New Wheels for Power Stands or Pro Planer

[JPG]

Hmmmmmm! Half a dozen replaced.

I doubt new casters will help. I think you need to look for cause.

[jsburger]

Hmmmmmm! Half a dozen replaced.

I doubt new casters will help. I think you need to look for cause.

By the direction of the bend it looks like rolling the machine and hitting something on the floor with the wheel causing it to stop dead. Probably numerous times over the years.

[JPG]

Since I have a "10" with casters that are as described above, there is no doubt in my mind that that design HAS been around for 70+ years. No I have not had it in my position all that time, but it is unlikely that they were replaced in that time period. Yes they have stamped steel 2 piece wheels.

[everettdavis]

Modern Casters have Main Load Bearings - that is a row of steel balls or rollers that swivels the fork base in relation to the mounting plate of a swivel caster, and counteracts direct thrust.

Shopsmith did not have Main Load Bearings until the more recent 3" Caster Upgrade.

Manufacturers seem to vary a bit on stems, for example Colson 1 SERIES GRIP RING STEM has a 7/16″ diameter by 1-29/32″ long, with grip ring while their L Series LGR Casters, Grip Ring, Capacity to 150 lbs. has a 7/16" dia. stem x 1 3/8" long.

I have not found one manufacturer or vendor who states it is ok for the Grip Ring Stem to bottom out in the mount hole and protrude from the mounting hole. I have found numerous statements to prevent that from happening.

In 1876, David A. Fisher invented casters for furniture, so Casters actually pre-dated the 1947 Shopsmith by some 71 years.

In 1900, (photo attached) Standard Bearing and Caster and Wheel Company of New York in publication "The Iron Age", dated August 16, 1900 listed their Standard Ball Bearing Caster, again 47 years before the first Shopsmith was made. It already had main load bearings (ball bearings on their king pin style caster).

Shopsmith did not introduce a ball bearing load plate caster in their equipment until the more recent 3" Caster Upgrade.

In the 10E/10ER Caster photo, you can see the caster goes all the way in. In 1947 it did not protrude.

Two of my original Greenies with Steel Wheel casters (now upgraded) did not protrude.

The photo of the more modern standard casters do protrude meaning they bottom out.

The photo of the more recent 3" Caster does not protrude.

Am I saying that Shopsmith had it wrong for 70 years? No, not all of the years.

I am saying that one or more of the ‘Companies Shopsmith” had it wrong for a portion of those years, and the evidence is in the bent caster graveyards of Shopsmith owners around the world.

Since the caster industry predates Shopsmith by an additional 71 years, and they have made hundreds of millions of casters for thousands of companies and applications in the last 100 plus years, I tend to lean toward their application instructions.

You can see a typical set in BR549’s post at the bottom right which he discussed in 2016
https://www.shopsmith.com/ss_forum/view ... 45#p221945

You may disagree with me, but I think they got it wrong at some point. I think Shopsmith should have used a shorter stem, and maybe a machined adapter to fully spread the weight evenly on the yoke, which I feel was weak and would still bend on repeated swiveling when loaded on a rougher shop floor.

Everett

1900 Bearing Catalog to Current.png (1.1 MiB) Viewed 5293 times

[JPG]

It has taken a while, but, I have to now agree that the stems bottoming out in the bore and leaving the stem not fully into the piston is 'not good'. The Mark VII pistons are a testament to that error. The piston walls are thin and the material brittle so they are prone to cracking. I have a set of 4 so damaged.

I have arrived at the position that placing a washer to act as a load bearer between the end of the piston and the caster frame is a good thing especially on the older casters.

Time will tell if that is a good thing. Care must be taken to assure the legs will still set firmly on the floor when the casters are raised.

However I am concerned re the pix of bent frames which were likely the result of the caster not rotating and the side force causing the deformation. The washer needs to be well lubricated(both sides).

[jle]

Dusty,

This may not be of much help, and it may be too late anyway, but before Bill Mayo passed away, he used to sell a castor upgrade for the Pro Planer. I purchased and installed one on my Pro Planer and it works perfectly. I am attaching the instructions provided by Bill so that you can see if it gives you any usable information.

[dusty]

Thank you. I will keep that in my files. I do not need it right now because my objective is to continue using 2" wheels if I can.

The 3: caster certainly solves the problem for the Mark V. An excellent solution there; a bit of over kill on the much lighter weight SPT (ProPlaner excepted).

[everettdavis]

One last thought on OEM casters. If you search for casters, you will have a hard time finding a caster rated for a machine application that does not have the Load Bearing Ball Bearing Swivel.

Indeed one has to search for grip ring bedframe casters to find one with the original OEM construction of the Shopsmith replacement caster.

Equally, their advertisements I find a bit lacking and you will see what I mean in the screen shots below. I added the inset of the 4 used casters to illustrate wear. That is not on their web page.

Everett

Bedframe Casters.jpg (23.46 KiB) Viewed 5240 times

Failures are practically unheard-of.png (571.38 KiB) Viewed 5240 times

[dusty]

Failures may be practically unheard of but I can show them a half dozen or so if interested. More will likely be available when I unpack the PODs.

[dusty]

As stated previously, my attempt at resolving this for a long, long time to come is in the mail.

Here is a sketchup drawing of what I am waiting for:

C0020273ZN-POL01(KK).png (163.01 KiB) Viewed 5230 times