Customer Reviews

DELTA 50-345 Universal Mobile Base (Wood Not Included)

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have purchased three of these for my small home workshop and they all perform flawlessly! With some minor assembly, these perform just as well as their more expensive cousins. I even bought one for my father to use with his HEAVY old unisaw (built in the late 1930's) and it works like a charm

I am using this stand for a compound miter saw. For a light tool like this, pine rails ripped from 2x4s work just fine. If you are trying to support a major league table saw or something closer to the 300 pound limit, then follow Delta's advice and use hardwood.

I bought an HTC mobile stand for my table saw, in part to compare the two models. On design, the Delta wins. The freely rotating front caster makes the unit very maneuverable, much easier to move around the shop than the HTC. In addition, the lever in front gives a much greater range of motion, so it lifts the unit much further off the stationary feet. The two units are roughly equivalent in difficulty of assembly. Do your own measurements for the wood; the unit will take a tad more than the 1 1/2 inch square cross section recommended. I also recommend drilling the bolt holes with a drill press if at all possible. I don't own a drill press, so I couldn't get the holes drilled perfectly square, and the unit looks like it was assembled by a drunken sailor. It works great, but I can't really blame Delta for the appearance.

One downside to the Delta is the need for the hardwood rails for heavier equipment. If you don't have a lot of scrap hardwood lying around, you should include the price of the wood in your price comparison. You should also have access to a planer and joiner to square up the wood, something that wasn't necessary with the pine.

This mobile base is easy to assemble as long as you accurately mark and drill the holes for the bolts that attach the corner pieces to the wooden frame. Assuming you have the 1.5 inch stock needed to make the side rails on hand, you can put the whole thing together in less than an hour. And when you're done, you have a mobile base that is the equal, in ease of use, to anything I have seen on the market. I especially like the foot operated third wheel, that easily engages by simply stepping on the lever mechanism, and disengages by lifting up on the lever with your foot. Nothing could be easier! And the base moves smoothly over the floor on three wheels rather than having to lift one side and push your tool on two wheels like an ungainly wheelbarrow.

I PRESENTLY HAVE ABOUT 10 OF THESE BASES IN USE.I RESTORE & SELL OLD DELTA WW MACHINERY & OFTEN HAVE TO MOVE THINGS AROUND A LOT. MY ORIGINAL SUPPLIER WENT OUT OF BUSINESS & MOST CATALOGS NOW ARE CHARGING WELL ABV ... FOR THESE UNITS.DONT EVEN THINK OF FINDING ONE AT A LOCAL DEALER.EVEN A TOWN AS LARGE AS RICHMOND,VA MOST DEALERS WILL ORDER ONE FOR NEAR LIST PRICE PLUS A HEFTY SHIPPING CHARGE.A HINT TO PROSPECTIVE BUYERS: I USE 1-1/2X1-1/2 STEEL UNISTRUT FOR MY FRAME.HD HAS IT FOR ABOUT $12 A 10' PC.DONT BUY THEM OUT SINCE I PLAN TO GET MORE.

The Delta mobile kit does the job. Just a push of the lever, and your are moving 300 pounds across the floor. Can easily rearrange the shop in seconds. A drill press is must to put the base together. Did not bother to use hard wood for smaller equipment...ripped some pt for the the rails. Instructions for assembly need improvement....don't drill the extra hole in the ends of the rails!! Careful with the clip the secures the hinge for the foot lever..it will fly across the room if it slips out of your pliers during installation...tough little bugger to find.

Bought 6 more to go with the initial one I tried last year.
All six arrived without the fixed feet in the sealed package, Delta responded quickly and without complaint.

Op note. While I believe this is the better base, there are some limitations.
The lift mechanism is sturdy and easy to use The three point contact obtained, when rolling, provides good mobility on smooth concrete. When used on (limiting) heavy equipment, however, the lift occurs on mid beam between corners, the resulting twist of the wood beam that supports the retractile roller is objectionable. For this condition, this one rail can be replaced or strengthened with a 1 1/2" x 1/8" angle to provide stiffness. For most applications, pine will do for all rails except the lifting beam where the hardwood beam is more appropriate....

I purchased this mobile base based on the reviews I've obtained here at Amazon for my Jet cabinet saw. Once recieved, I can say that I'm completely pleased with my purchase.

The package is quite heavy and is about the size of a shoe box. Once removed from the package, it's fairly obvious how the pieces come together, but there's a fairly good manual for reference.

The corner plates are heavy and seem very strong. The bolts, wheels, pedal and other items also have the same "strong" appeal.

I used some scrap Oak that I had which I then glued and screwed to the thickness of 1 1/2 inches. I didn't want to puchase any new material as I had this scrap avaiable, but I assume that using a single piece of hardwood is the most desireable method for assembly. The additional material cost you'll of course have to factor into your total price of the purchase.

Once assembled and place underneath my saw, the operation of raising and lowering the unit is easy and does not require much effort at all. A foot pedal is used to raise the base which then settles the wheel on an angled flat point on the pedal. The saw then glides effortlessly across my shop floor.

When in the stationary position, I do notice that my saw is not as "grounded" as it was when I did not have a base, but I'm willing to live with this as I'm sure I can figure some ways to sure this up.

Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase and would not hesitate to buy another for any other large shop tool.

I purchased Delta's Universal Mobil Base from Amazon for a large router table/cabinet weighing over 300 pounds I recently built. I'm very familiar with this product since I've sold many of them for $59.95 plus tax where I previously worked. You won't find a better deal then Amazon anywhere.

I gave Delta's product five stars because: No parts were missing; the fit/finish were perfect; the four heavy corner supports are impressive; two stationary rollers are at one end and a single heavy duty large foot pedal lifts the opposite end and engages the single swiveling roller which allows you to easily move your machine. A well designed product. It's built similar to Delta's welded one piece mobil base.

Delta's product is far superior to HTC's Universal Mobil Base even though you may spend a bit more to complete it if you choose my method. HTC uses two stationary rollers and two swiveling rollers attached to flimsy lifting levers which are awkward to use. I'm also not impressed with the rails used on HTC's base. It's made so you can adjust it to various sizes. If your making a large base, you must join two rails together with bolts to span the length and/or width of the base. Lots of nuts and bolts with their product.

Instead of using wood for the rails, I chose to use 1-1/2" square steel tubing with 1/4" wall thickness. This material weighs over three pounds per foot and is very strong. The cost for the steel was $25.00 and that included cutting to my specifications. I used two 44" and two 24" pieces for my base. If you need a mobil base for a heavy piece of equipment, this will suit your needs. You could use 1/8" wall if you are able to find it. I tend to over build.

I strongly recommend you read the instructions prior to doing any measuring and marking so that you totally understand how every piece fits together. The job will go much faster.

Like one of the other reviewers, I drilled my holes slightly smaller then Delta recommended. I DO NOT however recommend drilling them the exact size of the bolts (5/16") since this does not allow you any leeway. I found 3/8" perfect for my application. After marking the exact locations, use a center punch to create a starting point for your drill bit so as to prevent it from wandering on entry. Measure twice, drill once! I suggest you drill all your holes on a drill press. Clamp the steel tubing to your table to avoid any movement and guarantee the holes are aligned on both sides. Make certain to support the tubing if your drill press table is too small. Grind or file all burrs on your holes and edges before assembly.

Other than my changes, follow Delta's instructions which are well wriiten very easy to follow.

Assembly including marking, drilling, grinding and filing took approximately three hours and was worth every second.

I did not see the reviews when I bought this as it was an accessory I saw next to the Delta table saws when I bought my 10" Delta TS at Lowe's on sale a couple weeks ago. I did not find buying exact dimensioned wood hard other than stomaching the cost of four-square surfaced oak at Home Depot prices. For my saw base which measured about 28" by 26" at the feet I appeared to need four 2x2 ~30" length pieces and decided to use oak for strength/stability. They sell these for about $10 a piece at the local Home Depot by me, so the net cost of the base doubled to nearly $100. Still, it's a very solid thing and should hold up fine. I also happened to buy a 2nd base a Shop Fox G7314 which costs about $70 and requires no additional wood when I bought my Grizzly 14" band saw a week or so later at the Bellingham, WA store, so I can compare those two products. The Shop Fox doesn't require additional wood or marking or drilling. It's all pre-drilled and metal and takes maybe an hour to assemble - the Delta base took me 2-3 hours to completely assemble, including some hard tamping with a hammer to get the carriage bolts threaded through my not totally precisely aligned 5/16" holes in the wood (by the way the directions tell you to drill 7/16" holes but the included hardware make it obvious that they must mean 5/16") and a 2nd trip to Home Depot for wood. If you have 1-1/2" x 1-1/2" squared wood close at hand and need a really odd or custom table, this base for $50 is a good deal. But this base doesn't come with lock washers like the Shop Fox does and I wonder how long before I need to do something about the hex nuts through the rails starting to loosen and come off (if they do maybe I'll just slip a little epoxy in the threads and reseat them - ain't enough space on the bolt to space a lock washer anyway.) The Shop Fox is heavier duty and it accomodates the dimensions of the tool stand/table you are mounting on it and need the heavy duty (400 lbs - 600 lbs load), it's IMHO a better fit for most large tools/cabinet stands and comes with lock washers space for them on the bolts. The one thing I like here is the convenience of the foot pivot brake release. The Shop Fox uses a dual adjusting knob on each of front swivel casters that you have to bend down and loosen /tighten each time you want to lock / unlock it from fixed base position. I might check out the HTC2000 or possibly the one that General if I can find it somewhere else as those seem like kind a "best of both worlds" hybrid possibilities for what I liked best about this one (the foot brake) and the Shop Fox (fast assembly, flip lock brake, all metal pieces included, no additional wood or drilling time needed).

This mobile base works great. It allows me to effortlessly push my table saw around my shop. It did take about 2 hours to assemble. I was going back and forth between this base and the universal base with the metals side supports. I spent a lot more than $10 in wood, so the universal mobile base may end up being cheaper.