On Sun, 26 Mar 2006 10:36:54 -0500, "Upscale" wrote:


"Bill Waller" wrote in message

Like just about everything in my shop, my mortiser is on a stand with a
roller
base. I have never had a problem with it moving during operation.

Well, it was just a thought. Not having purchased a mortiser yet, I can only
guess at possible problems. Considering that I move around on wheels,
everything else I come in contact with better be solidly anchored or I've
got a problem.

....and a perfectly good thought it is. From your comment, I can certainly
understand your concern.

I started putting wheels under things when I worked in my one car garage shop
in my last house. Although the new house has a much more substantial space for
me to play in, I have found the there is always a need to be able to get things
out of the way for larger projects that require lots of floor apace for
assembly.

All of the machines on wheels have some kind of locking feature and with the
exception of the 12" DeWalt miter saw and the old 9" Rockwell table saw which
has crappy casters from Lowes, I lock them down before use. There is no lateral
force on the miter saw, and the poopy casters on the Rockwell don't want to
move without a lot of force. Besides, I only use that saw for special setups
that don't seem to force things in any direction.

The lathe and the 12" RAS are not on wheels. My drill press is a bench top and
I don't have a need to move it. The bench it sits on is permanently attached to
a wall. But there are times that I wish...

Having things set up for mobility allows me to store tools that are not in use
in their own special "parking spaces" and when I don't need them, When I do
need them, I can place them wherever it most convenient for a given operation.
With the mortiser, for instance, I can just pull it straight out for little
jobs, but if I am doing something large, like stiles, I can bring it into a
larger work area.

One of the things that I learned while working in the one car shop, was that
having larger open areas is a good thing. :-)

Of course, it is important to have power at convenient locations to make all of
this work. When I had the shop wired, the electrician asked where I wanted the
outlets. I had them placed (quad boxes) every five feet around the walls. That
was a half length of EMT between each box. All of the new wiring is 10AWG.
There are three circuits, on 30A and two 20A in the run set up in a running
lap. No two adjacent boxes are on the same breaker.

____________________
Bill Waller
New Eagle, PA