Bookrack with wheels?

[radhak]

LOML wants a bookrack, and I suggested this (from Woodsmith #181):



Dimensions : 37"W x 14"D x 38"H

But she wants this somewhat mobile; ie, should be moveable to the bedroom when we have guests.

Can I put castors underneath? Or will some sort of ball-bearings be better? My concern of course is stability and strength. The castors will need to be low in profile, or attachable to the leg-sides instead of bottom.

We don't have any carpet : just tile and wood floors.

[cabinetman]

You shouldn't have a problem if you reinforce the structure from racking. It's about as tall as it is wide, but fairly narrow. I would use furniture casters for hard floors. The base can be skirted (like an apron) to conceal most of what can be seen.

The rotation of the caster needs to be inboard enough to clear any skirting, their mounting will not be at the absolute corners (if mounted to the bottom). That puts the points of stability closer together (front to back). So, when pushing, push the length to guide the movement. It will be somewhat tipsy. Put the heaviest load on the bottom.

Your two choices for mounting would be plate mount...for mounting on the bottom, or stud mount...for mounting on the legs. If leg mounted, they will show, but you won't have to fabricate any elaborate skirting.

Here's a pretty good selection.
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[LCHIEN]

one shelf of book won't weigh more than 100 lbs, you can get castors rated for 50-100 lbs should be OK.
Castors come in two type of mounts. Either a post or a flat plate. THe posts come threaded or unthreaded.

IF you want to mount the post type in a vertical leg usually then get the unthreaded kind and drill a snug hole for the post in the end of the leg.

The legs look a bit small for containing a post so your other choice is to beef up the bottom shelf and put plate type castors to the bottom of the bottom shelf and cut off the legs below the shelf.

Either way I recommend 2 swivel at one end and 2 fixed at the other end, makes it easier to push/steer than four swivel castors.

[LarryG]

A third type of caster, besides the two Loring describes, are those that fit over the bottom of a round or tapered leg; the bracket/pivot assembly is often brass and the wheel itself is either brass or plastic or rubber. Sizes vary, depending on the load to be accommodated. If the book rack will be lightly loaded you could use a small size that would be reasonably unobtrusive. But these tiny wheels don't play nice with things like thresholds or area rugs.

Regardless of caster type, for a heavier load you'll need a bigger wheel and their appearance might then become objectionable. One solution might be to conceal larger casters behind a skirt that extends to within 1/4" or so of the floor, but a wide skirt probably wouldn't go well with the light, airy flavor of this particular design.

All in all, for this design or anything similar, my recommendation would be to cut the legs off as Loring suggests and mount the unit on casters that you don't mind looking at.

[cabinetman]

You could check here for some decorative casters. There's ones that cap the bottoms of the legs.
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[pelligrini]

Lee valley carries a bunch of decorative casters. Looks like Vandykes carries more varieties. Neither on of them advertise the load capacities on most of them though.

[radhak]

Great suggestions. I am a bit hesitant on cutting the legs of (just because it might detract from the 'light, airy flavor' as Larry puts it), but I might have to do that.

Racking is what I fear, somewhat. I am hoping that the construction (M&T) and the many stretchers and such might help. Would I need a cross brace, maybe at the back of the lower half?

Will a steel-ball caster leave marks on engineered wood? Maybe that's why the Shepherd casters have rubber treads?

Funny thing about the vandyke casters : they have a disclaimer at the bottom : *Stationary/Decorative Purposes Only*. Wonder what that means...

[LarryG]

That unit looks to be no more than ~36" high. The aprons at top and bottom and the V-shaped center shelf should make racking a non-issue. The V-shapved center shelf in particular will add considerable strength since it will effectively act like a back panel would. (Better, actually, since it also braces the front rather than just the back.)

I personally would not trust a metal caster to not mark an engineered wood floor, except for the most infrequent of movements.

To me, "Stationary/Decorative Purposes Only" means, "Great looks, without the stigma of actual functionality!"

[herb fellows]

Not sure what they call them, or even if they're available, but I just bought a Delonghi space heater that had casters that snap up and down, so you can have it looking more like a piece of furniture than a library cart whiile it's being displayed, yet be able to snap the casters down and roll it at will(assuming Will doesn't mind having things rolled at him):-).
The heater weighs about 40 lbs, but if they're available I imagine they would make sturdier ones also.

[jking]

For wood floors, you do not want metal or even some hard plastic casters. The plastic casters that have a tapered profile (I've often seen them on bed frames) will indent a wood floor.

How often will this bookcase realistically need to move? If you're only talking about one shelf of books, you could cut felt pads to match the bottom of the leg. I have used felt pads on some larger infrequently used furniture with good results. Or, just build it to sit on the floor & if it needs to move, put some of those plastic furniture glides under it to move it.

[phi1l]

Stay away from the black plasticized rubber casters. If they sit in one place for long, they develop a flat spot and would then rather slide and leave black marks on the floor than roll.

[radhak]

Larry, for whatever reason the plan calls for not adhering the V-shelf to the sides - it just sits on a stretcher at the back and has to steel dowels either side at the front to hold it up. I think I'll instead use a couple of wooden dowels to fix them along both sides.

Herb, I thought of the snap-up casters, but don't think that'd be a good option for LOML with the shelf laden with books : may not be easy to manipulate.

Jking, your comments set me thinking, and googling : and these permanent slides seem to be better suited to my needs. I could leave them there, or take them off. Best - I don't have to worry about it while building the unit! Something smaller in size would have been better, but I won't sweat it.

Thanks, y'all - you keep ideas flowing!

[Tom Slick]

Just stick a Herc-U-Lift on it!

[phi1l]

these permanent slides seem to be better suited to my needs.

The only problem with the sliders is that they will accumulate grit as the slide, & will scratch the floors if you aren't careful.