Mobility and other shop tips…..

Mobility and other shop tips…. I have a thing about mobility around the shop. I’m constantly moving what are commonly referred to as “stationary” tools – table saw, bandsaw, router table, dust collector, and on and on. After years of searching for the perfect shop layout, I finally decided that what I really needed was to be able to change the shop layout as I needed to. To do that, all my tools and benches needed to be “mobile”. So, how do you make everything mobile? The best thing I’ve found is to use casters, especially the ones that have locking wheels. I tried using “fold away” wheels, and wheels that retract, but they all seemed to be a pain in the butt when I needed to move a tool. The locks aren’t perfect, but they are a whole lot more convenient than anything else I’ve found. The key to being able to use casters is to find some that attach to the stationary tool’s stand. Most all of them have some kind of capability to attach “feet”, and the solution to using casters is to use what is called a stem caster rather than a caster that attaches to a flat surface. Of course, stem casters are less commonly available, wouldn’t you know it.
The next obstacle to attaching the caster is to have something strong enough to attach it to, and rugged enough to survive rolling around all over the shop. My solution is to use “angle iron” to make a frame that both supports the tool base and attaches the casters. The photos to the right show you how I made the frame for my table saw (a Craftsman 10” saw I bought in 1975). It came with some hideous casters that were threaded into a bracket and required a whole bunch of cranking to raise and lower them. The stand had no stiffening at the base, so the wheels twisted as you tried to move the saw. The base frame is made from two larger pieces of angle stock that run “fore and aft” with smaller cross pieces that provide cross bracing and stiffening. I had my son-in-law try out his new MIG welder to attach the cross braces. In his words, “a grinder is a welder’s best friend”. Appearances aside, it is very functional, and the cross braces provide a convenient place to store the fence when it’s not in use. Maybe one day I’ll paint it. I drilled holes in the angle stock that match the holes in the feet, and mounted the stem casters through the angle stock and the feet on the stand. It is very stable, and rolls around easily. It raised the level of the saw table about 3”, but I’m pretty tall and I like the extra height anyway.
Tool Storage on the Table Saw I also attached eye bolts to the base of the stand to provide storage for things like miter fences, screwdrivers, and the blade wrench, which always seemed to walk away when not in use. saw table. I installed a long bolt on the side for convenient storage of saw blades and other “hanging” things.
Jointer – I followed the same pattern with the jointer, although it didn’t have the pre-formed “feet” that the table saw had. I cut the legs about 2” up in the angle, and bent the ears to 90degrees to form a foot. Drilled 3/8” holes through both ears, and through the angle stock and installed a bolt through the newly created “feet” and the two angle stock pieces at each corner. Since the jointer is fairly narrow, I wanted to widen the footprint a bit, and extended the main angle stock a few inches beyond the point of the foot and attached the casters outside the footprint of the basic frame.. Drilled and mounted the stem casters at each corner. No welding on this one. YMMV. If I need to re-use any of the parts I should be able to do so.
A versatile shop table…. My Dad owned an engineering company, and had tables made for reviewing engineering drawings. They are about 30” tall, 30” wide and 80” long. He used solid core doors (standard size 2’6” x 6’8”) as table tops. These tables were made of 1” square tubing, and are fairly light, but pretty strong. To make a table to use for assemblies, I welded angle stock as cross pieces on the end legs, and put stem casters on each corner. I left the cross members, and they make pretty good stowage for pipe clamps. I put a couple of pieces of ¾” plywood on the top, and drilled ¾” holes that accept Rockler plastic bench dogs. The gives me a stop to set work against for sanding. Not shown in this picture…I added a couple of T-Bar hanging hooks to hold longer pipe clamps, The lower “shelf” provides handy storage for longer boards.
Dust Collection – Since I clean up and stow all of my tools at the end of each workday, I make it a point to use dust collection as much as possible. Better to let the shop-vac collect the sawdust than my lungs, anyway. Several years ago I bought a Chinese manufactured main dust collector unit. It has a 3HP motor running on 220v with a 5” inlet on the blower. The blower inlet came standard with a wye connector, to which I added sliding blast gates so that I could direct suction to one or the other. I used a standard 4” hose on one side, and put a reducer to 2 ½” on the other side, which connects up to a standard Shop-Vac hose. The 4” hose is connected to a cyclone separator fitting that fits a standard plastic trash can. That ensures that no “big pieces” make it into the impeller blade of the suction system. Before I added that feature, I’ve cringed a few times as solid things like nails, screws and bolts hit the impeller blade after getting sucked into the system.	1Cyclone Separator