Castors on workbench?

[pswallace]

Hi folks, I am thinking of putting 100mm castors on A workbench I am building (7' long) . . .Do castors affect the stability of the bench much? Thanks Phil.

 

[Cheshirechappie]

Shouldn't, as long as the bench is of solid enough construction.

Might be worth fitting the locking type of wheel, though, or it'll off across the shop the first time you try to plane anything!

 

[houtslager]

make sure the wheels are high quality ball bearing races and the rubber is a composite one - it grips the floor better DAMHIKT and goes over extension cables / air lines better then the solid rubber or plastic ones.

hth

K

 

[CHJ]

On the crude little bench I use I have a couple of fixed hard nylon castors on one end 10mm or so proud of the legs and retractable handles on the other end, allows it to be moved wheelbarrow fashion.

When in use a couple of wedges are kicked under the two legs on the castor end to suit the floor and lift the wheels off the ground and stabilize the bench.

 

[Benchwayze]

Put the castors on a full-width, hinged bracket at each end.
When you want to move the bench lift the end, kick the bracket under the legs;
When you have the bench where you want to use it, do the reverse; but mind your tootsies; or wear steel toe-caps!
I seem to recall there's a picture of this set up in Chris Schwartz's first workbench book.

HTH

 

[tomatwark]

Hi Phil

I used to have castors on a bench I have in here when I had a different lay out.

They where 125mm heavy duty castors and worked great.

The only thing I would do differently if I was doing it again is to put 4 locking ones on as I sometimes found that I could move the bench when I was doing more heavy work with just 2.

That bench was 8 foot by 3 foot.

Tom

 

[johnf]

On the crude little bench I use I have a couple of fixed hard nylon castors on one end 10mm or so proud of the legs and retractable handles on the other end, allows it to be moved wheelbarrow fashion.

When in use a couple of wedges are kicked under the two legs on the castor end to suit the floor and lift the wheels off the ground and stabilize the bench.

I do this as well it allows me to move a heavy bench single handed great for having a clean up or just reorganising space

 

[Tierney]

I used the 4" nylon wheels from machine mart on a stand for a large lathe and it's pretty stable.

 

[joez71]

I have 4 Locking castors on my main workbench and they work well, extra weight helps. My bench would weight about 400lbs. If you can source leveling castors they work even better.

http://www.woodcraft.com/product/202116 ... -pack.aspx

I have leveling castors on my router table and its easier to tip over than move when locked in place.

joez

 

[Benchwayze]

make sure the wheels are high quality ball bearing races and the rubber is a composite one - it grips the floor better DAMHIKT and goes over extension cables / air lines better then the solid rubber or plastic ones.

hth

K

Good tip.
But if the bench or machine is heavy, and you leave it standing for long periods, the weight can distort the rubberised castor tyres. (DAMHIKT!) That makes for difficult moving, so if you use softer castors you need a means of lifting the weight off them. I used to lift the ends of the bench and slide a suitably sized chunk of wood under each end, until I needed to move the bench. My planer is too heavy to do this, so I plan to use hard castors on that.
HTH