I waited sooo loooong for one of these but it finally landed yesterday with a 1 hour notice!

I'm not prepared with a mobile base. I can't find a purchased base that really gets great reviews. I did find these two at Grizzly:

1) https://www.grizzly.com/products/shop-fox-super-heavy-duty-mobile-base/d2058a

2) https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-the-bear-crawl-cub-mobile-base/t28922

I'm seeing if I can get this one fabricated locally (another FOG member had one made):
(Attachment Link)

I do have a decent welding machine but not an experienced welder so guess I could try to fabricate my own.

Other suggestions welcome!

Thanks - Mike

When I had the voyager I used bora pm-2500 worked great




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No wheels for me, I anchored my Voyager to the floor with four 3/8 Hilti Drop-ins and shimmed as necessary to level it up as best I could. I never anchored the previous DP and I always felt it was a little top heavy.

If I were going to build my own, I would incorporate leveling feet into the mobile base and be sure to place the wheels so you are not tripping over them all the time when the tool is stationary. Maybe even removable.

No wheels for me, I anchored my Voyager to the floor with four 3/8 Hilti Drop-ins and shimmed as necessary to level it up as best I could. I never anchored the previous DP and I always felt it was a little top heavy.

If I were going to build my own I would incorporate leveling feet into the mobile base and be sure to place the wheels to you are not tripping over them all the time when the tool is stationary. Maybe even removable.

You know what? I converse with a gentleman from another forum by email about welding projects - he is a welder by trade and woodworking by hobby. He told me he has made many mobile bases for large tools but did not for the Voyager he has for tipping reasons.

My garage/shop is cramped for space but my DP is located between my air compressor and planer. Both are mobile so guess for the very few times I need to pull out the DP I could just pull them out and leave the DP in place. Or at least try it that way and add mobility if necessary.


Mike

I waited sooo loooong for one of these but it finally landed yesterday with a 1 hour notice!

I'm not prepared with a mobile base. I can't find a purchased base that really gets great reviews. I did find these two at Grizzly:

1) https://www.grizzly.com/products/shop-fox-super-heavy-duty-mobile-base/d2058a

2) https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-the-bear-crawl-cub-mobile-base/t28922

I'm seeing if I can get this one fabricated locally (another FOG member had one made):
(Attachment Link)

I do have a decent welding machine but not an experienced welder so guess I could try to fabricate my own.

Other suggestions welcome!

Thanks - Mike

That looks great, but looks like a bending job to me, not a welding job, although you could do it that way.

Does anyone know what those casters are?

@dicktill those are leveling casters by FootMaster.

https://www.footmastercasters.com//sub/caster.php?gm_code=pd01

Most places that sell quality casters will have them available. There are a few different models and load limits.

Ron

I already have the casters on hand from another machine I took them off of. I just got the quote for the metal and bending to make the base like the pic. It's $25 material and $75 for the bending. Does this seem reasonable?

The fabrication cost is reasonable but the material cost seems high for plain hot rolled steel.

@Cheese priced any steel lately? 

Current prices from one of my suppliers:

1/4 x 2.5 x 36 = $14

1/4 x 2.5 x 72 = $20

3/8 x 2.5 x 72 = $32

That's picking it up at their shop, mostly because they don't deliver.  They usually give you one cut free and then its something like 5 or 6 bucks a cut

Steel prices are kind of crazy right now. I think the last time (about a month ago) I picked up some 3/8 and 1/2 inch 6 inch flat bar they were over $12 a foot

Ron

I have had my Nova Voyager for nearly a couple of years, but funnily enough I am only just now getting round to making a new table and cabinet for it - I will do a write up in due course, including my geared rise and fall operated by cordless drill.

Anyway, mobility is essential in my workshop and I pondered long over this - I didn’t want outriding wheels and brackets as they are a hazard and not least because I want to be able to wheel the cabinet over the base (in one of the pictures below, you can see me playing around with some scrap to work out this arrangement).

My mobility solution is some heavy duty rollers and static feet that can be wound down to lift the base and rollers off the ground and level the whole machine.

Sorry I don’t have any decent pictures yet (and the Voyager is not that simple to just turn over for an underneath shot!)



This shows the overall arrangement and a mock-up of how the cabinet will slide into position (fixed wheels at the back of the cabinet).





The rollers are an inline pair in each corner set into little “trucks” fabricated from some 50mm sq tube and spindles with retaining circlips. These are screwed to wooden packers set and glued into the recesses in the webbed cast iron base (I was going to weld the “trucks” together into an under frame, but decided this was easier in the end and the weight is dispersed across a decent area).

The feet are heavy duty machine feet with M12 threaded legs - these are threaded into some threaded weld nuts that I welded to the (5mm thick) corner plates under each corner - the corner plates sit under the rim of the base and are screwed into wooden packers glued into each corner (I was unsure whether the corner hole positions in the base, that are evidently intended for bolting down, would take the weight or any stresses that may result from fixing the feet just to these points (so my arrangement transfers all the weight through the rim of the base in the same way as if it is stood directly on the ground - this may have been OTT, I don’t know, but better safe than sorry.)

I filed a hex on the top of the threaded legs (came out at 3/8”) and this enables the feet to be raised and lowered with a spanner and locked off with the locknut. I had originally intended to just keep the machine sitting on the rollers and make some little chocks to keep it from moving, but I wasn’t happy with this in the end so went with the proper feet, which also means it can be properly levelled with a 360degree bubble level.

The rollers move the whole machine really smoothly (in fact the slightest gradient will move it!) and it seems easy enough to go round corners, a point I was unsure of given that the rollers are fixed in line.

As I say, when this is all finally finished I will follow up with full details, probably on this enormous thread.

Cheers

@Cheese priced any steel lately? 

Current prices from one of my suppliers:

1/4 x 2.5 x 36 = $14

1/4 x 2.5 x 72 = $20

3/8 x 2.5 x 72 = $32

That's picking it up at their shop, mostly because they don't deliver.  They usually give you one cut free and then its something like 5 or 6 bucks a cut

Steel prices are kind of crazy right now. I think the last time (about a month ago) I picked up some 3/8 and 1/2 inch 6 inch flat bar they were over $12 a foot

Thanks for the heads-up on steel prices Ron @rvieceli lately I've been using aluminum & stainless drops so I never noticed. The local steel monger sells that same HRS flat 1/4" x 2 1/2" x 36" for $14.20 while the 6' version goes for $23.40.    That's just crazy, that 3' piece should be a $5 item.

Cuts are $5 each and I've never gotten a complimentary cut...that's the reason I always check for drops first and then just cut it to size at home.

Well, after waiting about 1-1/2 years got mine and ended up making my own base using left over angle iron I had. In the long wait I put together a floor standing Viking that ironically I only had for about two weeks. I actually really like the Viking but this is a monster compared to it. The display on the Voyager is much higher than the Viking but I'll get use to it.

Now I need to build of buy a table for this beast.

Very nice @Mike Goetzke , I like it. Looks very stable with the wide spread on the casters.

Oh boy, my new shinny Voyager may have a vibration problem. There is noticeable vibration around 2,800RPM and worse at 3,000RPM lessens somewhat at 3,500RPM and gets worse up to 5,500RPM. The vibration lessens if I loosen the table position lock.

Is this normal or do I have a lemon?

Thanks

Yes - base is solid. I did try another position but it's late so may try again tomorrow. Seems like a resonance but at 5500RPM a 4x4x12" treated post will walk off of the table.

Have you checked the chuck? Knocked it out and re-seated?

There aren't many moving parts in the Voyager so if it isn't a crooked chuck it's a reject from the user's point of view.

It vibrates even without a chuck. I replaced the Albrecht with the stock and still has vibration even with 150# of sand on the base. I also measured runout at the chuck and it's like 0.007"(with Albrecht or stock chucks)! I tried measuring the spindle bore, it's hard to get at, and the needle on the gauge doesn't move. I ran the Albrecht on a Viking DP and the runout is 0.0005".

I called Nova but their tech expert is off today. The guy I talked to thought it was the spindle? My thoughts are motor or fan out of balance. The vibration is probably tolerable for the times I'm at or above 3000RPM but not expected for a $2K DP.

Think I'll recheck the post to base bolts and clean the spindle bore.

As other Voyager owners will confirm, a movable base must be as low as possible. The Voyager stands quite high, and is probably designed to live on its own base.



I think I shall move the wheels to the side (although they are not in the way).

Regards from Perth

Derek