Beating high cost of casters

magnaman · Post by **magnaman** » Fri Nov 08, 2013 4:11 pm

At Tractor Supply this week I found a Mini Furniture Dolly on sale for $8. It has four 3" swivel casters. While these are not the world's best casters they are good enough for two bucks each. I bought 2 and had my wife pick up two more this morning. There was a large shelf of them when I went but today she said there were only about 10 left.
Just thought I would pass this info along.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Sat Nov 09, 2013 10:10 am

magnaman wrote:At Tractor Supply this week I found a Mini Furniture Dolly on sale for $8. It has four 3" swivel casters. While these are not the world's best casters they are good enough for two bucks each. I bought 2 and had my wife pick up two more this morning. There was a large shelf of them when I went but today she said there were only about 10 left.
Just thought I would pass this info along.

Been there done that and I regretted it.

The statement "While these are not the world's best casters they are good enough for two bucks each." tells the story.
They are and they remain $2 casters and frankly it is $2 ill spent.

The difference between $2 casters and more expensive ones is material and bushings and bearings. These have cheap material and no bushings or bearings.

Without bearings or even bushings and these become almost worthless with any weight or after holding a load in one position for a period of time and then trying to move them.

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Mon Nov 11, 2013 12:06 am

I have high quality & strengh 3" casters available along with aluminum drilling template for the Mark V and for the Power Station & Power Stand and drill bit listed on Ebay most of the time I believe these caster are cheaper and similar to the Shopsmith 3" casters.

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Fri Nov 15, 2013 10:30 pm

Woodcraft has a great sale on the best casters I have ever seen check it out. Jim

db5 · Post by **db5** » Sat Nov 16, 2013 9:54 pm

billmayo wrote:I have high quality & strength 3" casters available along with aluminum drilling template for the Mark V and for the Power Station & Power Stand and drill bit listed on Ebay most of the time I believe these caster are cheaper and similar to the Shopsmith 3" casters.

Got these from Bill 2 months ago. His template is much more usable than Shopsmith's and really high quality. Contact Bill directly to get a better price and avoid eBay markup for him. His come with the Shopsmith instructions (which have no copyright so he is not in violation) along with his hard (that's HARD, not paper) template.

I wish he had made these available when I had my Mk. VII (but they wouldn't have fit).

skou · Post by **skou** » Sat Nov 16, 2013 10:57 pm

billmayo wrote:I have high quality & strengh 3" casters available along with aluminum drilling template for the Mark V and for the Power Station & Power Stand and drill bit listed on Ebay most of the time I believe these caster are cheaper and similar to the Shopsmith 3" casters.

Bill, are the stock SS casters, the same as the ER ones? Since my ER is inside my apartment, and for real uses it needs to go outside, these may work even better than what I've got.

Let me know.

steve

magnaman · Post by **magnaman** » Tue Nov 26, 2013 1:12 pm

"The difference between $2 casters and more expensive ones is material and bushings and bearings. These have cheap material and no bushings or bearings.

Without bearings or even bushings and these become almost worthless with any weight or after holding a load in one position for a period of time and then trying to move them."

Not really sure what to say about this. I meant to alert others to a source of really inexpensive casters for all types of projects in the shop like me replacing the poor casters on my shopvac cart with the Dust Deputy. I attached a picture to show the small steel balls in the caster which I believe to be ball bearings.
The casters at Woodcraft are very nice and if I have a project that requires locking casters rated at 300# each I will pay 6.5 times as much for each unless I can possibly avoid it.
I guess this forum is not the place for such postings so I will keep them to myself.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Tue Nov 26, 2013 2:38 pm

magnaman wrote:"The difference between $2 casters and more expensive ones is material and bushings and bearings. These have cheap material and no bushings or bearings.

Without bearings or even bushings and these become almost worthless with any weight or after holding a load in one position for a period of time and then trying to move them."

Not really sure what to say about this. I meant to alert others to a source of really inexpensive casters for all types of projects in the shop like me replacing the poor casters on my shopvac cart with the Dust Deputy. I attached a picture to show the small steel balls in the caster which I believe to be ball bearings.
The casters at Woodcraft are very nice and if I have a project that requires locking casters rated at 300# each I will pay 6.5 times as much for each unless I can possibly avoid it.
I guess this forum is not the place for such postings so I will keep them to myself.

Community or Maintenance and Repair Forums WOULD be a place for such comments.

What IS the point of the pix? Nice swivel, not so the wheel axle.

joshh · Post by **joshh** » Tue Nov 26, 2013 2:43 pm

magnaman wrote:Not really sure what to say about this. I meant to alert others to a source of really inexpensive casters for all types of projects in the shop like me replacing the poor casters on my shopvac cart with the Dust Deputy. I attached a picture to show the small steel balls in the caster which I believe to be ball bearings.
The casters at Woodcraft are very nice and if I have a project that requires locking casters rated at 300# each I will pay 6.5 times as much for each unless I can possibly avoid it.
I guess this forum is not the place for such postings so I will keep them to myself.

Please don't think you can't post suggestions here. I have often felt like you do now, but I chalked it up to the text only format here (90% of communication is body language and tone) and to the fact the most of the old folks (I mean no disrespect) here are very direct.

On to the casters, I think those casters are good for light duty as you suggested. I think the hesitation came from the assumption they were for the shopsmith? They would be short-lived in that application. The better casters have bearings INSIDE the wheel (where the horizontal bolt goes through) as opposed to only at the top. See letter J in this link: http://paysoncasters.com/caster-info/th ... -a-caster/

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Tue Nov 26, 2013 2:59 pm

I just reread this entire thread. I now better understand the last post by the originator of the thread(Magnaman).

He was reacting to Ed's post about $2 casters being $ ill spent.

This is indeed an acceptable thread even though the Maintenance and Repair forum would have been a better place.

Ed was relating his experience with cheap casters. His intention was to say Buyer Aware, not to criticize the original post!

There are many here who are not shy about sharing their opinions and experience. But, that is all that is intended(well some good natured ribbing often).

The original post was in that spirit of sharing as was the second post by Ed.

Those of us who have more 'experience' here know to overlook what may at first appear to be criticism.

Blunt statements in print are sometimes difficult to swallow since speech inflection etc. is missing(reason for emoticons), but folks here really mean well with such statements;).

So Magnaman cheer up!

It wasn't 'personal'!:)

Ed, feel free to disagree!:D:D:D:D:D:D:D