PM-1100 Custom Mobile Base Kit

I originally bought the HTC2000 Adjustible Mobil Base kit and extra extender kit to make a base for my compound miter saw which is on a stand that is 28” wide by 63” long. The HTC2000 and extender kit went together fine and moved the saw around great. The problem I had with that arrangement was every time I went to use the saw I tripped over the mobile base frame because it was a giant rectangle frame. The stand that the saw sits on has upside down V-shaped flared out legs. Between the legs the saw sits on a pair of parallel bars that connect to the top of the Upside down V - so they are more centered than the full width of the legs at the floor level. I kept trying to figure out how to modify that mobile base unit so the front part of the frame wouldn’t be right where you need to stand to use the saw. I started looking around on Amazon again at mobile bases and discovered the Portamate PM-1100 so decided to give it a try. Glad I did! I just finished assembling it and it works great. I used some 1x6 pressure treated boards for the 28” short ends and a 63” piece of 2x4 down the center forming large “H” configuration. I connected the boards into the “H” using some carriage bolts. Plopped the saw on top of the big “H” and it works perfectly! Rolls around very nicely and no more tripping over the frame. A few suggestions for assembly...when you are assembling the corner pieces, drill the holes a little bigger than the size of the bolt. If you have a drill press use that. I didn’t get some of my holes straight at first and had trouble lining up the holes for the top/bottom plates until I reamed out the holes I drilled crooked. Also it would have been great to have a second set of hands available especially when I was fighting the crooked holes but I eventually used the bench vice and that helped. Plan out and then double check your plan where you want the swivel wheels to be - both on the short end or on the lon end. I thought I had it figured out until it was all together and I realized for such a long piece it would be better to have the swivel wheels on the short end. So After struggling with all my crooked holes, I had to take it all apart and put it together again with the wheels in different corners. Went together easier the second time! Lastly, be aware that there isn’t much clearance under the bottom plate, only about a half inch, so if your floor isn’t level or you are moving a long piece down a signtly sloped floor, you will scrape bottom. I plan to buy another Portamate PM-1100 for my lathe and configure it like I did for the miter saw, just not sure what to do with the HTC2000 now but I’m sure in time I will find a tool that needs wheels. Good luck - this was a good project for me, a novice just setting up a shop.

I have other mobile bases for my table saw and bandsaw that work well; one from the mfr of the Table saw and another one universal mfr. but you have to verify that the rails will configure to the correct width and depth. I bought the Bora base for my jointer (which has a homemade frame) because it is completely flexible to the size you need. If I had to do over again, I would definitely have purchased for my bandsaw because the one I have is really too narrow but I made it work by not doubling up the bolts on the rail. It does bow due to that and I have to keep "jacking it back up." With the Bora system, you do have to supply your own plywood base, but the construction is solid and the adaptability to odd sizes is perfect. For my jointer, I actually used two 20" x 8" pieces of plywood and then attached them with a 2" x 4" to make 41" length. I saw this application by researching this on the internet before I bought it. Cheap and simple. I will be using this system for all my other tools. And this system was the cheapest out there.

A good solution for masking stationary power tools mobile. Using your own plywood allows you to easily customize the size and also gives a space for extra storage. It was easy to assemble and seems sturdy. I took off 2 stars because of the bolt length problem that other reviewers have mentioned. My kit included two sets of bolts: one for 3/4” plywood and one for 1/2”. Both sets were too long and will scrape the ground unless cut off. An odd oversight for the manufacturer. Edited: I bought a second kit because I liked the basic design. But on this kit neither foot lever would engage the wheels and lock in place. The same issue other reviewers are having. To avoid the Amazon return hassle, I shimmed the levers with duct tape until they engaged the wheels. I’ll do something more permanent later. It’s a shame Bora has such poor quality control, this is a nice mobile base design. I would stay away from Bora products until they correct the issue.

This rug is absolutely beautiful. The colors are just as the picture shows and maybe even more vibrant in person. Safavieh rugs are the only rugs I buy. The quality is awesome and they last forever. I get tired of my rugs before they ever wear out. I'll be ordering another one in this color soon for an adjoining room. Highly recommend this brand. I have had Safavieh rugs for 15 years. UPDATE: I wasn't aware of one aspect of this rug until I rolled it out and that is that there is a definite flaw in the color. Each end of the rug is one shade but the middle (no matter which direction you view it from) is very much lighter. I understand that vintage rugs can look splotchy but this doesn't leave ok natural. It's very disappointing. Despite this flaw I'm keeping the rug but only because my coffee table sits in the middle of it so it's not that noticeable. Anyone buying this rug for an entryway or open area should be aware of this. There are other reviews that claim this same issue.

I bought this six years ago to add a mobile base to my grizzly bandsaw. Assembly was fairly straight forward - supply your own base. Not a problem for anyone that is handy. These casters work well enough if you only need to move an item occasionally. I found the levers to be extremely finicky, especially trying to get both levers to stay in place at the same time. I have a Delta table saw that has a very similar mechanism for mobility and it's a night and day difference in use. My delta lever snaps into place and allows free movement without stopping itself. These Bora casters, however, often drop back down and require more fiddling to move the base again.

Let me first say that this is a wonderful product. It's a solid 4 from me. Why did I give it a 3 star rating then? Read on and you'll understand. The product did exactly what I needed it to to. I didn't have any of the issues that other people reported with bearings falling out or pieces rubbing the ground because of too low of a profile. My floor is for the most part pretty smooth but still has some areas where the floor is rough from a thin-set mortar I was unable to completely remove from my shop floor. I'm not having any issues gliding over surfaces that are less than smooth. My jointer weighs in at 213LBS and I used a 30" by 13" piece of 3/4" plywood that was not bowed. If you have a bowed piece of plywood, you can still use it, just make sure the bow is in the opposite direction of the floor. The other thing that is key is to make sure you measure whatever you are planning on making mobile so the weight is distributed uniformly on all the corners / wheels. My jointer is very snug on the piece of plywood I cut without any extra room (maybe an 1" all the way around. This was done on purpose so the weight was closest to the corners. Make sure before you put any tools into place, that you have the rubber floor stops even. If you don't, when you put the tool in the sitting position (non-mobile) it will make whatever tool you have sitting on it unbalanced / uneven and there's no good way to adjust without taking whatever heavy tool you have off the base again. Also, as an option, I believe one person connected the two foot pedals as to engage them at the same time. I will most likely do that as well, because if you have a top heavy tool sitting on the base, having to engage / disengage the foot pedals individually creates an uneven base. If you're careful it's not a concern, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. If it would have accounted for that, I'd give the product a 5 star rating instead of the 4 I mentioned (assuming the bad news that you haven't gotten to yet didn't happen). Now for the bad. The directions are horrible. You can't tell what piece is actually what and if you're somewhat of a hobbyist like myself, the description of the parts comparted to the parts in the directions is impossible to discern. You'll have to use process of elimination by figuring out all parts that are the same and compare those to the directions quantities of each part; as like I said - almost all parts look the same in the directions. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that when I recieved my package in the mail and after I opened it, all the nuts, bolts, lag bolts / nylon washers were loose in the box. (see photos). I was quite amazed that nothing actaully fell out of the box and was not lost. But it made my prep time quadruple because I wasn't sure what / if anything was missing. In the directions, I believe it list that I needed 12 nuts, when I could only see what appeared to be two that fit the 2 wheel locking T-Bolts described. So let's summarzie for a moment. The parts were loose, the directions are hard to read / understand what part is what and there is a misprint in the directions that says I needed 12 of something instead of 2. As frustration began to set in, I started to put it together anyway and realized the directions had a mistake and that I did in fact have all the pieces that I was suppose to. The package that I got appeared to have either been used / or Creed from the show "Office" was handling quality control. The parts were not in a plastic bag, and there was machine grease on parts that were not suppose to have machine grease on them. Some things that looked like they may have been in packaging at one point no longer were. Even though I'm pretty sure I got a returned version of this product and no one bothered to even check it, I'm lucky that nothing was missing. However, no matter how great the product is, my experience with getting it together, having to deal with inaccurate directions and potentially missing parts leads me to give this a 3 star rating based on my experience of putting it together and the fact that my unit was most likely a returned item no-one bothered to look at. I would assume most people won't have the problems that I have, but I wanted to share my experience from beginning to end.

It was easy to assemble and after assembly it didn't require any adjustment or futzing around. It just worked without issue. It's sad to say, but that's kind of rare with the cheap stuff that's available for sale nowadays. It's fairly well engineered. One design feature that really caught my attention is the hole pattern for attaching the wheels to the board is symmetrical on all of the parts. This means that if you set it up with the lift wheels in front but find they are getting in the way, you can move them to the sides without having to re-drill holes or cut a new board. I have come across way too many products lately where the parts seem to have been designed separately with slightly different hole patterns so you can't reconfigure without a lot of hassle. This product gets high marks in that regard. I was also surprised to find this product was built fairly sturdily. It seems like most of the products of this type coming from Amazon are made with pot metal that is just barely thick enough not to immediately fall apart. That is not the case with this. I have been upgrading my shop on a budget recently and this is one of the few "upgrades" I've bought that I know I won't have to replace in the next few years. I only have 2 concerns with this product. 1. The rear non-turning wheels don't have bearings and instead just have a bolt through a hole in a plastic wheel. I worry that over time the hole will oval out with a heavy load sitting on it. However, it shouldn't be too difficult to find a replacement. 2. There is no bushing material between the lever and the wheel mount, just paint-on-paint contact. Eventually the paint is going to wear and expose the metal which could lead to rust, sticking of the mechanism, or other issues. Overall, I'm very happy with it, especially at this price point.

Update. The oddity of these is it seems o l y the one I put on the rh side really lifts, it makes no sense but I have two of these and both are the same. Not the best if you dont have a clean floor as the wheels get stuck easy. Overall they work but the lifting function to get it fully mobile just is ehhh...they work but not as nicely as id like for the price Didn't know it came fully unassembled... could be me on that one. Once attached it seems like one of them pushes down and lifts higher than the other one. Seems like it will work for my shop well enough and holds well. I would have preferred the lift height and locking to be a bit more than what they do. Nice solid thick steel and I'm sure it will handle my home workshop needs at this time.