit they sell isn't the best. I am also going to put a set under my MM J/P.

Have Mig will travel.
Matt

[Jason Morgan]

Great work. I'd love to do that myself. How do you get started welding? I remember doing some in high school shop, but that was a long time ago.

Thanks

[John Bush]

Hi Jason,
I trust the emotion in Appleton will swing for support of the Seahawks Saturday---,or maybe for that old Favre guy. Good luck to the Packers, but I'm pushing for the 'Hawks.

I have always wanted to learn to weld, but had no real excuse to buy the necessary equipment and learn to do it. I finally signed up for a general, introductory class at a local Vo-tech school. The class was taught by a long time Boeing welding specialist who had been teaching for years. He did most of the welds done by Boeing on the Hubble Space Telescope, so he knows his poop. Most of the students were mid-twenties, had lots of skin art and perforations, two still had mohawks, they all had good teeth and they all had a huge interest in learning the trade. They all seemed pretty sharp and motivated to learn and get out in the field and work. Lots of job opportunties for them and it was refreshing to see this generation X, or Y, step up and expand their work ethic. I, on the other hand, just wanted to be able to show off to my nighbors that I could fix their old lawn mower with all my shiney, sparky new gadgets!!

We got to try gas, stick, flexcore, MIG, and TIG welding, gas and plasma cutting in a one quarter school term. More classes were available in progressively more specific techniques that could ultimately lead to state certification for jobs.

I bet if you checked with the local welding supplier and local fab shops you could find a class or an individual that would teach you, or you could come out here and I could show you, now that I have done a grand total of 18 welds and consider myself quite the expert. At least I can show you how to use the grinder to smooth out all the welds that resemble seagull droppings!! Good luck. John.

GO HAWKS!!!!!!!!!!

[Matt Robinette]

Jason
You can check the schools in you area. Mig welding is pretty easy. You can go to the Miller welding web site and find alot of good information.

[Rod Sheridan]

John, nice mobile bases.

I make mine the same way except for the angle iron brackets for the casters.

I normally use unequal angle, with the angle flipped upside down from your use, so that the caster only raises the base aproximately 1/4" above the floor, and I usually add a pair of threaded levellers to look the base in position once I've moved the machinery to where I want it.

Regards, Rod.

[Al Willits]

Looks sturdy, better than those that they sell at the wood stores.

Welding?
Try a adult ed class at your local high school or college, usually a 2 or 3 night class is enough to get ya into trouble..

Or if anyone's in the Mpls/St Paul area maybe give me a call, I have one and can weld it for ya.
Or you can use the welder and I'll put out the sawdust fires as ya go....

Al

[Rob Will]

John, nice mobile bases.

I make mine the same way except for the angle iron brackets for the casters.

I normally use unequal angle, with the angle flipped upside down from your use, so that the caster only raises the base aproximately 1/4" above the floor, and I usually add a pair of threaded levellers to look the base in position once I've moved the machinery to where I want it.

Regards, Rod.

Yes, they look great. Nice work!
I use inverted unequal angle as well.
In fact, you can make the entire end piece with the angle flipped out and put your wheels on the end. This approach also allows the use of a larger wheel diameter without raising the machine any higher.
Rob

[fred woltersdorf]

I initially got four leveling castors from Great Lakes Castors for a lathe I got last July(~1200#s with bed extension and large banjo)

John.

i went on their website and tried to order 4 castors but they are either out of stock or not carrying them. i'll try to call them and see whats up.

[David Weaver]

I haven't welded anything to get my mobile bases, but I have figured out that a lot of the mobility kits - especially the ones that are adjustable in size, are a whole lot better if you take the extension arms out and drill holes in the sheet metal on the bottom of whatever the respective tool is and just attach the corners with the casters direction to the tool and forget the rest. If I can remember (I probably won't until the weekend), I'll take a picture of the parts of the HTC kit that I attached to my Jet JWBS18-X band saw.

Life is a lot easier the way it is than it would be to put the saw in the adjustable base temporarily, and since my saw needs to be permanently portable, the lack of ability to use the base for another tool doesn't really come into play.

That might not make a lot of sense, but it will once I take pictures. Thanks to Jet for making the bottom of the tool reinforced heavy gauge sheet metal to make it suitable for that trick.

[John Bush]

Good morning Fred,
I ordered mine, 8 in total, in Dec and recieved them in less than a week. I would give them a call. They were very helpful in selecting the castors and should be able to help you out as well.

I agree with the other posters in regard to castor elevation. Extra hieght is not an issue for me, and a wider flange would be neccessary to allow for the ~3" rotation of the castor. I would design and fab them that way now. JCB.