Do any castors survive long-term stationary load, for occasionally needed mobility?

[radhak]

I want to make my shop cabinets mobile, but only for special occasions, say a hurricane threat. Most other times, they would just sit in one position.

So for this, are there castors that don't disintegrate after some time?
The castors I got for my Unisaw broke after a year or so (pic below) - I think they were from HF, or maybe Woodcraft, don't remember.
I believe they were regular rubber/plastic ones and the claimed specs surpassed the load ( ~450 lbs), but they failed.
Do the polyurethane ones fare better?

My cabinets will not weigh a lot, say 100 to 200 lbs max each with all content. Most castors claim to bear large loads, but my real need is longevity.
I might not need to move them for a couple of years, but I don't want to be stuck with broken wheels at moments of emergency.

I did take look at the 'workbench castors' which don't engage the wheels unless called upon, but (a) they are expensive, (b) they take more floor space, and (c) they too are not guaranteed to work, see exhibit A below.

I want some mobility on a smooth concrete floor, don't want too much height added in (3" or less), and am willing to lock them in place as long as I can roll the cabinets around when needed.





Exhibit A: broken wheel of a castor under a Unisaw:

[twistsol]

Rubber wheels seem to degrade rather quickly. I've used polyurethane wheels with some success. I have a set that is 4 years old and shows no signs of cracking or deterioration, but the are 5" wheels.

If you want true longevity that can carry heavy loads, I have an antique safe with 3" iron wheels that are over 100 years old. The safe weights about 400 lbs. Iron/steel and aluminum roll nicely on a clean floor but since they won't deflect at all, a pebble will bring it to an abrupt stop. They're also noisy and will dent any floor other than concrete.

Menards has the 3" iron casters shown below for 6.50 each.

[radhak]

That's interesting - iron casters should definitely live up to 'longevity'! But yeah, the 'no deflection' could become an issue.

Where did you get your polyurethane wheels? I don't want to settle for HF for this, if I can avoid it.

[LCHIEN]

The posters are correct. wheel material makes a big difference. Plastic and rubber degrade over time and form flat spots.
The more ideal materials as pointed out are polyurethane and iron or steel wheels.
Polyurethane has a little give which is good and is also very long term durable.
Iron and steel are very hard and don't get flat spots... but on vinyl floors can leave dents under heavy loads!
In general a bit softer makes rolling easier; I think the ideal is polyurethane combination of a little give for smooth rolling.

You can search for casters on line, there are several places with full lines and you can pick all kinds of options from steering/non steering, locking or not, wheel material and diameter, ball bearings or not, swivel ball bearings or not, mounting style (plate or post) etc. and load ratings.

Unlike your hardware store these places have everything in stock for instant gratification. And reams of advice in picking options.

Load ratings will help you pick wheels to last... the load is per wheel, but don't just divide your vehicle weight by four, the load will divide by weight distribution and also if the floor is level... three wheels can bear all the load with the fourth floating and unbalanced load can have much of the weight on only two.
There's a lot more to casters than meets the eye.

[twistsol]

Where did you get your polyurethane wheels? I don't want to settle for HF for this, if I can avoid it.

I looked to see where I got mine before my first response. I don't recall when or where I got them and couldn't find an email receipt for them which means I likely bought them in person in an actual store. I would guess Menards or Woodcraft but I can't find a match for what I have on either of their websites.

[cwsmith]

That castor looks pretty rotten, do you have a lot of moisture on that floor? I've got a couple of those HF 11-drawer tool cabinets that I've had for about ten or twelve years and their still holding up okay, but I've never wheeled the out of location more than a couple of times. One cabinet is sitting on the bare basement floor and holds maybe a hundred or so lbs, the second probably only about 50 - 70 lbs and sits on a Dr-Core subfloor.

I'd be concerned that with a steel or iron wheel, they just might rust so bad you wouldn't be able to roll them, unless of course they were designed for a moist environment.

Would you consider the "Model T" approach, like get some wedges and get those tires up off the floor and relieve them of any stress. (My grand father's approach for saving those old rubber-tube tires.)

CWS

[mpc]

I recently replaced all of the small casters in my shop. Many were the black or gray colored 2 1/2 inch, 110lb rated, casters previously sold by Woodcraft and Rockler. After several years the outer "tire" part would disintegrate. A few of the larger red-colored wheels disintegrated even faster. I finally gave up on the smaller casters and went with 3 inch diameter polyurethane casters from Rockler, rated at 240lbs, to replace the smaller 110lb rated wheels. The Rockler ones are a bit larger in diameter but, since I replaced all of them on my roll-around tool carts, the cart tops still line up properly. This was within the last 12 months so no experience yet on their durability.

I've always used "double locking" casters - those that lock both the wheel on its axle and the caster part itself. I tended to leave 1 or 2 casters locked of the 4 on a roll-around tool cart. The part of the lock that locks the wheel physically pushes on the tire... I wondered if if that part of the lock was crushing the tire a bit leading to the failures. But I had a few rear wheels disintegrate and those rarely had the locks applied. Still, with my new casters, I leave them unlocked unless I'm actually using the tool and need it to stay put. When the carts are parked along the wall I now leave the wheels unlocked.

As others noted, the casters don't evenly share the load - assuming 1/4 weight on each of 4 casters is not the right idea. Not only can one caster end up with zero weight on it due to lumps/depressions in the floor but any caster can end up with far more than 1/3rd the load when it rolls over a rise in the floor. In extreme cases - running over an upward bump - one wheel and the diagonally opposite wheel could end up each with half the total weight while the other two wheels have next to nothing - just whatever force is needed to keep the cabinet from tipping over. So I'd size casters based on 50% of the total weight as a minimum. Then I'd multiply the result by 150% to get a 50% safety pad. That's why I went with the larger casters - to get a big safety margin. The larger casters also roll significantly easier than the old 2 1/2 inch casters ever did. Surprising difference actually. This is on a typical garage-style concrete floor.

mpc

[radhak]

Great insights, everybody - this is why I come here!

Yes, the wheels disintegrated - when moved after a year or so of stand-still - at the outer layer, leaving an inside layer intact - very funny looking, nicely formed inner circle, as if still usable.
I daresay the combination of heavy weight and adverse outdoor conditions (Florida heat + humidity) and of course the uneven floors. Much crappier wheels survive longer indoors.

CWS, you reminded me to try and find out how much moisture is there on those floors - I read using a polythene sheet taped to the floor might give me some idea.

For all the dead-certain solidity of the steel wheels, I'm going to look for polyurethane ones. And yes, I had the same doubt about the locks causing some damage too, so thanks for your thoughts, mpc, I might leave them unlocked against the wall, because most of these are just cabinets and not work-surfaces. Yes, I do have the miter-saw and the drill on two, but I may not need to depend on wheel-locks to give them stability.

I do hear that a larger sized wheel might be sturdier, but I don't want to go beyond 3". No worries Chr's, I will surf online for fit and price; as Loring says, more informed purchases that way.

I do wish there was a dependable way of measuring the weight of a cabinet - working with an exact number would be so much better than eyeballing; and trying to figure out a method for weighing a large object like that piques the engineer in me!

[mpc]

Great insights, everybody - this is why I come here!
I do wish there was a dependable way of measuring the weight of a cabinet - working with an exact number would be so much better than eyeballing; and trying to figure out a method for weighing a large object like that piques the engineer in me!

Weighing the cabinet... something I've half-thought about too. I have the HF engine hoist rated for 500lbs to 2 tons (depending on how long the arm is extended) and thought about using that with a beefy spring scale (aka hanging scale) to lift the cabinets. A spring scale hanging from a ceiling hoist would work too assuming you don't pull the ceiling down instead!

Wow... looking up various scales online. Basic mechanical ones are expensive for high weight ratings; lots of less expensive electronic ones... some with questionable reviews. Many brands I've never heard of either and lots of clones. This one from Amazon looks reasonable:
Electronic hanging scale at Amazon

mpc

[radhak]

Ha ha! The idea of creating a hoist to weigh a cabinet is so tempting.

Let me see if I can find something like a bathroom scale (but bigger, of course) so I could slide a cabinet over it and weigh...

[Jim Frye]

All of my large tools are on rolling shop built wooden cabinets. They are lined up along one wall of my small shop to be rolled out for use when needed. Most of them don't get used that often and some get used where they sit. These cabinets are fitted with 3" rubber castors from HD. Each cabinet has two fixed and two swivel, locking castors. My BT3000, BT3100, and R700 router sit in a steel frame stand. This rig has three castors, 1 swivel and two fixed rubber. This set up has been in use since 1993 with no issues, so I'm expecting the newer ones to hold up as well.

[radhak]

Wow, 1993! That's heartening to hear! Because my setup is going to be like that too - little if any movement most of the time.
Thx.

[jabe]

Just bought 8 - 3" casters red plastic/poly on amazon made in China it was cheap ($31.99) hope they last. I also bought 4 Power Tech work bench casters 2" diameter wheels little more expensive ($51.99) on Amazon again made in China, hope they last. Both had good reviews. My 3" Wood Craft red wheels, they weren't cheap all disintegrated after 3 Yrs. Lots of moisture & humidity in Hawaii. So decided to buy cheaper wheels and if need be change them more often.

[radhak]

Ok, yeah, that's definitely one way to go - planned obsolescence instead of worrying too much about longevity.

I definitely don't want to spend too much on castors. I'll probably go with moderation - decent reviews, not too expensive and keep an eye on them for replacing.

[leehljp]

I'm late getting in on this discussion. Not being an engineer to figure out precisely what is needed, I tend to overbuild, over compensate and prepare for more than is to come. I did this for my dual router - router table, for my pen lathe stand (heavy cast iron) and other items on rollers - oversize casters, ones that will support twice the expected weight. Overkill yes, but less problems down the road.

[radhak]

Hank, I am guilty of that too, most of the times - over-engineered out of an abundance of caution. The only thing limiting for me is the size of the castors, but will try and add a lot of buffer for the load capacity.

[LCHIEN]

Big casters roll better, go over small imperfections more easily, steer easier, have more contact footprint with the ground, but they set the load up higher. And cost more.

If you just plug casters into google you'll find lots of caster specialty houses to browse though and pick some nice casters. A lot of them have a lot of help guides for picking caster characteristics. Like I said, they aren't limited to one part of an aisle in the box stores... they have a whole warehouse to chose from, I suspect they may even stock wheels of multiple types and swivels and bases with locks and custom assemble your caster to order.

[Carlos]

I really don't move anything around in the shop, but did put a few things on wheels in case they need to be moved for large lumber or similar space/access reasons. These have only been in use for a few years, but seem to be fine so far. I move these less than once every six months. The red ones are from Lowes, the lift/move ones are from Amazon. The lift casters are especially great. I have those on a bench extension that's used as outfeed, assembly, and mobile cabinet when needed. As well as moving it if needed. They lift up to move easily and make it over the mats, but drop down onto the hard feet for stability and perfect leveling. Since it's outfeed, it has to be perfectly leveled. Floor dots tell me where exactly to put it back.