HEAVY duty mobile bases, for odd sizes...

[dbhost]

As I have talked about, I am trying to rig up a ballast / storage base for the lathe, and I want BALLAST, like 2 bags of mixed quickcrete, which should weigh in at 170lbs, my lathe at 130, the wood, and etc.. for the rest of the cabinet probably another 100, so right there, before I put any turning tools or accessories in place, we are at 400lbs, give or take a few...

I am just wondering is there a heavy duty version of the Harbor Freight type mobile base that I can span with something like square steel tube?

I am going to need mobile bases for pretty much all the major tools / cabinets, and I would prefer to cut, grind and drill, but even though I CAN, I would massively prefer to NOT weld...

I can easily find what I need for the table saw, but the lathe bench, as I am planning on it being 24" x 48" to accomodate 2 pairs of 21" wide drawers... Well that poses the challenge.

I am half tempted to just grab a HF mobile base, and use steel spreaders, replace the casters as I bust them...

[mpc]

The Bora Portamate PM-2550 (a hundred bucks on sale right now at Rockler) is rated for 650 pounds. It has 4 casters; version with 2 casters/2 fixed - the PM-2500 - is sixty bucks right now.

I have a few PM bases in my shop. One had issues with the casters: both casters spit out ball bearings at times because part of the race was not correct. I noticed this months after assembling the unit... it took me a while to figure out where the random ball bearings on my shop floor were coming from. I'd had bad luck with a bunch of drawer slides so I thought I was just finding more balls from them... until I looked more closely at them and found the new rogue bearings were larger. I emailed PM with a warranty claim; they responded quickly and asked for pictures of the problem. After that they agreed to ship me two new casters... but, thanks to the shipping mess going on, they weren't sure when they'd be able to get them. They thought it'd be a month which was okay for me; I don't move that particular tool that often. After a month they came back saying things were still delayed and asked for a few more weeks... after that extension they gave up trying to get parts and instead sent me a whole new PM-2500 instead.

If you are feeling rich, Rockler's "All Terrain Mobile Base" is rated for 800 pounds at $260!

I made a plywood cabinet for my Midi lathe - the Delta 46-455 unit with one bed extension. I didn't use Delta's lathe stand; the lathe is instead bolted to the cabinet. The cabinet is in turn mounted to six double-locking casters. I don't know what the total weight is but it's "enough" for the type of turning I do. I haven't tried a large bowl from a big unbalanced log or burl piece. Locking 2 of the 6 casters is generally enough.

mpc

[LCHIEN]

Moving something 400 pounds even on casters is a big F'n deal.

Have you even considered just bolting the lathe stand to the floor? May not be a whole lot less mobile. And more stable.

[capncarl]

Rather than casters, have you considered something like the mobility kit for a Rikon machine. My band saw has this. The base sits flat on the floor on the lift/steering end and the other end is on a set of wheels that don’t use bearings. Set the rear wheels inside the frame so they can have axle support on both sides of each wheel. A wood cabinet with many pounds of concrete in its base would be easier to construct vrs. Building a steel frame and still have to construct a cabinet and drawers.

[dbhost]

Moving something 400 pounds even on casters is a big F'n deal.

Have you even considered just bolting the lathe stand to the floor? May not be a whole lot less mobile. And more stable.

Hmm. Not really. Mechanics do it frequently with loaded tool cabinets. I mean yeah it's quite a bit and you gotta lean into it sure, but as long as the floor is smooth, shouldn't be a problem.

The point behind the mobile base for the lathe is to be able to roll the thing out and clean behind it without having to be a ballerina and get in those funny positions with the shop vac...

[GrumpyDad]

Middle Atlantic CBS-WRK-32 - Skirted Wheelbase, Fits 32"

https://www.empirepro.com/pro-audio/...rk-series.html

I simply built a structure that sits over the top of this like a "hat". 1300 pound capacity is more than enough. you can find them at multiple web sites best price was about 185.

[dbhost]

Middle Atlantic CBS-WRK-32 - Skirted Wheelbase, Fits 32"

https://www.empirepro.com/pro-audio/...rk-series.html

I simply built a structure that sits over the top of this like a "hat". 1300 pound capacity is more than enough. you can find them at multiple web sites best price was about 185.

Is that a rolling base for a 19" rack? We used things like that when I was in my last job in the data center. Fully loaded racks full of disk arrays would easily glide across the floor with those...

[GrumpyDad]

Yes. They make nice bases.

[capncarl]

make your new lathe cabinet with an open bottom and move it around with a pallet jack. All of your future cabinets could have the same feature, then you never have to worry about sorry caster wheels. Some pallet jacks are smaller than a standard pallet so it doesn’t have to fill up the shop.

[dbhost]

make your new lathe cabinet with an open bottom and move it around with a pallet jack. All of your future cabinets could have the same feature, then you never have to worry about sorry caster wheels. Some pallet jacks are smaller than a standard pallet so it doesn’t have to fill up the shop.

And they are a ton of fun to ride through the warehouse!

[capncarl]

They understeer badly and are impossible to stop when you get them going about 30 mph!
The also don’t ride good going down stairs!

[LCHIEN]

pallet jack a good idea except that then you have to have some place to store it when not in use.
Can also be hard to maneuver in close quarters.

[capncarl]

You don’t have to store it elsewhere, just leave it parked under the lathe in “it’s” cabinet. Notch out the cabinets where the handle is incorporated in it.

they also make smaller and narrow pallet jacks.