Lifting castors

[Steve Lomas]

Hi I have just joined so I hope I am not going over old ground on this one.
I am just about to fit out my workshop and am currently looking for advice on choosing "lifting castors" for my benches. They will need to be heavy duty on all four legs.
I would prefer to have a system that lifts and then can be set down to rest back on the legs when in position.
Anyone got or seen a good system?
Thanks in advance.

 

[stuartpaul]

I've got a set of these fitted to my bench:

https://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-w ... ors-507151

Have to say they make it incredibly easy to move the bench around what can sometimes be a restricted workshop to allow room to do 'stuff'.

There may be cheaper out there but I'm close to axy so easy enough for me to pick up.

 

[Ttrees]

Here's Bob Minchin (9fingers) lifting caster design, the only changes I made was to make more area on the underside of the pedal
so it would be 90 degrees when engaged, it is easier to disengage compared to a pedal with little surface area on the underside.

I didn't have the same gauge 40mm box on the first base I built, and it cut my boot.
I welded a little strip to make the end of the pedal thicker so this didn't happen again, I also think the first copy of Bob's I made contributed
to the boot damage trying to disengage it.

Another way is something like in Carl Holmgren's videos.
I made one for a 210kg tablesaw and it has no bother lifting it with a single foot lever, about as easy as a bicycle foot pump.
It could be improved by adding a spring instead of needing a big steel counterweight plate.
Keep the axles as close to the ends of the bench as you can, or it makes it more awkward to change direction whilst stalled.
I will probably do something like this for my bench when the time comes, might take a slightly different design.

Great fun designing bases.
Good luck
Tom

 

[MilesH]

This was what I came up with mobile-workbenches-t116799.html