I enjoy working with wood, and I suppose anyone who picks up a plane, a hammer, saw or a chisel could write an article about their projects. Yesterday I finished a project I started just a few week ago - honestly I have one more phase to finish before I can really say I'm done (but isn't that always true--we never really get done until we're read about in the obits).

My wood shop is mobile! Some things take a while so when I checked to see when I got motivated to "put wheels" on my woodworking machine I looked in the front pages of "The Small Wood Shop" (one of many books from "Fine Woodworking" magazine) and there it was: 12-13-94. Some projects don't happen "right away". (See further notes of reference at the bottom of this essay.)

As many of my projects start, there was a reason I had to clean up my shop - we needed to replace our 45 year-old garage door. Since we abandoned the idea of keeping a car in the garage many years ago, it became a great place to have some areas to do our bread-winning business of making rubber stamps until we retired in 1994, and then it was natural to add a few more items to the already stuffed garage. One week before the garage door man was scheduled to visit my shop to tell me what had to be done so he could work became the impetus to "clean out the shop". I simply had too much stuff. Mind you, it wasn't "junk"--it was (and still is) usable lumber and related items but "space" was voted on and something had to go.

An old "picked up" chest of drawers was the first project to be "mobilized". WHEELS make the world go around, or so they say, and now that old chest of drawers got wheels and it is now movable and not something you have to scoot around or leave it be. In order to attach the casters ("wheels" to the non- mechanical person) I had to remove the drawers so I could mount the casters to the bottom of the carcass. Boy, was I making progress! My first thought was to junk that old chest of drawers but the longer I looked at what was in the drawers I knew I have to save it. When I got those wheels on the old chest I immediately knew I had to put wheels on my router table. But I had already found a temporary place to store that router table because I had made a tall bench under which I could scoot the router table until I found time to attach casters to its carcass. The tall bench was "another project" I had to finish before the garage door man could even come to give me the verdict about what kind of work-room he needed. Well, when I got that tall bench made, and the router table scooted under same, there was my great Ryobi BT3000 -- in the way!

But I really didn't know my "Ryobi Saw System" was in the way because I like to work in small spaces, I thought the garage door guy could work around it! Wrong!. When I had gotten my chest of drawers "casterized" and a little more arrangement I called the garage door guy and then it was made plain I had to move the saw completely out of the garage!

Well, thankfully the weather cooperated and not only did I remove all the "extra" lumber which I had stored in great little containers here and there, the day the garage door installer came I had put my saw out in the drive-way (with the other stuff--already covered with tarps).

$715 later, when that new garage door had been installed, I made a decision - REAL WHEELS had to be mounted on my BT3000 Ryobi Saw cabinet. (I am not making anything for touting its name and needless to say I did not pay full-price for my saw either--I got it only after the distributor dropped the price almost 50% because they weren't selling back in 2001 in our laid back town!) So, when I wheeled my saw back into the shop (it had big rigid casters mounted on one end but you had to raise the other end almost 30 degrees to get it high enough to make use of the wheels) I knew I had to get a real wheel system.

Now, what all happened since that moment, is the real gist of this story. And also, back to the great article I mentioned earlier. I could have bought a mobile arrangement at another big-time store but it would require me to spend $70. Nope, I could make it myself. So I found that article in "The Small Wood Shop" and got busy. I drew up the plans (mentally and on scraps of paper) and with some revision to the mental and paper notes I can finally proudly say my saw is now easily moved around to store it out of the way when not in use. When I want to use it I roll it where I want, put my foot on the ledge of the mobile base, press down, and with a couple other movements I can lower the cabinet to rest on its rigid base and shazamm, the saw is ready to use!

To the mechanical minds out there, my system is an adaptation from sketches in the book by Fine Woodworking and is simply explained as an hinged "L" arrangement mounted on either end of my saw cabinets. The natural pivoting function of the casters (primary pivot) was simplified by keeping the casters close to the "hinged" area (or the shorter part and secondary pivot) of the "L" plywood fixture. I used 3/4" plywood for both the tall and short pieces of plywood (the "L") and hinged them with whatever hinges I had. With a little ingenuity, trial and error, I found the system worked great! Once I got the casters mounted on the plywood (before attaching same to the cabinet) it was only a matter of choosing the right size (thickness) of board to temporarily hold up the saw cabinet to create a "ground zero" or required space between cabinet and the floor. Next I bolted the upper plywood section to the cabinet end[s]. When slight foot pressure was applied to the lower-hinged plywood section, the saw cabinet raised, disengaging strut and (having removed the temporary board) the cabinet easily lowered to the floor. Mounting the struts was a simple matter of form and function - strut "on" and "off" position to maintain a 90 degree support or released position. If you don't get any of this you'll just have to buy your own mobile attachment. On second thought, here is a picture of the mobile platform I made for my Ryobi saw.







I think I could have had fun building the pyramids or maybe tossing those big stones around in England and all over that part of the world.

THANKS FOR READING...The Wordwright

NOTES: If you have access to a good library where archives are kept and not re-cycled, Page 79 is where the article "Machines On Wheels" shows the idea I used. THANKS, Jim Boesel, if you're still among us, your article and the handy drawings by another Jim, Jim Richey, the four pages of text and drawings are a boon to any small shop woodworker! "The Small Wood Shop" is published by The Taunton Press of Newtown, Connecticut. Also I have to add another bit of truth. This was really not the first time I put wheels in my shop; I put wheels on a 12" planer in my Tollgate Country Woodshop but before I invite you to visit that shop I have some more cleaning up to do.