Caster source or coating alternatives?

[dlminehart]

I'm seeking sources for 4" non-marking threaded stem swivel casters, to replace the black rubber ones on my mobile chromed wire shop racks that are leaving marks on my newly painted floor. Seems these are hard to come by, and tend to cost about $20 apiece; 4 of them will cost more than my racks!

Alternatively, anyone have suggestions for fixing my problem short of buying all (16!) new casters. E.g., does waxing or polyurethaning the floor help? Or applying something like liquid plastic like that in which one can dip tool handles or something else?

[Tom Miller]

Until you hear a good answer, how about a layer of duct tape on each caster. Not pretty, but neither are black marks on the floor.

Regards,
Tom

[don_hart]

Check out McMaster Carr you will find the casters you need in any style size and material you want.

[BobSch]

Check www.grizzly.com . They usually have their casters on sale during the summer.

[jAngiel]

I'm thinking that you are going to have problems with any caster you put on, that's a lot of weight per square inch. The wider the caster the better but I would imagine any caster is going to cause problems with a painted floor.

[TB Roye]

I have a wood floor and I painted it recently and coated it with 4 coats of satin poly for floors. Cost $44 for a galon used about half for a 10 X 12 shop. The base for my HF drill press has rubber wheeled castors. I placed it on a sheet of 1/8 plywood untill I can get new wheels. before I used the polyuathane It pulled up the floor paint. I place in on a piece of 1/8 plywood as I don't want to take a chance on damaging the foor when it sits in one place. It is fine when I am moving it aroung, but have orderd a new mobile base from Woodcraft to use. My bandsaw is on a Shop Fox mobile base and the is now problem there.

Tom

[dlminehart]

Don, McMaster only had max 2-1/2" diameter casters with 5/16" threaded stems. To get larger wheels, the stems would be too big.

Bob, grizzly has one that looks good. I don't know what the specs mean: "Threaded stud measures M12-1.75 x 28mm." Does this mean 12mm diameter, 1.75 mm thread spacing (e.g., approx. 14.5 / in) ?

Here's their photo:





If it's 12mm, it's too big. Mine looks closer to 1/4" than 1/2". I'd guess 5/16". Maybe I could retap the threads in the base of the legs . . . jumping from 5/16 to 12mm seems like too much to do without drilling first. Lotta work . . . given I have 16 of these to do.

[bfrikken]

I was at lowes, and I happened on a bag of 4 casters. They are 4 inch and are locking casters. They look just like that image above. I found that they were intended to be used with some aluminum rack you can buy to make it portable. I actually used them for making my BT portable.

I think they cost me 12 or 14 bucks. Something like that.

[dlminehart]

Thanks! I'll stop by Lowe's on my way to work today!

[bfrikken]

One other thing. I did fail to realize the casters didn't come with a nut to secure it. They are meant to screw into the bottom of the shelves. I picked up a bag of four as I was walking out. I don't remember what size it was, I just threaded it into the nut size finder ...

[Whaler]

You might check out www.grainger.com

[dlminehart]

I stopped by my Lowe's, and found no 4" screw stem casters with all the others. Perhaps they're in some other part of the store? I looked by the gorilla racks and such, but saw nothing there. I'll check out grainger's. Thanks for the lead, Dick!

[Pappy]

http://www.casters.com/

Look under 'Sales Reps' and give Joe Mauro a call. Not the cheapest, but the best I have found.

[mater]

You might find some here http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w...eId=6970&N=120

[dlminehart]

I've measured my existing ones and have a question. While the pitch is pretty obvious (mine is 16 per inch) when the diameter of the screw is listed, are they referring to the outer diameter of the threads, or the diameter from inside of threads? My $15 HF digital caliper says that the outer diameter of mine is approx. 0.360", while inner is about 0.320". (The inside diameter of the nut is 0.323".) This screw diameter doesn't seem to match up with any of the expected fractions: 5/16 is 0.3125, 3/8 is 0.375.

Metric doesn't make much sense either: outer screw diameter is 9.15mm, inner is 8.13mm, nut is 8.22.

What size "standard" thread should I be looking for in finding a replacement with soft rubber wheels?