Replies

1. 
   MBerger | Aug 29, 2006 06:02pm | #1

   A larger version will be available for about $250, the small size (for bandsaws and the like) will retail for about $170. I haven't yet figured out how and when it can be purchased. I'll post when I know.

   Matt Berger
   Fine Woodworking

1. 
   Castlewerks | Aug 29, 2006 06:29pm | #2

   Matt,Brentwood Machinery in Brentwood, NH carries them. I don't believe that they feature them on their WEB site, but they have a demo in their store and they are available for purchase. http://brentwoodmachine.com/Cheers,Michael

1. 
   MBerger | Aug 29, 2006 07:03pm | #5

   Yes, that is the store in the inventor's New Hampshire hometown, which first sold the Hover Pad. Now that General is distributing it, I'm not sure where else it will become available.

2. 
   forestgirl | Aug 29, 2006 06:47pm | #3

   Matt, I remember reading that they only work on smooth surfaces such as cement and...(something).  Do you happen to know how smooth the cement has to be??  The cement in my shop has a rough texture to it.

   Also, is there any chance they would work on a rubber-padded floor??  (those square jigsaw-style mats)?:?  Thanks.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

1. 
   MBerger | Aug 29, 2006 07:07pm | #6

   It won't work on textured or brushed cement, however, the inventor said you can seal a brushed concrete floor to make it smooth enough to work.

   Basically, any floor that can't hold a suction isn't going to work. If air is able to escape from the mechanisms that lift the tool off the floor, it looses its functionality.

   That's not to say you can't own one if you don't have a good floor. You can tape over cracks in the floor, or lay down a sheet of 1/8-in. thick masonite.

1. 
   JohnWW | Aug 30, 2006 03:45pm | #7

   Just for the record this isn't a new invention, although some of the details of the Hoverpad may be unique. 

   The largest object I have seen on an airlift was a a large theater organ that was stored in the wings of the performing arts center at the University of New York at New Paltz.  The organ was twenty or thirty feet long, and 6 to 8 feet deep perhaps, and it weighed several tons.  The only problem they had was that once the instrument got moving it was hard to stop, I was told that they almost put the organ through a wall the first time they moved it.

   John White, Shop Manager, Fine Woodworking Magazine 

1. 
   forestgirl | Aug 30, 2006 07:23pm | #8

   "The only problem they had was that once the instrument got moving it was hard to stop, I was told that they almost put the organ through a wall the first time they moved it."  That's like our super-ferries "Jumbo Mark II Class", LOL!  Each time we dock, it's basically a controlled crash landing.  460' long with a 90' beam, over 3,000 tons fully loaded.  "Ready or not, here we come!"

   http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/your_wsf/our_fleet/index.cfm?fuseaction=classes

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

   Edited 8/30/2006 12:25 pm by forestgirl

2. 
   kummell | Aug 30, 2006 09:00pm | #9

   my grandfather was an engineer on those Seattle ferries...  (now there was a man who had an incredible shop in his garage!)

3. 
   forestgirl | Aug 30, 2006 10:24pm | #10

   "...now there was a man who had an incredible shop in his garage!"  I can believe that!  My father-in-law, now 101 yrs., was a machinist at Hanford Nuclear Reservation when they built it way back when.  You ask for it, he seems to have it, LOL.

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-) 

   Edited 8/30/2006 3:25 pm by forestgirl

2. 
   RickL | Aug 29, 2006 06:52pm | #4

   http://www.hoverbench.com