BT3100 and HF mobile base

[dbhost]

This is probably going to quality as an incredibly stupid question and I suspect I will need to enlist a friend that welds.... But I have the now surplus Harbor Freight mobile base, and I would like to make my BT3100 mobile. HOWEVER I have the wide table kit on it so that is an extra complicating wrinkle...

Pretty sure I can figure out how to source up some sufficiently long 1.25" square steel tubing so that we don't experience any sag in the thing, but that would put me able to support the legs of the wide table, and the legs on one side of the BT3100 stand..

Options here are multiple involving various levels of complexity and effort. Easiest would be to basically have a friend weld in some 1.25" x 1.25" L steel and a corner plate to mimic the HF brackets on the ends and support the BT at all factory points. Easy as pie for someone that welds, and quickly done. But I don't weld...

Next best option is desireable, and something I want to run away from at the same time, and that is to just do away with the wide table kit entirely. Af first I thought it was awesome. I could crosscut full sheet goods on my table saw. Guess what? I NEVER crosscut full sheet goods on my table saw. Just not going to happen...

NOW, having said that, the guy I bought my saw from Larryl already had a mobile base of sorts on the bottom, Pretty simple gizmo involving hinged plates with casters, a cross bar and a hook. I used it with the saw before I put the wide table kit on and it worked great.

Why would I not want to just dump the wide table kit?

The router table is part of the wide table. Now there is NOTHING saying I can't cut the extension wing down such that the router table fits on the stock rails and be done with it. just considering options right now...

Honestly the more I think about it as I type this out, the more I am convincing myself to just take the wide table kit off...

Can anyone give me a good reason not to?

[cwsmith]

I don't have the 'wide table' kit on mine, so I guess I can't give you are experienced reason one way or the other. But like you mentioned, I don't rip full sheets of ply on mine either. Perhaps if I had the wide-table I might be tempted, but probably not, as a full sheet is just to cumbersome. More important to me is making sure I have the out-feed support. (Any full sheet work I do, is managed on a separate table where I mark and cut the sheet down to size, before I go to the BT.)

The other thought that I have (and I know it's a personal preference) is using the accessory table for router use. I don't like that. The table is just too small for any serious work in my opinion. About a year before I bought the BT3100, I had the Ryobi bench-top router table. It was okay, but not all that great when compared to a larger floor-standing table. The BT3100 didn't offer that much advantage and so I decided to purchase a larger router table top from Rockler. I built my own leg set and added casters for mobility. The Rockler table came with a full-size fence and available accessories included adjustable guard, feather boards, dust pickup, router mounting plate, etc. Now when I use my BT, the table is clear, and I don't have to remove anything. Likewise with using the router, it's just there, ready and waiting.

My shop is fairly small, a 12 x 20 miny-barn if you will. In it I have my BT3100, a floor-standing drill press, thickness planer, radial arm saw, router table, 9-inch bandsaw, a couple or work benches, a various cabinet for tools and additional worktop space, along with free-standing shelf units, etc. My RAS and drill press sit side by side, providing in-feed and out-feed support for each other. They are the only two 'stationary' tools, as everything else is mobile, so I can roll them either into a better work position or out of the way.

I do have my BT3100 mounted on a Ridgid 'Herc-U-Lift' which is great. So to is the Rigid thickness planer. I don't know why Ridgid dropped that product years ago, but it sure was handy. Unfortunately I don't know of a replacement for it. Are you familiar with the 'Herc-U-Lift'? Seems that would be easy to make if a person had the metal-working skills? It's barely more than square tubing, wheels, springs and release lever.

In any case, my input to your question,

CWS

[dbhost]

My shop is bigger, but not by much. 18x20 so called 2 car garage. Must have been 1980s Toyotas.... I literally couldn't fit a standard cab short bed Ford Ranger in after I built my first now long gone workbench... I have the standard mix of tools, and some that a lot of folks don't have, 2HP dust collector, the BT3100, 29 gallon air compressor, 12" sliding miter saw, mortiser which miter saw and mortiser are on the same bench and can use each other as outfeed / stock support, those are more or less in a fixed position, A Harbor Freight 14" bandsaw on a HF mobile base, a 12x36 HF lathe which MIGHT end up with the spare MF mobile base, 2 flip top stands one with 13" Ryobi planer / 6" Sunhill jointer which needs to be replaced with a bigger stand that can accomodate my Wahuda 10" benchtop jointer, another flipper stand with the Rigid spindle / belt sander / cheap Dremel scroll saw, both of the existing ones are on locking casters so they roll really easily, a rolling 4 drawer Husky tool chest / benchtop drill press combo, a Grizzly 18" open end drum sander that once the parts finally arrive will end up on a Grizzly mobile base, and a Craftsman 54" mechanics tool chest and cabinet, a Ryobi 8" bench grinder on a stand, a Wen low speed sharpening system that needs a stand and my modified design wood magazine inspired workbench. I am trying to make my space usage as efficient as possible. but like you probably figured out, space is at a premium, and the big tools take a huge hit. I tend to break down big sheets either at the store with their panel saws, OR in my hard with a cutting guide and circular saw... I honestly don't see me having space for a separate router table and, well the extension wing router table works well for my application. I do NOT use the standard Ryobi insert though, this is a custom built job with a Bench Dog aluminum insert and fully custom adjustable fence with dust port that might actually be too effective as it has tried pulling smaller pieces into it...

[d_meister]

My BT3k has the wide table kit, but I don't use the legs. Where I lived in San Diego, I had to move it out of the one car (Model T) garage to use it. I bought aluminum angle and ran it from the cabinet base at a 45° to the ends of the wide table rails. I would lift the whole shebang by the rails and wheel it out like a wheelbarrow. Now that I'm in Washington, (and I'm older) I put the BT3 main stand on a HF wheeled base, but have had no need to move it. and the wide table part is still hanging out on the aluminum struts. The only thing I did to modify the table rails is to add steel angle under the joint to stiffen it over a longer span. It's bolted using the T-nuts method.
I've never had tipping problem with this arrangement, but I have the old outfeed table hardware supporting a larger outfeed table that I made from 1/2" Baltic in a modified torsion box. It has most of the stiffeners, but doesn't have the second "skin". It's held up really well, and is still flat. I added a second fold down leg using a Rockler hinge.
When I first implemented this scheme, I thought it would be temporary until a more elegant solution would be devised along the lines of the mobile cabinet bases I've seen here over the years, but the open spaces under the overhangs helped in storing odd shapes like the shop vac in the Model T garage. I'm thinking along those lines again, since the space under the saw can be more efficiently utilized with drawers and such.