BORA PM-1100 Mobile Base Kit, Universal Adjustable Tool Base

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.

First off, he will be required to create a base plate for this mobile tool base. Being an avid home woodworker, I had no problem in creating a base out of three-quarter inch plywood. I would imagine that if you were planning to buy this then you should have no problem in creating the necessary plywood base plate. With that said, once constructed, the mobile base is very solid. It has good clearance, easy to move with a load on it and once adjusted, it provides a very solid foundation for your tool, stand and tool. Mine was used to provide mobility for a bench grinder on a small stand. Having a one car garage and a small apartment requires flexibility and ingenuity in use of and storage of tools. The location where I store the bench grinder is not where I want to use the bench grinder so I have to have a method to move it. I had been dragging it from the storage location to where I use it, but that was not the best solution. Haven’t seen these mobile base plates, I thought that would be a very is viable solution. Now that it has been installed it’s very easy to move the grinder around the garage once the car is out. The mobile base plate is very easy to use. Simply step down on the levers for lifting the solid feet off of the floor, roll to where you need to have it, and then reset the feet back onto the floor. One feature that would make the operation immensely more simple would be to have a crossbar mechanism and a single lever to lift the feet vice using separate levers for both sides. It works, but it’s slightly clumsy, of course doing so would increase the cost so it’s a trade-off. All in all I’m very satisfied with the capabilities in the construction of the mobile tool base. If you were like me with limited space and need to move things around a lot. I highly recommend this device.

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.

This kit does work and functions well for my application. It seems to be well made and solid. Assembly was pretty straightforward. The instructions were good though higher resolution photos would help, and an edit is needed because there are no lock washers in the kit though they are clearly listed in the instructions. Overall a good kit at a fair price.

I am editing this review to note that fact that Bora is aware of the manufacturing problem, and are in the process of correcting the problem for me. They now have a lever that is properly engineered, and I understand they will be sending a set of them to me. It should be an easy fix, just replacing the two foot levers, no need to disassemble anything else. So, if you have received mobile base with the defective levers, make sure to contact them for the replacement part. I'll update this again if I do not receive the part, or if it does not fix the problem. I imagine people at Bora were embarrassed when they started getting warranty claims. Original review: The lever mechanism that allows the casters to roll is a joke. When I step on the lever it does not push the wheel far enough to lift the dolly off its fixed feet. The radius of the lever's cam is too small, so it does not engage with enough force to do its job. I'm not going to disassemble it to return it, as I'd already lifted my equipment onto it before noticing it was poorly engineered. I got it to sort of work by placing a small piece of 1/8" thick flat steel into the space where the cam is supposed to push against. So now the cam engages enough to lift the dolly off its feet. But it too easily pops back and drops the dolly back onto the fixed foot. When I have the time I will be replacing it with a different brand, which I also assembled on the same day (a Kastforce mobile base). That model is a league above the Bora. I bought one of each brand out of curiosity, to see how the Bora stacked up. It doesn't.

This rolling base kit is a great solution and is sturdy and solidly built, but it has some issues with quality control. The few issues I encountered are, 1) the instructions are difficult to read. 2) The top plates, although they have tabs to align with the bottom plates, don’t align perfectly. This doesn’t seem to matter once it’s assembled but you would think someone in QC would fix this. 3) Lastly, (and most importantly) the foot levers that raise and lower the front wheels did not work as designed on my unit. The good news is, I was able to shim beneath the levers with thick plastic held in place with adhesive to give the levers enough “lift” to raise the wheels. I kind of wondered if maybe there were lever shims that somehow didn’t make it into the package but after reading other reviews, it seems to be a common issue. Assembly of this base was straightforward once I got familiar with the system. Again, the instructions were marginally helpful. There was a fair amount of wobbling this thing around my workbench as I wrestled it together. Careful drilling into your wood base is an essential part of the assembly. I would suggest initially drilling two of the three holes for each corner piece, then assemble it and mark/drill the third hole for each corner. Then disassemble it, finish drilling those last four holes all the way through, and reassemble. Also, the holes you drill can be somewhat forgiving since the bolts that hold it all together screw into a threaded hole in the bottom piece (in 12 places) to firmly secure it. This is a lot of little negatives but I think overall, this is an excellent rolling base. After reading many other reviews of this product, it seems the resourceful type of person who might buy this stand would also be clever enough to work around some of the small issues they may encounter. This was certainly the case with me. This would be an outstanding product if the company would address some of the common issues people are having. But I’m a detail person so I can only give it three stars.

I'm slowly putting mobile bases on all of my shop equipment. After a lot of review reading I decided against the PM-1000 due to too many reports of flimsy cams. First I bought a PM-2500 to put under my planer. It's sturdy, and I like the steel cams. No complaints there, but why not get the same metal wheel brackets for $20 cheaper? That's where the PM-1100 model comes in - $50 plus some plywood makes a fantastic base, and one that you can also bolt your upright tools to. I'm very happy with these and I plan to continue purchasing them. They seem to be an inexpensive (comparably, at least) way to turn the shop mobile and that's the end goal for me. There are a couple things these can't do. The first (and reason to consider buying a PM-2500 or 3500) is that a heavy tool can cause the plywood to flex a bit if it's not placed over the wheels. For tools that have legs, or at least four distinct points where they contact the ground, this is not an issue - you position those points of contact over the wheels and you'll have a flex-free tool. But if you have a tall tool that needs to be bolted to the center of your plywood (like my floorstanding drill press) then the weight is not directly over the wheels and it can be a bit wobbly. For this I would probably buy a 2500 that could support the plywood on all sides. Second, since the base will always be resting on at least two wheels this is not going to be rock solid like something sitting on the floor. I don't mind the tiny bit of give it has for something like a drill press, bandsaw, or planer, but I'd think carefully before putting a table saw on it. I definitely wouldn't use it for a workbench that needs to be solid all the time. For my workbench I'm looking at a powertec product with wheels that leave the floor when retracted.

This mobile base kit is perfect for the tables of industrial sewing machines. I bought 3 sets (used, very good) with plans to put my 3 industrial sewing machines on rolling plywood platforms. However, I was able to omit the plywood because the 2 outer holes in the base plates aligned with the holes in the tables’ feet. (See photos.) I used a crowbar and a piece of 4x4 post to lift and hold the heavy table while attaching these base plates. I bought M8-20 machine screws and M8 flange nuts to fasten these aligned holes, inserting them from the bottom up. After fine-tuning the height of the base kit’s glide foot with the help of a level on the table stand, I found everything works great. I’m excited that attaching a mobile base kit to each sewing machine will allow me to move them around without the need for assistance. The table and foot pedals are less than 1 inch taller than before, a win all around. 🙂

Well built smart solution for moving machines etc. Nice that there are multiple options to place the wheels so that the levers can be placed where they aren't too much in the way. A bit pricy and needs some adjustments when mounting on thick base sheets.

Solid construction and makes it easy to move around heavy woodworking equipment.

Primeras impresiones, exelente muy practico y facil dea minipular, la use para una sierra de banco Knova de 12" y 3½ HP con un peso aprox. de 160 kl. ay que esperar con el tiempo si sigue funcionando igual, sies asi comprare otro set para mi canteadora

Vy innovative. Price can be lower.

The PM 1100 is a high quality, well designed mobile base with great flexibility to fit any size tool up to the weight limit. It was relatively easy to assemble using normal shop tools and I had no issues with alignment of the holes. I used the corner assembly clamped to the bottom as a template and marked the holes with a brad point drill bit slightly smaller than the hole. Depending on how accurate you are with this process, you can either do the final drilling to exact fit the screws, or drill one size larger to accommodate any minor misalignment. The holes in the corner assembly are threaded and will benefit from having the screws run part way through to remove paint in the threads, prior to assembly. I installed this base under a Rigid TS3650 table saw that weighs 280 lbs and it works perfectly. I mounted the front assembly with casters and levers pointing sideways so there is no tripping hazard and once the floor stops were adjusted the saw is very solid. I like that the levers to raise and lower are metal and move easily with a toe push. Check the BoraTools.com website for help selecting the correct base for your application. Highly recommend and will be ordering a second base for my bandsaw.