This is a low-skill kind of a question...

...but it means a good bit to me. I am wheelchair bound, and I want to offer sharpening services to the folks in my neck of the woods.

I would like to convert a Harbor Freight grinder stand to use wheels. (I have a gift card there, so I'm trying to keep all my expenses to that card.)

So I thought about screwing one of their grinder stands down to a small wooden dolly that I can also get right there at Harbor Freight, but it wouldn't allow me to lock it in place very readily.

If you were going to bolt a bench grinder to a grinder stand you got at Harbor Freight, what would you do to add wheels to it? I can buy casters from the same store, and I'm pretty sure they have locking casters.

I have welding gear here, but I'd like something I can assemble without making it quite so permanent.

Talk to me!

HF has two different grinder stands. If you are using the one with four legs, it could be secured to a dolly with some careful bending of a few angle brackets to attach the stand to the platform. The base dimensions of the stand and the size of some of their dolly units are close enough to make it work. The casters are attached with hex head screws and are easy enough to replace with the type that lock.

The big issue with adding wheels to a tool stand is the significant increase in height. The legs may need some trimming in order to get it to a comfortable work position. Doing so will reduce the dimensions of the base, so there's that to consider.

For the pedestal style stand, just drill holes in the feet and bolt it to the solid deck dolly that they sell. The vertical pipe can be cut to set the grinder at a good height. The caster setup is the same as above.

There are good neighbors and bad neighbors. Offering a service like this clearly makes you one of the good ones.

I happened to stop at a HF store today and saw that they have an adjustable mobile base with locking casters that will fit their four leg grinder stand. Around $50 or so. The good part is the leg supports are slightly lower than the caster axles, making it far less likely to tip over than the nonsense I posted earlier.

Attachment 50233

I had not seen that dolly. That's the winner right there.

Thanks very much!