Mobile bases for a mill?

Is it possible to put a Sieg SX3 mill and stand on a mobile base like one of these in the following links?

**LINK**


**LINK**

Or is there a better idea?

Trying to find room in the incredible shrinking shed.

You can buy jacking castor wheels, It is my idea to put the Sieg 3 onto a metal cabinet and fit castors so it can be shifted easily but then locked down to work. The cabinet would have drawers for tooling etc to help stabilize with some weight lower down. What to do about thew display for the DRO's I have not worked out yet!

Clive

My X3 is on a purpose built (Welded steel angles) base with casters and a jack down stabilising system. This was needed to position the mill in the correct position, pushed between existing equipment and with a limited head height.

The mill being lifted onto the mobile base (by car engine lift) in the centre of workshop and then rolled back into position and then jacking down to stop any rocking or movement.

Its also very handy to move the mill out to retrieve any dropped item over the back of the unit and also for cleaning the back.

As Clive remarked you do need quite a bit of weight low down in the cabinet when moving so as to give stability to the unit, also make the base as large as you can for the same reason.

Thanks for your replies and ideas.

I decided to weld up an angle iron base, I have enough 65 mm angle iron that is 6 mm thick, and buy some industrial casters these have 140 kg rating per castor..

http://castorsolutions.com.au/industrial-medium-duty-castor/65-e21unrhb.html

http://castorsolutions.com.au/industrial-medium-duty-castor/53-e21unrr.html

Hi Mark,

When I bought my SX3, also ordered a support stand for it (From Hare & Forbes in Parrammata). I then fabricated a frame for the wheels. (disregard the battery. was for my first coolant system using a car windscreen washer pump)

Paul.

Hi Clive,

The SX3 cabinet which I bought has 2 shelves inside. Mounted the clamp set on one side and added racks in the front door for storing tools. It only has swivel casters (not jacking) and is stable when milling. Coolant pump and tank is now mounted on the rear of the cabinet.

The support arm for my DRO attaches to the back of the mill

Paul.

Edited By Paul Lousick on 13/05/2015 14:19:45

Thanks for the photos Paul, that is basically what I am planning to do.

Do your casters lock?

How did you lift you mill on to the stand? Unfortunately don't have any room in my shed for a engine hoist.

Mark,

Casters only swivel but remain stationary on a flat floor. I was lucky enough to have a steel beam above the ceiling of my workshop and attached a block and tackle to lift the mill.

Paul.

Mark,

Take a close look at Paul's picture and you will see he has the levitation accessory. Makes relocation a synch.

Neil

Hi Neil, (Levitation accessory) What are you looking at ? Paul.

I think Neil's talking about the weird shadows that Solidworks renderings have under the models. They make the model look like it's levitating some distance off the "floor".

Shadows can be turned off, in Solidworks display options, by the way.

Like a lot of "advanced" things in SW the shadowing kinda works but when you really look at it, it is not very realistic.

I do like SW though for bread and butter basic design work, it's pretty robust, and it's easy to learn. (it's the fifth major high end CAD package I've had to learn for work). Accuracy can be an issue though on large parts needing fine tolerances, and getting large assemblies (5,000 parts +) to hold together while rebuilding after a revision can be challenging. JD

This:

Thanks Jeff,

The DRO image was done in Solidworks but the images of the mill stand with trolley are photographs. (Have been designing in Pro-Engineer and Solidworks for about 10 years but have not built anything with 5,000 parts). My mill trolley does not have any jacking or levelling but a jacking screw could easily be added at each corner.

Paul.

Edited By Paul Lousick on 14/05/2015 08:34:27

Good one Neil. I am still perfecting the design. (got the idea from a book about Arabian knights and carpets)

Will post an article when I get the bugs ironed out. Paul.

I put a couple of car stands under the back of the trailer, wound the jockey wheel up so it is firm, blocked the wheels.
Now have got the mill sitting on the back of the trailer.
Decided to get a boilermaker to weld up the stand, because my welder is too light for the thickness of the material I am using.

Hi Mark.

How big is your stand ? I would imagine that any welder would be big enough to weld the stand.

Paul.

Paul my stand is based on the plan you provided, some changes to suit the material what I had in the shed.

The flat bar is 12 mm thick, angle is 8 mm thick.

I guess I got a bit nervous with a $2000 plus, top heavy machine sitting on a stand I made.

Hind sight, the tank stand I welded up is still going strong with a 4500 litre tank on it, it has been through a few earth tremors.