Best dollies for moving furniture around the shop?

[Jonathan Jung]

What are the best wheeled devices for moving awkward pieces around?

I often have half dozen furniture pieces in the shop, from thrones to desks to large built in units. 3m felt pads get placed on the bottom of feet, but I am hesitant to drag an $8,000 desk across the concrete floor on 4 little felt pads. For large pieces I use 4-wheeled furniture dolly platforms. But for tables or desks it would be great to have a device that's wheeled and also held captive somehow. I've thought about making little platforms, 6"x6" or so, on casters, then placing the furniture leg on that, and screwing scrap pieces around the leg into the dolly, so the furniture won't slip off.

There are ones like these:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...9299/203661047
But they have 3 problems: they are cheap, they probably won't roll well with such small wheels, and they are Home Depot.

Any suggestions?

IMG_2030.jpg

[Richard Coers]

I prefer old factory carts. You can stack 1,000 pounds of lumber on them, or with a couple 2x4s screwed down to the top, handle any kind of furniture. If you need short height, get a stack of 4 wheel swivel carts from Harbor Freight. Usually around $10 each.

[Kevin Jenness]

It appears you already have the solution in hand, platforms on furniture dollies. Tie them together with a deck and add blocks to keep the legs in place.

[George Yetka]

We have a few dollies that are steel with a piece of plywood on top. I would think a similar but smaller version would be Ideal . You can screw 1x3's or strips of ply interconnecting them and shoot 3/4" strips around each foot. Then when the dolly is looking tired just replace the top.

I would run to HF and puck up 4 of their small dollies and remove the carpet and level the top. they roll pretty well in my garage Ive only had a 300 lbs or so on 1 though

[Edward Weber]

https://clayton-supply.com/moving-storage-supplies/

[Charles Taylor]

I don't have this problem because I keep my shop too full of stuff to move pieces around easily.

If you have the room for one, though, I agree with Richard Coers on old factory carts. Easy to maneuver with heavy loads on them. Not necessarily as easy to immobilize, though.

Factory Cart, 800.jpg

[Tom M King]

I keep some of the Harbor Freight moving dollies, with the centers filled in with plywood. That type isn't the best for moving furniture with legs. I was just looking at these a couple of days ago, but didn't spend time looking at the different ones. I'm going to get some, but need to decide which ones. It seems like they would be a lot better for legs. Putting four legs on four regular moving dollies works okay with two people, but it's easy for a leg to come off with just one person.

https://www.amazon.com/QWORK-Tri-Dol...NsaWNrPXRydWU=

[Steve Jenkins]

I have 4 of the above from Home Depot. They work pretty well for tables with legs on a smooth floor.

[Brian Holcombe]

I recently added a Barth cart to the shop for this purpose.

[Rick Potter]

I have four of the small 12" square furniture dollies from HF. They use the same wheels as the full size ones, and I put plywood in the center to make them flat. Works pretty good, and you could make edges around them easily.

I once moved a large steel outdoor swing with a canopy with them.

[Wayne Cannon]

.There are ones like these:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt...9299/203661047
But they have 3 problems: they are cheap, they probably won't roll well with such small wheels, and they are Home Depot.

IMG_2030.jpg

Actually, for legged items, those work very well. I've been using them (mine from Ace hdwe) for years with no ill effects. The wheels are small, and won't roll over an extension cord, but they handle cracks in my concrete floor with ease. My company uses them for moving heavy steel desks and very heavy steel workbenches. Their depressed centers keep them in place.

For other things, I fabricate simple rectangular dollies from overlapped 1"x4"s and large 4" to 6" poly wheels -- usually with a sheet top having stop blocks to prevent it from sliding around on the dolly underneath.

WARNING: The four-wheel dollies from HF have a hard disk inside the rubber wheels that left ruts in oak flooring in the house when moving a small sofa.. Keep them in the shop or outdoors.

[Keith Outten]

I prefer to use a pallet jack. There are very few instances that my pallet jack cannot move anything in my shop with ease and without me having to lift anything. A plywood deck with a 4 by 4 on each end secured with a couple screws allows me to move projects in seconds. Maneuvering multiple projects around the shop is easy, even machines that sometimes have to be moved to make room for fabrication or finishing. I can even place a small workbench/worktable on my pallet jack when the need arises such as when I build a custom jig or fixture that has to be mobile.

[Mark Bolton]

My only advice is be very cautious of home center/harbor freight furniture dollies. The prices make it hard to avoid but the casters are typically junk especially over time. Light sheet metal bails/swivels, terrible swivel bearings, and usually just simple shaft/axle through a plastic wheel. With any weight on them they are terrible to roll especially if your not on a super smooth surface. Nothings more annoying that a nuisance caster when your trying to roll something around. They have a mind of their own and want to go in whatever direction you dont want them to go, lock up and slide out from under, or you push the part off the dolly.

The Lineberry carts are super nice if you have the space and the cash but they are usually massive and people are still hoarding them up for decor items. I saw an auction recently at a huge facility that had hundreds and hundreds of them and they were selling them in 50 and 100 piece lots and they were still going for like 250-300 a pop in those quantities ($30k for a 100 piece lot) and people were bidding them up. The only other drawback to them is if theyre steel wheels thats not so great on concrete.

Ive made a few Lineberry style carts for the shop with 6" ball bearing fixed casters in the center and 5" swivels on the ends, urethane wheels, and they roll really nice even heavily loaded and they are about the cheapest option Ive come up with for something with high quality wheels that roll nice. Have re-castered some of the crappy home center/harbor freight furniture dollies with better urethane rollerblade wheel type casters and they are much better. But the hard plastic cheap casters they come with are junk.

Pallet jack or a mini pallet jack like Keith mentions is super handy too.

[Edward Weber]

My only advice is be very cautious of home center/harbor freight furniture dollies. The prices make it hard to avoid but the casters are typically junk especially over time. Light sheet metal bails/swivels, terrible swivel bearings, and usually just simple shaft/axle through a plastic wheel. With any weight on them they are terrible to roll especially if your not on a super smooth surface.

This is exactly why I posted the link I did. This is where the professional movers buy theirs.

[Tom Bender]

Peel and stick flooring made a huge improvement in my shop.

Hey! that's my cat, send him back!