Making a new base for a metal-cutting Guillotine

What a beast. This fine vintage sheet-metal guillotine was given to me a while back by a good friend. It can cut through 2mm steel sheet pretty easily. Love it.

However, when I was gifted this beauty, it was unmounted and was impossible to use because the leverage it gives you is out of control without some back-resistance and a stable base.

I have been busy building a new workshop after moving, so I've only just got round to mounting it so I can use it.

Here it is on its new base, converted from a mini-pallet....

This base was made from a small pallet scrounged off a printer/bookbinder. It was previously used to transport boxes of books

Although this was only a small pallet, it was still way too large, and would take up too much room.
And so, out it was with the saw...

Much better. Although a larger base would make it even more stable, I'll never use it frequently enough to justify the space it would take up.

A bit of chamfering on the edges with the small belt sander to tidy that up...

After cutting to size, a reinforcing panel was cut, to make the main platform strong and rigid. Some old 7-ply plywood was just the trick...

I glued this into the central recess of the underside of the pallet with PVA

Then it was just a question of drilling four holes so the feet of the guillotine could be bolted onto the base...

These bolts were recycled out of a sofa a year or two ago. They are the bolts that hold the stub feet onto a sofa.