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Pallet jack for home shop

Clemson13

Clemson13

Evernoob is a douchcanoe
Joined
May 19, 2020
Member Number
218
Messages
419
Loc
Upstate SC
I have a 30x40 shop, flat concrete driveway and a 25x24 garage on the house. I have been struggling moving items around using a hand truck. I have next to nothing on casters because i always balked when i looked at how much $$ it would run me to switch everything over to them. Today i finally managed to find a 60$ Yale pallet jack in good condition :smokin: So now that i have it, what are some of the best ways to setup floor drill presses, welding carts(havent built it yet, probably not putting wheels on it), workbenches, welding tables, shelving etc up for being moved by a pallet jack? Putting everything onto pallets looks to be a waste of space. With the welding table its easy, weld in some box tube 4" off the floor and make a shelf.
 
You can get a lot of work done with a pallet jack when you get good with it and learn to work around its shortcomings. My best advice is to make everything you want to move look like a skid to it. I still think casters are a better option. Not crap from HF but good stuff from surplus center. In my experience for the cost they are the best value going even with shipping.
 
As you've found out, a pallet jack is great for pallets (provided floor joints aren't too wide and things aren't laying on the floors), but not much use for anything smaller than a pallet.
 
Squamch said:
Pallet jacks suck. I have to use them at work when the forklift guys are busy, and they're as bad as floor jacks for rolling over things.

You should put stuff that needs to move on castors.
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Wrong.

They have their place, yes, and rolling over things isn't their strong point. Fitting under mezzanines, or in tight locations is. Obviously if you can use a forklift, and have a forklift then use it, but it sure is nice to have options.

PAToyota said:
As you've found out, a pallet jack is great for pallets (provided floor joints aren't too wide and things aren't laying on the floors), but not much use for anything smaller than a pallet.
Click to expand...

You can get sexy little mini pallet jacks, and they're fully fucking bad-ass. They're close to half the width of standard jacks, and fantastic to have kicking around.
 
I have bunch of stuff I can move with a pallet jack. I think they're great. I understand if you have very rough concrete or gravel :homer: but otherwise I see them as far superior to casters. I have several welding tables, sheet roller and tube bender that can be moved with pallet jack. If you're short on space the pallet jack can live under a welding table (or outside really.)
 
Next to my forklift, my little pallet jack was the best thing I bought for my shop. I originally bought it to move a bridgeport. Worked great for that and then even better to help move the bigger mill, cnc mill and big lathe the last time I moved. My forklift wouldn't fit under the doors of my old garage so I was able to use the jack to get them to the doors and then the lift took them from there. And then even at the new shop, the forklift can't get them in to the corners and up against the walls like I want, but the pallet jack sure can. I've started saving narrow pallets - the ones just wide enough for the jack - and storing parts and engines and transmissions on them. Seems to be working well so far.
 
I have a pallet jack that I picked up at the scrap yard for $20, just needed a spring. I use it quite a bit, but it is sensitive to gravel on the floor.
I also have a 24v walk behind straddle forklift that I use all the time, throw a pallet or a piece of plywood on the forks and I have an adjustable height work space.
Right now it has the remains of a rear Dana 44 on it while I decide what to do with it (sold the diff to someone down south, will probably round up some bearings to match the ID of the brackets that held the diff and shim them to match the diameter of the shafts).

Aaron Z
 
I was lucky to find my pallet jack for $50 on craigslist years and years ago. I used it all the time even when I had my forklift since it was easier to navigate into tight spots
 
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I made these yesterday
 
In a couple years someone will bump it asking how it turned out and OP will tell them he put all his shit smaller than a pallet on its own casters and he bought a forklift for all the bigger stuff and the pallet jack is rusting into the ground outside.

Trying to precisely move things much larger or smaller in footprint than a pallet jack is gonna get real old real quick. But I guess if your frame of reference is not having anything on wheels it might be tolerable.
 
For small heavy items fab horizontal legs to catch the pallet risers. Example a drill press foot bolt two pcs box steel or angle to it, pallet jack should straddle the foot and pick up on the tubing.

Why buy a set of wheels for everything?
 
i like those caster jacks. Might have to do that for my shop table. It's a bugger to move
 
JohnnyJ said:
i like those caster jacks. Might have to do that for my shop table. It's a bugger to move
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Thanks. Swivel casters are very sensitive to being mounted squarely, 2 of those were fucked up and didn't swivel with weight on them. I had to cut and adjust the spuds.

Take your time!
 
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