wheel capacity for a mobile station

[Dave Aronson]

I want to add wheels to a miter stand that I'm building. There are 8 contact points on the bench. It is going to the 8' wide. would 110lb capacity wheels be sufficient?

[John McClanahan]

Even on a smooth flat floor, some casters will tend to be supporting more weight than others. I would use something closer to 200 LB capacity. My concrete shop floor isn't all that flat, and I would never get a stand like yours to rest on all casters at the same time.

John

[Philip Berman]

'8 contact points' - does that mean you're going to use 8 wheels? Are you building this such that the wheels will be supporting the whole weight during use, or will the wheels only be used for transport? Even if you used 2 full sheets of ply to build the stand at about 100lbs/ea, plus 35lbs for the saw, (4) 110-lb capacity wheels would still give you 200lbs extra capacity. If the price differential is not objectionable you can certainly go with the more robust casters, but I don't think it's necessary, unless there are other variables you didn't mention.

[Dave Aronson]

hmm, well if I do it for only mobility how do I design it in a way that the caster get lifted up out of the way? The contact points will be a 2x4 end grain.

[Dan Hintz]

Doesn't that assume even weight distribution? First plop of ply on a corner or someone decide to bear their weight down on ia side and you're well over 100 pounds on a single caster.

[Philip Berman]

Seems to me that if the caster is stationery and a load exceeding the 110lb rating is placed on it, it'll still be ok, within limits. Actually using the wheel is when you're gonna have a problem with the load limit. I think with reasonable care the lighter-duty casters would be ok. It's only a mitersaw station afterall. Maybe I'm wrong, but I've got all kinds of stuff on casters in my shop, and have, on occasion, somewhat abused certain items without ill effect.

[Bob Riefer]

+1 to Philip's comment. I just have a gaggle of 4" casters from harbor freight, never even looked at the weight rating to be honest, that I keep around for the next time I need to put wheels on something, and I have yet to ever overload one (and believe me, I've given them some serious abuse).

[Scott Kuykendall]

I made a mobile base for my Table Saw and Band saw from plans in Wood magazine that use a lift to raise a board that has the casters mounted on. It works great for my use but with not seeing your set up I don't know if it would work for you. Its in Wood issue #100 page 66 if you have it or they have a picture here,
http://www.woodstore.net/roltoolbas.html
Scott

[Rich Engelhardt]

I want to add wheels to a miter stand that I'm building. There are 8 contact points on the bench. It is going to the 8' wide. would 110lb capacity wheels be sufficient?

There's little reason to use something as light as 110's.
200's only run a few cents more - if that.
Check out Great Lakes casters.
(I just reordered 16, eight 5" and eight 3" - 350's from them.)

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