Load Leveling Casters

[Mike Goetzke]

I bought some load leveling casters for my lathe. They are the Zambus type with a threaded stud in the middle. I see some drill a through hole in the foot for the stud to go through and double nut it on top of the foot and then others spend the time to drill/tap a hole in the foot ( like post #6 in this thread http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?148867-Mobile-Base-for-PM3520 ).

I've put studded casters on lighter weight tools in the past and just drilled clearance holes. Is there and advantage to tapping the hole?



Thanks,

Mike

[Jenny Trice]

Be careful, any movement, whether in a threaded hole in the casting or with a through hole and jamb nuts, the bolts could be subject to fatigue failure. I had threaded stud casters in threaded holes in the casting of my Jet 16-42. There were jamb nuts on the top side that were not tightened when I bought the lathe used. I never thought to check them. One day, the caster stud failed and the whole lathe went over. Bad scene. Good news that the lathe was not running at the time, it did not land on me, actually it landed on a cabinet drawer that came out as it was falling and cushioned the fall, and it did not break the bed casting. Damage was more scary than anything else. I ended up boring out the holes in the casting to put the next bigger threaded stud size into it. I tapped the new holes so it is still threaded onto the casting and tightened the jamb nuts tight. Long story short, don't take them for granted.

[Mike Goetzke]

Be careful, any movement, whether in a threaded hole in the casting or with a through hole and jamb nuts, the bolts could be subject to fatigue failure. I had threaded stud casters in threaded holes in the casting of my Jet 16-42. There were jamb nuts on the top side that were not tightened when I bought the lathe used. I never thought to check them. One day, the caster stud failed and the whole lathe went over. Bad scene. Good news that the lathe was not running at the time, it did not land on me, actually it landed on a cabinet drawer that came out as it was falling and cushioned the fall, and it did not break the bed casting. Damage was more scary than anything else. I ended up boring out the holes in the casting to put the next bigger threaded stud size into it. I tapped the new holes so it is still threaded onto the casting and tightened the jamb nuts tight. Long story short, don't take them for granted.

Wow! Good thing I asked. I did go and buy some hardened threaded rod form suggestions I found on the web. One person that threaded the foot said next time he would put a through hole because the threaded hole wasn't perfectly perpendicular to the foot and caused some bending at the first thread when tightened. This is why I asked if it should be threaded.

My thoughts were to not thread the lathe foot (drill a clearance hole), loctite the stud in the caster, and double nut the stud on top of the foot. (but, once I have a through hole there is no turning back:D)


Mike

[Mike Cruz]

Mike, I'd avoid any kind of "feet"... Once I removed mine, that made a world of difference.