Handwheel clearance on mobile bases

[yamato72]

Those of you that have built mobile bases, do you have enough clearance to turn the handwheel (and, more importantly, move the locking lever) when the saw sits back a few inches from the edge?

It seems to me that if the front of the saw is not flush with the front of the base it's mounted to, you may have a tough time getting your hand in there. I have seen mobile bases with the saw flush, and set back 4" or so.

For stability I would prefer to make my base a bit deeper than the saw table, and center the saw front-to-back, but now I'm not so sure.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

[tribalwind]

Hey. i'm building a new base right now actually ...
handwheel clearance and lock lever are fine.
i made mine about 26" deep,which is the depth from outside of both rails front to back... in hindsight the smarter thing would have been to make the depth the distance from the bottom grooves in both rails,probably about 24" which means you could just cut a sheet of ply in half shortways for the sides,and longways for the top/bottom(24x48x 35"total saw height.)...i may adjust mine,it'll be a bit of a pain cutting an inch or two off the front using circsaw,jigsaw and jap.pull-saw. since its all assembled.

if you look at my pics, there is a slot on the bottom of the rails that PERFECTLY fits a piece of 3/4-plywood. i used that to align my saw with the back of the base. i'm now waiting for my T-nut/bolts order to arrive so i can attach those 3 loose black phenolic tabletops to the rails.will have miter-slot and t-track in all 3. probably paint whole base white and add hardwood edging
going to add a full-length fold-down outfeed/assembly table on back and another on left side for supporting long pieces.might make my chopsaw obsolete.finally get to use the incra miter1000se i got months ago,still in box!.
that idea came from a mitersaw/planer-stand in Shopnotes mag. which i may build next,theyre both on flip-top bases now...viewable in the background(like orange sander and scrollsaw top-left,last picture)
clickable thumbnails~ Pardon our mess while we renovate

[phi1l]

Has anyone tried building this variety of mobility into a base?

[yamato72]

Hey. i'm building a new base right now actually ...
handwheel clearance and lock lever are fine.
i made mine about 26" deep,which is the depth from outside of both rails front to back... in hindsight the smarter thing would have been to make the depth the distance from the bottom grooves in both rails,probably about 24" which means you could just cut a sheet of ply in half shortways for the sides,and longways for the top/bottom(24x48x 35"total saw height.)...i may adjust mine,it'll be a bit of a pain cutting an inch or two off the front using circsaw,jigsaw and jap.pull-saw. since its all assembled.

if you look at my pics, there is a slot on the bottom of the rails that PERFECTLY fits a piece of 3/4-plywood. i used that to align my saw with the back of the base. i'm now waiting for my T-nut/bolts order to arrive so i can attach those 3 loose black phenolic tabletops to the rails.will have miter-slot and t-track in all 3. probably paint whole base white and add hardwood edging

Thanks for the pics, I had not seen that method of mounting the rails before.

With all the write-ups I've seen, the actual aligning and mounting of the rails to the mobile base is still not a straightforward process. I'm planning on laminating two pieces of MDF for the top, which at 1.5" thick will interfere with butting the rails up to the carcass. So I may wrap the ends in mdf or ply, maybe 3" or so, to use as a mating surface for the rails. Kind of like Rod used for his Extension tables. The front-to-back depth of the carcass (which will be my router cabinet) will be critical. I'm planning on building a saw cabinet and router cabinet atop a torsion box base, and I'd prefer the two cabinets to be the same depth. Making the saw cabinet deeper than the rails precludes that from happening since the router cabinet needs to fit between the rails.

[Mr__Bill]

Has anyone tried building this variety of mobility into a base?

That guy has some interesting solutions to things. I like his use of marbles to keep things in place. Second to the last pic on the page.

Bill

[tribalwind]

yep i've seen all his tool bases before. .love his site,clever guy !!! you ought to check his vids on youtube...

my impression is that the 48"+ elongated bases we're making might be too heavy for that type of lever-actuated mechanism...perhaps if you beefed it up a bit,and had levers at both front AND back,and connected at the top with a bar spanning them to act as the hand(kinda like a lawn-mower) it could be possible... you'd probably want to make some"feet" on the bottom of the base so the entire bottom isn't sitting on the ground if it's un-level.