Caster repair

moggymatt · Post by **moggymatt** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 11:05 am

I’m in the process of cleaning up a set of casters and I have one stubborn part. The cylinder/plunger where one of the caster wheels goes into is stuck in the mounting bracket that bolts to the leg pan. I couldn’t find the parts view for the castor assembly so I don’t know what the part number is. All the others came loose but this one. I’ve tried penetrating oil, sitting in Evapo-rust, tapping on it with a hammer, and nothing. It didn’t look too crusted up and it’s pretty clean now but it just won’t budge and I don’t want to break the mounting bracket. Anyone have any ideas?

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 11:41 am

moggymatt wrote:I’m in the process of cleaning up a set of casters and I have one stubborn part. The cylinder/plunger where one of the caster wheels goes into is stuck in the mounting bracket that bolts to the leg pan. I couldn’t find the parts view for the castor assembly so I don’t know what the part number is. All the others came loose but this one. I’ve tried penetrating oil, sitting in Evapo-rust, tapping on it with a hammer, and nothing. It didn’t look too crusted up and it’s pretty clean now but it just won’t budge and I don’t want to break the mounting bracket. Anyone have any ideas?

Put in the freezer for a spell. Then selectively heat the aluminum casting while continuing extraction methods. Try getting it to move 'in' by inserting a rod into the caster bore and tapping rod with hammer. Once it moves 'in' slightly, it may move out more readily.

Applying tiorque would help, but there is no appropriate surface to do so!:(

rpd · Post by **rpd** » Tue Jun 12, 2012 12:45 pm

I ran across this YouTube video on Shopsmith wheel replacement.

The man who posted it has a bit different approach then what I have seen before.

db5 · Post by **db5** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 9:54 pm

rpd wrote:I ran across this YouTube video on Shopsmith wheel replacement.

The man who posted it has a bit different approach then what I have seen before.

The Guy's a genius. How cool is that? And they are adjustable. I'll keep this in my file whenever I need to replace the wheels.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:47 pm

db5 wrote:The Guy's a genius. How cool is that? And they are adjustable. I'll keep this in my file whenever I need to replace the wheels.

What he did not reveal was how he drilled out the pistons. That is no job for a hand held drill!;)

pennview · Post by **pennview** » Thu Jun 14, 2012 8:14 am

Nor did identify those threaded bushings/inserts he used. Does anyone know what they're called and which section of the hardware store they can be found?

moggymatt · Post by **moggymatt** » Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:16 pm

Thanks JPG, the freezer trick worked like a charm. 1st tap and out it came.