Planning my Ultimate Tool Stand: Opinions needed...

[Neal]

This weekend my plan is to begin the construction of the Ulitmate Tool Stand. At least I hope to start it, the Mrs. may have other plans (like mulching flower beds) for me, so I'm playing it by ear.

WOuld like a couple of opinions....

1. If built as specified in the original plans the finished height (without casters) is 30". By the time I add the casters It will be about 33 5/8". On its mobile base, My BT3000 stands at 38", so the UTS needs to be taller to be used as an outfeed table. I was thinking about a finished height of 37 3/4 to 37 7/8. In your opinion should it be shorter than that (it does have the leveling legs which can increase the height of it somewhat, but I wouldn't think those should be used to go up more than a 1/2" or so.)

2. If I'm going to increase the height, where is the best place to do so?

• Should the torsion box be taller (as designed, it is 4" tall)?

• Should the "cabinet portion" be taller (as designed it is 21.5" tall)?

• Should the "top" boxes be taller (as designed they are 4.5" tall)?

Of course they can all be increased to some degree. Just curious about what someone with more experience and knowledge would do.

3. If you have built one of these, how in the world did you handle this thing during the assembly phase. Even if I use 3/4 ply for the upper parts, it is still going to be very heavy. I'm a one man show, I'm not sure how I'll even get the torsion box off of the assembly area and onto the floor. Sure I can build it from the ground up, but great googly moogly, the mass of this thing is somewhat intimidating!

I've searched the forum and other places on the internets and have taken many of the suggestions in older posts and elsewhere into consideration (like using plywood for the cabinet parts of this). I'm just excited to get started.

I'll also get to try out my new grizzly track saw. (Tool boast)I picked up the saw, two 55" tracks, and the accessory kit for $200 total delivered. It was 'used' (and by used it was maybe plugged in and turned on, the rubber strip on both track sections has not yet been cut). Ordinarily all of this would be about $320 or more. With the money I saved, I picked up an olshun blade to replace the "stock" blade. I'm anxious to give it a try.

Thanks for your input.

[JimD]

I'd make the storage areas taller, not the torsion box. If they are strong enough now the extra height will not change that. I'd make the overall height 1/4 less than the table saw. My old bench was that height and worked well. A garage floor could be off 1/8 inch easily. In terms of weight, I would use material in the recommended thickness and not try and lift the entire base. You should be able to put one end on the floor and then the other and thereby never have to lift more than 1/2.

[twistsol]

The top boxes will need to be adjusted to suit the height of the tallest bench tool you plan to use with it, e.g. planer and miter saw so they align with the surface of those bench tools. I don't remember the height I made them for mine, but in my case, the planer was the tallest. I had to add a base to my miter saw to raise it about 1 1/8 inch to it would then be flush with the side boxes. Once those dimensions are figured out, I'd then adjust the cabinet box heights to get the overall heigh you want.

I built mine from the ground up. Built the torsion box and added casters to it while it was on the bench and then wrestled it to the ground. For the second one, I got help to get the base off the bench and down to the floor.

[capncarl]

Make the finished heigth a number you are comfortable working at, not what the a short guy used for his build! I built the torsion box for my Powermatic table saw cabinet out of 2x4's and 3/4 plywood, not mdf and shelving boards, and glued, screwed and nailed it all together. The finished heigth matched the height of my outfeed tables, planer outfeed and workbench. Since all power tools are different heights you should make it to fit your tools, hence your top section may have to be thicker than the plans. Have you considered incorporating your BT3 into this table? As far as finished heigth, you can adjust some by your caster size. Do not cut costs on the casters as they make the unit. The bigger the caster the better.

[lombard]

I'd recommend adjusting the height of the cabinets. I built mine before I got my thickness planer and just barely managed to squeeze it in at the height I built mine. Of course, I built mine pretty much according to the plans.

I did mine on my own, and yes, the torsion box is a beast. Wasn't terrible getting it down to the ground after construction, but any time I had to flip it over was miserable (especially when I bolted on the casters, then tried to flip it over on to them). For some real misery, I ended up flipping the whole finished stand over because it looked like it was sagging in the middle, so I wanted to add some angle iron bracing to the bottom. Turns out it wasn't sagging, but I didn't discover that until it was too late.

[Neal]

Thanks for all of the replies and comments. Good stuff.

I'll have to get my calculator out to figure the height of the cabinet portion.

Good advice on making it a comfortable height. At 6'4" tall I need something which is taller than 30" for certain. My only "floor" tool at this point is my BT3000. I don't have a planer (yet) but would probably get one of the "lunchbox" type that will fit in the center well.

I did consider building the BT3000 into the stand, but decided against it.

I picked up 6 casters yesterday rated for 200lbs at the HF store. I figured putting two in the middle would help support the weight of this monster.

[capncarl]

6 casters? All swivels?

[capncarl]

At 6'4 myself I found that 34.5" is a perfect table height for me.

[Neal]

6 casters? All swivels?

Yes, sir. All swivels. Didn't see how it was going to work well otherwise,especially if the two in the middle were fixed.

[dbhost]

Build it 1/8 in lower than your saw. Make the difference in the cabinet.

[LCHIEN]

i find i like the 38 inches or so of the BT3 and stand.
As i GET OLDER its hrder to bend over and my near vision gets worse so having the top higher and nearer my eyes is handy. Even as I note most worksurfaces are lower than 38 inches. My router table is also made to 38 inches high for the same reasons, also so long workpieces can slide over the BT3.

[Stytooner]

I too stand 6' 4" and tend to build a bit higher. IIRC, my stand puts the BT top at about 36" I don't have the ultimate stand, just a basic mobile base with a cabinet and work surface with router table.

Good suggestions here.

Congrats on the track saw. I bought the same and it is nice, though I have not yet used mine either. Those projects are coming very soon, however.

I saw an old video of a similar saw that had two issues. Grizzly has updated since then, so no longer issues.

That was a great price as well.

[radhak]

A taller torsion box (the base) might lose some strength, but the same holds for the cabinet portion. I think the top box might be better taller, giving you more storage options. Or, you could add another layer at the top, making two top boxes of different heights.

I would not worry much about the weight and size during build and assembly, but rather worry about the manageability of this huge thing once built. Will you need to move this a lot? Just by itself, it's gonna be heavy. Loaded, it'll be a bear to move. 4 casters are nowhere enough - you need at least six, if not eight.

Another design option - split the stand in two; instead of a single 6 ft long stand, make two, 3ft long. A bit of more work to build, but more manageable to use. And if carefully made to same height, you don't lose surface area.

[JimD]

There is another way to use additoinal space. If you google Track Saw tables or something like that you should get to a guy that has worked out a portable table, supported by custom saw horses, he uses with a track saw on job sites. The table part is two layers of 1/2 plywood in a box structure a few inches high. The interesting thing is he stores tools he wants handy but isn't using right now inside this structure to keep them off the top of the table. My worktable is always cluttered so I am thinking of doing something like this on my next workbench. You could do something like this with the extra space in your ultimate stand.

His name is Ron Paulk. There are a bunch of You tubes.

[MBG]

Yes, sir. All swivels. Didn't see how it was going to work well otherwise,especially if the two in the middle were fixed.

I built a large storage/router table to the right of my Unisaw. I started with 6 swivels for your reasoning but didn't work so well - not much control of cabinet movement. I ended up with two fixed casters at the far end and it wored out great!

Mike