Best casters for Router table??

[Jerry Olexa]

Setting up a router table and want to add casters on bottom (for portability but also want stability) . I've seen standard casters w/ locking etc (have some old ones now) and have also seen (somewhere) casters with a sideways extension that firmly locks the cabinet to the floor and prevents sideway movement. Also seen some forms of levelers...What's been your experience as what's type best for this usage and source?? Thanks in advance...

[Allen Bookout]

Jerry, Here is one of my post on another thread. There may be better options but works well for me. I guess that if your floor is really not very level that some sort of leveler would be in order.

"I have 4" double locking casters on my table and it is solid. No particular reason for the 4" ones except that I had four of them left over that I had ordered from Grizzly for a good price (the gray ones). The ones from Hartville Tool are good also. I have one unit on HD locking casters but they are no better than the Grizzly's or Hartville's and cost a lot more. The larger the caster the easier it is to roll around but a router table is not very heavy anyway so I do not suppose that it really matters.

You were planning on using only two locking and two fixed but I have four double locking casters on all of my moveable stuff. I like it that way because it is very easy to rotate the tables in a small space and is solid when they are locked. I even have my Delta floor model drill press bolted to a plywood base with four double locking casters and it is also very stable, believe it or not.

In this post is a little bit of information about the castors and a picture of some of my stuff on four double locking casters:"

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...hlight=casters

[Bob Noles]

Jerry,

Allen has given you some very good advice on the casters. After using many brands, I have found the Hartville one of the best to be had. I recently replaced all my old casters with Hartville for better performance.

[Thomas Canfield]

You should also look at the doublelocking casters at Highland Hardware in Atlanta. I think they are 3" but I used a set on a small stand (at least 250 pounds or more on the stand now) that holds my Jet oscillating spindle sander and storage under and it is very movable but locking makes it very stable.

[Jim O'Dell]

Jerry, if you've already built the table, and IIRC, you have, then this won't help. But I'm going to design mine with a big enough opening at the bottome to use one of the Rigid Herc-U-Lifts under it, and just have a door that opens to get to the step control. Rolls very smoothly, and then sets down on the cabinet for stability. If you need to use casters, do they make ones that lock the wheel and the pivot? If so, that might help. I'm at work right now, but seems like there was some discussion over on the Mini Max forum and a link to some really nice casters. I'll try to remember to look for it when I get home later. Jim.

[Larry Cooke]

What's been your experience as what's type best for this usage and source??

Jerry,

Here's a good source for information, I've not ordered from them yet so I can't speak for customer service.

http://www.castercity.com/

Larry

[Allen Bookout]

If you need to use casters, do they make ones that lock the wheel and the pivot?

Those are the double locking casters that we have been talking about. Sometimes they are called total locking casters.

[Mark Rios]

I have to roll my big tools around on the ground and in and out of my trailer. I took a note from my big Snap-On rollaway and use 5" casters. I have to adjust for the height but I can roll over most uneven surfaces including the transition from ramp to trailer floor, without thinking about it.

[David Croteau]

I'm just about to build some tool bases, so I was very interested in this topic. Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks to me like the casters at Hartville are being discontinued and I couldn't find any double-locking casters at Grizzly, only casters with a brake. Anybody have an item number?

[Larry Crim]

I used the heavy duty ones from woodcraft, not sure what brand they have the red wheels and I think rated at 500 lbs double lockers, I use 3 so the table will not rock. I originally used the standard black wheels but when they sat for a while they developed flat spots and didn't roll too easy. My table is very large and heavy.

[Bruce Benjamin]

Jerry, others have already suggested the Hartville Tool casters so add me to the list. Nearly all of my major tools are on casters and the majority of them are on the 3" casters sold by Grizzly. But I now really prefer to do my business with Hartville Tool so when I built my mobile base for my 8" jointer I found what they had to offer. Both are red urethane wheels with a double locking mechanism. The urethane wheels have held up beautifully on some very heavy equipment in my shop and sitting in one place leaves virtually no, "memory" flat spot in the wheels. What I like better about the Hartville Tool casters, (other than the fact that they aren't from Grizzly) is that they are much wider than the Grizzly casters with a 66Lb higher load rating, (154Lbs versus 220Lbs). Also, the foot lever that locks rolling and swivel is more beefy and larger so it's easier to get my foot on it. The locking mechanism is more effective too. And if that wasn't enough, using the 15% discount available using that code from the, "Other" big woodworking forum lowers the price to $1 cheaper per caster than the lesser quality casters from Grizzly. Easily the best caster of it's type that I've ever seen or used and the price is the best too. Before I bought the Hartville Tool casters I was very happy with the Grizzly casters. Now that I have the Hartville casters I wish I'd bought them for my other tools since they not only have better function but they are predictably going to last longer. Being from Hartville Tool and the cheaper price is just gravy.

Bruce

[Allen Bookout]

I'm just about to build some tool bases, so I was very interested in this topic. Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks to me like the casters at Hartville are being discontinued and I couldn't find any double-locking casters at Grizzly, only casters with a brake. Anybody have an item number?

Here is the starting page. Look toward the bottom. Actually Grizzly calls them "double brake".

http://www.grizzly.com/products/sear...x=0&submit.y=0

Here is the 3 inch one.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/h0686

Here is a 5 inch one.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/h0685

There are probably more. This is just a quick lookup.

Like Bruce said, I like the Hartville casters very much also.

Allen

[Stan Cope]

I'm just about to build some tool bases, so I was very interested in this topic. Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks to me like the casters at Hartville are being discontinued and I couldn't find any double-locking casters at Grizzly, only casters with a brake. Anybody have an item number?

Dave,

I cant speak for Hartville but at Grizzly they are called "Double action braking" and can be found here. I recently bought the 4" version of these from Amazon(sold by Grizzly under the Woodstock International name) for my Performax drum sander. They worked great to raise the table a few inches, roll effortlessly and were less than half the price of the ones Performax sells for their units.

[glenn bradley]

Here's another vote for double lockers (locks the roll and pivot functions with one lever). You pay a little more but, worth it. My work table with single locks still shimmys when all four are locked and its HEAVY. My fliptop workstation has one pair of double lockers and one pair of non locking and does fine. It holds a planer and miter saw.

Afterthought; if I chock one wheel on the work table I stop the shimmy.

[Bruce Benjamin]

I'm just about to build some tool bases, so I was very interested in this topic. Maybe I'm missing something, but it looks to me like the casters at Hartville are being discontinued and I couldn't find any double-locking casters at Grizzly, only casters with a brake. Anybody have an item number?

For the Hartville Tool casters look here http://www.hartvilletool.com/product/11883 and for the Grizzly casters look here http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2006/Summer/77 . Looking at the specs between the two show that the Hartville casters are better and having used both of them everyday in my shop I can say with certainty that the Hartville casters are definitely better.

A correction to my previous post regarding the price of the Grizzly casters; I went back to the Grizzly site and found that in their, "Summer Catalog", the page I linked above, they list the sale price for the 3" locking swivel casters as the same price as Hartville's casters with the 15% Woodnet discount. Regardless of price, the Hartville Tool casters are superior in every way in my experience.

Bruce