Castor wheel failure

[Terrytpot]

In my case I went a bit silly making a sawbench which wound up a touch on the heavy side and destroyed just about every castor I threw at it even though it uses a set of 6. The issues were either the tyres not tracking correctly due to uneven ground and then digging in and either abrading most of it away or , in several instances, just snapping the centre out of the wheel. Lots of the “cheap” castors seem to rely on not having a bearing as such but merely a central screw (axle) that runs through a short length of thin wall thickness tube which is a snug fit in the plastic disc that forms the centre of the wheel, all hidden behind large dished washers making you think there must be something substantial lurking within. I knew I needed better quality it just took some time to find it but the ones I finally found are the dogs dangly bits and three years later are still in mint condition. Found them at bearingboys.co.uk oh,and the attached screenshot shows their current price...

 

[Terrytpot]

This is the third set of castor wheels that has failed me now. It's always in the same way, .. the ball bearings start falling out. Admittedly, as it's a typical garage concrete floor that isn't really flat

I tend to buy the ones like this :

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-DSL-He...243023?hash=item215e8d5b4f:g:fJAAAOSwqbZdH1mp

Avoid those entirely...the wheels centre is a plastic disc so any pressure on it when the tyre isn’t pointing in the direction of travel and it’ll just pop the middle of the wheel clean out!

 

[sometimewoodworker]

Not really false thinking. Simply that not everyone can afford to spend that.

And yes, buying the same thing again is false economy - hence the point of this thread. To find an alternative that is still within my budget.

You have been given several alternatives, it’s been pointed out that Coldene produces many different wheels at a verity of prices, most a lot less than the £30 you mentioned.
If they are all over your budget there is little anyone can suggest to help, other than your budget will not allow you to buy wheels that aren’t going to breakdown.

So abandon the idea or change your budget.

 

[clogs]

all well n good ......
if u got a rough'ish concrete floor....
how about on a nice day get ur tools out and pour latex leveling compound on the floor......
it works a treat, no special skills nec and a great result.....get a mate to help......all good fun....
all u need is a decent bucket and a plaster mixer stick thingy on a drill.....
most will level floors up to 6mm...high to low spots...
but there other's for really rough floors.....
if your floor is really bad......
OR, fill in the low spots with the latex mix and the next day float the whole floor......
u basically mix it and pour it out of the bucket, push it about a bit to get rid of the air bubbles but it does the job by itself.....
no faff....
Plus it's easy to sweep......I hate rough floors....
u'll wonder why u didnt do it before....honest.....

 

[Chris70]

£30 PER wheel? ... yeah .. but no.

I'm sure they're fantastic, but as I mentioned, previously, the saw itself was only £200.

£15/wheel

 

[BillStan01]

I used these (AXMINSTER NYLON CASTORING WHEEL 75MM (90KG LOAD)) ony £6 each, Axminster Nylon Castors & Wheels
They have a whole range.

 

[beech1948]

Billstano1 has indicated the right approach.
PU wheels are mostly unsuitable for garages as the PU is too soft and will take a set.
Rubber wheels are unsuitable as again they take a set and being soft will deform or rip
Nylon wheels are in the main hard and do not take a set or deform and will usually withstand high weights.

So buy Nylon wheels, look for better engineering and ignore plastic wheel centres as they are too weak.

Al
PS Mine are all nylon, lockable, swivel and in over 15 yrs I have had no failures.

 

[ivan]

For heavier duty we've used Tente castors (google the name). You can see what you are getting. Don't forget that on a rough surface the total weight (say 100Kg) may end up on 2 castors (ie. 50Kg each) and because of the uneven "drive" instantaneous loads will be be considerably more than this. For a safety factor of 3 you need a set of 150Kg-a-wheel castors to carry 100 Kg over a bad floor. Bigger wheels will help if you can fit them in.

 

[TheUnicorn]

seems like a good budget solution, also saw a suggestion somewhere (you tube i expect) that it would be cheaper to salvage castors from a furniture dolly, i picked up a lidl one for £10 a while ago, had a heavy bit of furniture on it for several months and seems to work fine, saw the same one in clearance at lidl for £7 and wish I'd bought it for the castors

 

[transatlantic]

It's interesting that lots of replies suggest that it is the wheel material or the wheel center that is going to fail. But as I said in the first post, the failure point for me was the top section, where the ball bearings had fallen out.

 

[sometimewoodworker]

It's interesting that lots of replies suggest that it is the wheel material or the wheel center that is going to fail. But as I said in the first post, the failure point for me was the top section, where the ball bearings had fallen out.

View attachment 94128

This is the first time that you have told anyone that it’s the top bearing that is failing. It is NOT in your original post.

It’s is because you bought cheaply manufactured wheels. Buy decent quality from a known maker, not eBay no name rubbish rejects, or buy second hand.
Pay for cheap rejects and expect to have to replace them often.

This manufacturing setup will never have its balls drop out, yours have a plastic retaining ring that looks to be designed to fail.

 

[transatlantic]

If you're refering to the plastic clip in that last image, that was just to show the bearings, the ones I bought are like the ones in the ebay link in the first post. It's all metal construction.

I wish you'd stop going on about paying for cheap products. YES I KNOW THAT! .. hence the point of the bloody post!!

 

[sometimewoodworker]

I wish you'd stop going on about paying for cheap products. YES I KNOW THAT! .. hence the point of the bloody post!!

So stop doing that and there is your answer.

What more do you want? How many more suggestions that you do not seem interested in following up will make you happy?

Also actually asking about the problem area in your first post not waiting until post #30 when you mistakenly claim it was in #1 will get answers that actually address your problem rather than wasting everyones time.

People here are willing to assist and try to help but explaining the problem & asking the right question gets you correct help.

 

[Terrytpot]

just came across someone else who over engineered something and ended up needing a heavy duty set of wheels and found an interesting solution...here's a set like he used