Another reason not to put things off!

Back at my shop…

I’ve been ignoring a glitch in the shop for a couple of weeks. The rolling base for my table saw stopped rolling. As a result I haven’t been able to move my table saw back up against my bench. This made for a large gap that off cuts could fall into.

To my surprise the problem was that one of the casters fell apart. Three wheels were moving while the fourth kept the saw grounded, unable to roll.

A possible reason for the caster failure is this; I have a professional cabinet saw and it came with an industrial mobile base- the two are only compatible if you buy a conversion kit. The store I bought the saw& base from didn’t bother with a conversion kit and simply put down a length of particle board across the straps of the mobile base. This left a good 8″ of sliding room (front to back) for my saw to travel on the particle board as I wheeled it around. It may have slid too far back and put too much pressure on that caster (although the casters are rated for 1000lbs).

I of course ignored the problem because I thought I’d have to shop around for a replacement. Then a few days ago I remembered that I should be calling the manufacturer of the rolling base to get the problem sorted *forehead slap*. I put the call in and the problem was resolved in under ten minutes. I received a replacement caster in the mail the very next day- free of charge.

Changing it went smoothly.

Needless to say I’m a happy customer.

And so now my table saw sits happily butted up against my work bench again.

Keeping in mind the possible cause of the caster failure, I decided to take some precautionary measures.

I tacked down some wood scraps to trap the saw in the center of the particle board. Now at the very least this conversion has made my saw safer, if not my casters more long lived.

Here’s a short video I took showing the condition of the broken caster.