Air sled for drill press

I know this will work. I saw a concrete door 18” thick, 30 feet wide and 60 feet tall moving on air and water.

How do you power it?

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence

What a great idea…I for one would like to hear more about this..

-- Hawaiilad Larry

You have me thinking about having one under

my wheelchair

Just for fun

jamie

-- Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

lol Jamie I need one to help me as my lags at get bad at times lol
But I two would like to know more on this looks like a good thing to make.

-- Nimkee** Joe

Is there a website where we can learn more about this?

-- Mike, American in Norway

That’s a great idea, I need to google air sled and find out more. Thanks for posting.

-- Martin ....always count the number of fingers you have before, and after using the saw.

I’m watching this idea closely.
A couple of my expensive wheeled carriers have just about “had it”.
Thanks for sharing.

-- Eric

Me too… LOL

-- Have Fun! Joe Lyddon - Alta Loma, CA USA - Home: http://www.WoodworkStuff.net ... My Small Gallery: http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?ppuser=1389&cat=500"

In answer to some of your questions:

I have been thinking about air sleds for quit a long time and have looked around the web for them. Problem is that they cost an arm and a leg and I was having no luck finding ideas for a home built sled. I came up with a few different ideas and settled on the simplest and easiest to build. It works great for a fairly small foot print. The one under the table saw works fair, I think the foot print is pushing the max size. I am thinking if I broke it up into two smaller sleds, one at each end it would work much better. Sorry I don’t have any web sites to refur you to. I power these by use of the the blowing side of my shop vac.

One of my ideas involved the the glueing or welding of rubber. If any of you have glued of welded rubber I would like to hear how you did it and how it worked.

-- Steve in Oregon,

Interesting.

I’m along the same lines as Jamie, with a twist.
I sometimes cannot get to the shop if I’m down to bad to walk because it’s too difficult to get my wheelchair across my rough yard.
I wonder if it’s possible to make something like this to sort of hover across the yard to the shop?
Hmmmmmmm!

-- http://wddsrfinewoodworks.blogspot.com/

What material did you use in picture 4, it looks like weather striping or rubber? What size shop vac? Iam going to try to build one of these soon, I get the concept and your pictures make sense just had those two questions.

@tsdahc, it is weather stripping, but it is kind of closed cell not the open cell spongy type, the surface is smooth, and it is 3/8 in thick and self adhesive.

-- Steve in Oregon,

Fantastic idea Sillac, I think you have a lot of people very interested in this.
How is your shop vac hose attached to the sled?
It doesn’t look like there is an adapter.
Do you just have the hose going through a hole?
Doesn’t air leak out that way?
I imagine it would have to be air tight to have maximum efficiency.
I am going to start building mine for my band saw that has been sitting in the middle of my tiny shop since I got it. It really needs to be movable.

-- Close to Ottawa Ontario Canada

I drill a hole in the plywood where I want the vac hose to connect to the sled. I do drill the hole a bit smaller than the end of the vac hose and the enlarge it by use of the osollating drum sander to fit.

But I guess you could buy an adapter, which would cost more but might save time, although I am sure I can drill and sand to size in less time then driving to the store, trying to find and buy the right adapter and driving back.

I just push the end of the vac hose in the hole and friction holds it in.

I haven’t been able to detect any air leaking out.

Let us know how yours turns out and how it works.

-- Steve in Oregon,