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keepup

Active Member
Alright. Time to build to world's best workbenches for aluminum aircraft construction. But before I start I need to find the world's best locking casters. Ok maybe not the world's best (on either account) but pretty darn good ones. I'm going to design the entire bench around the casters I select.

Requirements:
  1. Must be extremely durable and strong. These benches are going to be massive in order to withstand the rigors of pounding and bending parts without traveling around the factory.
  2. Must have very good bearings which last and allow a heavy load to move easily.
  3. Must be rubber so they don't damage the floor. Prefer a steel core lined with rubber. No tires. Can't be bouncing.
  4. Would prefer to be able to mount it to the end of a 4 x 4, but I guess I could mount it to a 6 x 6 if I must.
  5. The locks must hold strong. Did I say I don't want this thing wandering around the factory?

I'm sort of torn on wheel diameter. Obviously, the larger it is, the easier it will roll (when I want it to). Also, simple torque says that locks will be stronger on larger diameter wheels. But I'm also planning on building height adjustability into the legs of the workbench so that I can lower it when working on tall objects (such as fuel tank sealing). In this case the smaller the better. Any advice here would be appreciated.

I'm going to build two identical benches with folding wing extensions and height adjustability. Each bench will be narrow and I'll clamp or bolt them together when I need a larger surface. The wing extensions will hang down when not needed but swing up easily for longer support.

As with anything with me, "Only the best will do".
 
Word!

Holy cow! What an incredible website. Props to McMaster. I love how you can spec out exactly what you want. Thanks Larry.
 
Workbench casters

Keepup,

When you decide on the casters, post again so we'll know what you decided on.
One word of advice, and your post indicates you may have already considered this. The larger the wheel diameter, the farther the distance is from the center of the wheel to the center of the swivel. In other words, the moment arm becomes larger and the robust mounting of the caster becomes more important.

I have a ten foot section of bowling alley for a work table (apx. wt. 300 lbs.). I built a frame to support it and added one hydraulic jack on each end to force the casters down, thus lifting the weight off the legs. It's good enough for the very infrequent movement of the table in the shop, but if I had to do it again, I would have designed it with this torque in mind.
Hope this isn't confusing.

A photo or two of your finished workbenches would be interesting, too.
Good luck.

Don
 
I bought these at Home Depot, and like them so far. They keep the wheel from rolling and turning when locked.
DSCF2685.jpg
 
Keepup,

The following is copied from Guy Lautards site:-

SUPER SHOP CASTERS?!

Do you use castered dollys at home or at work? If so, you will like this!

I've discovered a line of excellent casters. The maker, Guitel, is the 4th largest caster manufacturer in the world, and they make some excellent products. I stock their 4" Resilex casters*, as these seem to be the ones most suitable for shop dollys for guys like us, but I can get other types and sizes if the application requires it.

These casters cost about the same as ordinary casters, but their performance is markedly superior.

* One 4" Resilex caster in the standard frame will take a 330 lb. load. If you need greater load carrying capacity than that, we can supply the same wheel in a heavy duty frame, giving 440 lb. load capacity, or if need be, we can go to a larger caster.
NOTE: As a rule, when assessing the load per caster for a dolly, it is wise to divide the maximum expected load by 3, if you are going to use 4 casters. This gives a safety factor, and covers times when the floor surface may be uneven enough to throw all the load onto 3 of the 4 wheels.

Resilex casters are available in both fixed and swiveling configuration, and the swivel casters can be ordered with or without brakes.
NOTE: the brake locks both wheel and caster body rotation. The brake is operated by a toe pedal.

PRICING: 4" Resilex casters, with roller bearing hubs, on flat plate mounts, are priced as follows:

in rigid frame = US$16.75
in swiveling frame = US$18.50
in swiveling frame, with brake = US$35.50

Plus shipping, at cost: please e-mail us with list of casters you wish to order, plus your UPS Address, and we will advise shipping cost.

Canadian customers: Please contact us by e-mail for domestic pricing.

The wheel material in Resilex casters has excellent memory for its original shape, so if a loaded dolly is parked for several days or even weeks, the moment you move it, the flat spots disappear! Consequently, the starting effort (as well as the rolling and pivoting resistance) is 50% lower than regular hard rubber casters.

You may find this statement difficult to believe, but my own simple test backs up the maker's claims on this score - see below for details.

Resilex casters have another interesting characteristic: swarf and other floor debris will not embed in the wheel tread. The wheels will roll over such debris, as well as things like electrical cords, with ease.

These characteristics combine to make Resilex casters extremely durable. I've been told the mold line in the center of a Resilex caster will sometimes still be clearly visible after 15 years in service in industrial applications! Contrast this with the 1-2 year life of a typical hard black rubber caster in similar service. If you were towing a heavily loaded dolly in a factory - say with a garden tractor - and hit even some small obstruction on the floor (possibly even just a washer) that the caster can not roll over, the wheel would probably lock, and you would then grind the wheel down to the caster frame or beyond, in short order. Goodbye caster. Goodbye $$$ in goods and repair time. In the same situation, a Resilex caster would likely roll right over the obstruction with no problem.

The foregoing should be enough to get you interested, if you need or want good shop dollys.

I have at least 8 dollys around my house that I have made over the years. The following account concerns two of the most used of these dollys. If you or a friend owns a tablesaw (or some similarly heavy machine) that needs to be on a mobile dolly for one reason or another, you will really LOVE the information in the following article.

Sorry for the long post, and I guess you could find a different source, but this may be of interest.
 
rv7boy said:
Keepup,

When you decide on the casters, post again so we'll know what you decided on.
One word of advice, and your post indicates you may have already considered this. The larger the wheel diameter, the farther the distance is from the center of the wheel to the center of the swivel. In other words, the moment arm becomes larger and the robust mounting of the caster becomes more important.

I have a ten foot section of bowling alley for a work table (apx. wt. 300 lbs.). I built a frame to support it and added one hydraulic jack on each end to force the casters down, thus lifting the weight off the legs. It's good enough for the very infrequent movement of the table in the shop, but if I had to do it again, I would have designed it with this torque in mind.
Hope this isn't confusing.

A photo or two of your finished workbenches would be interesting, too.
Good luck.

Don
Click to expand...

Don,

Yes, I do follow you on the caster moment arm and the associated effect on mounting. Great input. I've thought about doing the same kind of mechanism which raises and lowers the bench onto (and off of) the casters for moving it. But it added a element of complexity that I'm not in the mood to deal with plus more opportunities for failure. Hence my thought to leave the benches resting on durable casters all the time as long as they can lock in the rolling and swiveling dimensions. Looks like I've got some good options now.
 
AllanC said:
Keepup,

The following is copied from Guy Lautards site:-

SUPER SHOP CASTERS?!
Click to expand...

Thanks Allan! Looking at Guy's website (http://www.lautard.com/) reminded me that it doesn't matter how high the caster is and it's effect on leg length because I can mount the bottom of the bench legs in an offset bracket which can be lower than the top of the caster. I'm not forced to mount the bench legs DIRECTLY to the caster. Duh! That would be considered a "paradigm shift" for me. So I can still achieve my height adjustability requirements. Sweet!
 
Less caster $ = more airplane $

If you have unlimited $$$ then you have plenty of suggestions already.

Personally, used "medium quality" locking rubber-tired casters from Lowe's, about 2.5" diameter and about .75" wide.

The lower frame of my workbench is above the floor slightly less than the width of a 2x4, or maybe 3.25".

Just roll the bench where you want it and then stick a couple of 2x4 scraps under the lower frame rails. Takes up just enough weight that the caster locking feature isn't resisting all the movement or taking the pounding load.

It's plenty "stable enough" for Aluminum aircraft construction.
 
PropellerHead Skunkworks...

Here's a partially completed article I'm working on for my website.

It's a heavy duty workbench design that I built a few versions of.
Besides being easy to modify for building your structures on, you can use my modular docking idea for bench power tools that you can switch into and out of active use. This makes it easy to re-configure your benches on the fly for the days tasks. The unused machines stash under the bench.

hd_wkbench_20.jpg


For RV construction, I'd recommend leaving off the tempered masonite and the "backsplash" setup.

Here is the directory:
http://www.propellerhead-online.net/articles/shop_talk/hd_wkbench/

Plenty of full size and thumbnail images here as well as the HTML pages in progress but not complete. You'll get the idea real quickly though.

For wheels and hardware, you can get excellent 4 and 5 inch wheels from Rockler Woodworking and Hardware. The link is on the 2nd or 3rd HTML page in the directory.
 
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