Shopsmith Forums

While i would never consider cheap casters on my SS, I have bought quite a few mover's dollies from Harbor Freight when on sale for $6-8 specifically to get the casters. The dollies are rated for 1000#, so the casters must be 250# rated, right? Anyway, I have mounted them to the bottoms of some metal cabinets I got for free and put smaller stationary tools on them. They have worked great for what they are and for what I'm using them for. Of course, they don't lock, but that hasn't been a problem. My floor slopes slightly but not enough to have a tool go rolling away, even when running.

I'd love to buy the good quality stuff, but the fact is that I simply don't have the money. And i enjoy spending some of my time rebuilding old tools and bringing them back to life, or looking for a real bargain out there. Admittedly, I paid $400 for my '55 SS with a bandsaw (because I wanted one really bad at the time and they don't go cheap around here), but have paid less than $100 for the next two, including my 510. My jointer was drowning in rust, but only cost me $50 and a couple of hours.

No real point in that last bit. Just that cheap casters work in the right applications. And not to take away anything from Bill. Like many I stand in awe at his knowledge and abilities, and wish I could afford his caster set. Meanwhile, I get by on the original casters and an occasional lubing.

fiatben wrote:While i would never consider cheap casters on my SS, I have bought quite a few mover's dollies from Harbor Freight when on sale for $6-8 specifically to get the casters. The dollies are rated for 1000#, so the casters must be 250# rated, right? Anyway, I have mounted them to the bottoms of some metal cabinets I got for free and put smaller stationary tools on them. They have worked great for what they are and for what I'm using them for. Of course, they don't lock, but that hasn't been a problem. My floor slopes slightly but not enough to have a tool go rolling away, even when running.

I'd love to buy the good quality stuff, but the fact is that I simply don't have the money. And i enjoy spending some of my time rebuilding old tools and bringing them back to life, or looking for a real bargain out there. Admittedly, I paid $400 for my '55 SS with a bandsaw (because I wanted one really bad at the time and they don't go cheap around here), but have paid less than $100 for the next two, including my 510. My jointer was drowning in rust, but only cost me $50 and a couple of hours.

No real point in that last bit. Just that cheap casters work in the right applications. And not to take away anything from Bill. Like many I stand in awe at his knowledge and abilities, and wish I could afford his caster set. Meanwhile, I get by on the original casters and an occasional lubing.

See I had the exact opposite experience with cheap casters. I made the same assumptions you did and ended with junk. The caster had no bearing surface for the axle and it flattened and got lumpy. In my opinion the casters were a waste of money.

I'm not doubting your story I'm only saying you can end up with junk this way. You were fortunate and I wasn't.

I got a few moving dollies from Harbor Freight brought them home. Tried them out by using them like a scooter around my garage, picked them up and took them back. Thinking they would do the same thing.

Again I'm not against saving money or finding a cheaper way to get what you need. I'm just saying this way didn't work for me.

I am glad that worked for you.

Harbor Freight has 2 sizes of wooden moving dollies. I have one of the larger ones and I used it to move a 1300 pound machine and it sat on it a couple of weeks. It worked great. I did lube it before I put it under that machine. I've moved a herd of lighter stuff (300 to 400 pounds) and not a single glitch (yet ).
I have bought a few skate-boards at yard sales and find them useful for moving stuff around the shop. I resist "ALL" urges to step up on one.
I have saved all manner of casters for years off of different things and am now using them under things like shelves, a lumber rack and other stuff. I try to match the load to the casters as best I can.
One time I bought a small herd of Shopsmith casters from the Shopsmith factory store. They looked like they had been installed, rolled about 20' and removed. I paid .50 cents each for them and bought enough to fill a shoe-box.
I should mention that I don't break a lot of stuff... My "stuff" usually lasts me a very long time.


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And speaking of stuff lasting... There has been some discussion here of Ryobi tools being considered throw-away. That has not been my experience there either. I bought a Ryobi 18 volt 1/2" drill in a case with batteries, a charger and an upright flashlight back near the turn of the century. I bought it to replace the 12 volt Dewalt drill I only had a year or so before the batteries gave out. Stupidly expensive batteries I might add. I wasn't about to spend that much for a couple of batteries that would not last any better than that.
I bought the Ryobi drill because the Replacement batteries were only about $20... I liked it so well that a short time later I bought a second one. I used to sit those two flashlights in the tool box of one tractor I had that I didn't use a lot at night and used them for headlights. Very bright. They both still work fine as do both drills.
I bought replacements for those original batteries and wrote the year on them. I just looked and the "new" batteries are dated 2005 and I am still using them. I do need to add a couple now to replace a couple of weakening originals that I was still using some. They are still only around $20 or so the last I looked... I don't shop Home Depot a lot. I may put that DeWalt drill on Ebay.
For Xmas our son bought me a Ryobi set in a soft case. One is the new 1/2" 18 volt drill and the other is the matching impact driver which was what I was wanting to buy. My son said the the 2 unit set was about the same price as the impact driver set alone and the drill was then about the same as free. These came with lithium-ion batteries.
One of the nice things is that they are all part of the
One+ system and my old chargers will charge the new lithium-ion batteries, the new charger will charge the old ni-cad batteries and any of them will interchange with each other in these tools as well as in the nice small 18 volt Ryobi power hand saw I use often.
I also have had a Ryobi router for a number of years now and have found it to be as good as any of the other routers I have. It has 3 bases. A plunge base, a fixed base and a "D" handled base.
Just my experience... YMMV.


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