Expedient Rolling Base for New Systainers

[mhmcgrath]

or Harbor Freight Meets Festool
A newbie here getting my first Festools and several systainers led me to find a way to put them on rollers.  HB always has small dollies for seven to $10. Turns out they are just the right size to fit the systainers The pictures show a quick way to position them solidly on the smaller dolly.  Seven dollars? $91? It's an easy call!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Luzzy]

Pairing Festool with Harbor Freight? hmmmmm

Anyway , save your receipt. It's possible they make the worst dollies regardless of price. (from experience). I use a variety of Systainers everyday and literally have put a couple hundred miles on my sys cart the past three years going in and out of malls and other construction sites I work on. Although I wish the wheels where a bit bigger when rolling through parking lots , it's the best money I spent in my tool stack. I can also lift my stack of systainers over steps and curbs as they clip to the sys cart. It works.

If you just want to move them occasionally with a little weight then maybe it will work out for you.....

 

[rljatl]

I use those HF dollies for all kinds of things.  Never had any problems with them, but I only use them around the shop.

The HF 2 ton shop crane and HF hydraulic lift cart also come in very handy.

 

[Luzzy]

My experience is that anything more than about 100lbs and they are pretty bad. I loaded three boxes of 3x12 porcelain
tile on one this week and the casters barely wanted to turn. Trust me - for 10 bucks , I don't expect much, they just look like they'd be better then they are.

 

[live4ever]

Yeah those dollies are just fine for rolling around the shop.  You can add the Tanos sys-cart base on top of the dollies to attach the systainers to ($46.50 at Lee Valley)...still comes out at just over half the cost of the Festool rolling base.

 

[mcooley]

Hilarious! I was just looking at the same dolly in my shop and wondering maybe I should throw some blocks on it. I did take a strip of plywood and with bolts and casters made a "skate" that slides onto the aluminum extrusion of the MFT table. Because as many of you know that is not a "portable" table in the sense of weight. It is very heavy and difficult to maneuver, especially, when going from vehicle to job etc. Why they don't have their own set of casters on a similar aluminum skate is beyond me. But in general it could be made much lighter and still have the proper support. It's a bit over engineered.

 

[mhmcgrath]

Pairing Festool with Harbor Freight? hmmmmm

Anyway , save your receipt. It's possible they make the worst dollies regardless of price. (from experience). I use a variety of Systainers everyday and literally have put a couple hundred miles on my sys cart the past three years going in and out of malls and other construction sites I work on. Although I wish the wheels where a bit bigger when rolling through parking lots , it's the best money I spent in my tool stack. I can also lift my stack of systainers over steps and curbs as they clip to the sys cart. It works.

If you just want to move them occasionally with a little weight then maybe it will work out for you.....

I hear you!  Just around the shop for me - working well so far.  Just slide my stack under the MFT - keeps everything handy.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[#Tee]

love hf dollies

 

[mikeyr]

Once I saw the $90 price of the systainer dolly base, I went out and bought the Tanos one for $39 (on sale, I think its regular price is $49) and screwed it a Harbor Fright (yes, that is spelled correctly) dolly.

 

[Bob D.]

HF has a dolly with a flat, plastic base that would
be a better fit than the wood furniture dollies
and they are about the same price. I picked up
two a couple years ago for about $12 each.
The base is about 14x20 inches.
View attachment 1

 

[Bob D.]

Thought I would add some photos of the quick and ugly cart I made from a
HF dolly for some of my Systainers. I used a piece of 6mm ply along the back
cut on a 45 to interlock with the back of the Systainer, then boxed it in on the
other three sides so it can't slide around using some scraps of 3/4 ply I had.

I took an old double hung window sash lock and made a latch to lock the bottom
Systainer on the dolly. Just flip the lever and it opens up to let you lift the Systainer
right off the dolly, but holds strong when engaged. No doubt anyone can come up
with something better looking than what I threw together here, and some day I will
make a better one too. At the time I just needed to be able to move them around
without having to worry about them slipping off the dolly.

 

[Jerry White]

And here I was thinking that I was the only one on this site who had discovered the Harbor Freight dollies for Systainer use.  Within the last year I have found these and they really have made a positive impact on Systainer storage and access in my shop.  They work great for me!  I can see how they would not be suitable for someone needing to move Systainers from jobsite to jobsite.

 

[Bob D.]

If you get the Tanos Sys-cart base and mount it on a HF dolly you
in about $55, a little better than half way to buying the Festool dolly,
might as well go for broke, the only labor involved with the Festool
dolly is taking it out of the box.

 

[grobkuschelig]

What I like about the festool dolly are the huge wheels. They really make it easy to navigate through dirty work areas, small steps etc..

 

[Gregor]

If you get the Tanos Sys-cart base and mount it on a HF dolly you
in about $55, a little better than half way to buying the Festool dolly,
might as well go for broke, the only labor involved with the Festool
dolly is taking it out of the box.

The Tanos SYS-CART BASE retails 41€ here, the Festool RB-SYS retails for 52€ (prices incl. VAT, excl. shipping) - IMHO a nobrainer to go for the latter. Prices seem to be different on the other side of the pond though...

 

[Bob D.]

Yes, I agree there are advantages to buying the Festool 495020 Sys-Cart but here the price is $94US.
As I said my cart is a quick and dirty solution and some day I'll make something better. I would prefer
3 inch wheels with locks too.

 

[Fabrik8]

Anyway , save your receipt. It's possible they make the worst dollies regardless of price. (from experience). I use a variety of Systainers everyday and literally have put a couple hundred miles on my sys cart the past three years going in and out of malls and other construction sites I work on. Although I wish the wheels where a bit bigger when rolling through parking lots , it's the best money I spent in my tool stack. I can also lift my stack of systainers over steps and curbs as they clip to the sys cart. It works.

If you can find some cheap casters that are a larger diameter, making a dolly like this is worthwhile:

I know it's a triangle, just pretend it's a rectangle because it's the fastest picture I could find on Google.  That's actually a drum dolly.

Anyway, the offset wheels allow a much larger wheel diameter but will lower the center of gravity so it won't tip over nearly as easily.

 

[Bob D.]

Anyway , save your receipt. It's possible they make the worst dollies regardless of price. (from experience). I use a variety of Systainers everyday and literally have put a couple hundred miles on my sys cart the past three years going in and out of malls and other construction sites I work on. Although I wish the wheels where a bit bigger when rolling through parking lots , it's the best money I spent in my tool stack. I can also lift my stack of systainers over steps and curbs as they clip to the sys cart. It works.

If you can find some cheap casters that are a larger diameter, making a dolly like this is worthwhile:

I know it's a triangle, just pretend it's a rectangle because it's the fastest picture I could find on Google.  That's actually a drum dolly.

Anyway, the offset wheels allow a much larger wheel diameter but will lower the center of gravity so it won't tip over nearly as easily.

This gives me an idea for something completely new. Thanks.

 

[morts10n]

Incredible to me that anyone wood shop at  both Festool and Harbor Freight

 

[HarveyWildes]

Incredible to me that anyone wood shop at  both Festool and Harbor Freight

You have joined the list of people who think I'm incredible!  That list currently consists of my five granddaughters, but their reasons have more to do with ice cream than tools.

Seriously, I buy one off items at Harbor Freight when design/precision/materials just don't matter to me.  And I have several Festool tools as well, and plan to buy a few more, because for those items the design/precision/materials do matter (mostly the design, by the way).  Makes sense to me.