[Shop-talk] Upgrade for retractable casters

[Lee Daniels]

If any of you have the commonly-available (Amazon etc.) retractable casters on
your bench or table, my experience may be helpful:

A few years ago I fitted my small workbench with retractable casters, and I
love having them (photo attached). Most of the time the bench just sits on the
floor on its own legs, but when it's time to clean the shop or install stuff
behind the bench, I just flip down the casters and she rolls away. But there's
a problem.

There are two brands that I've seen (both available on Amazon), and they're
almost the same design, and they both use the exact same wheels. And the
wheels are the problem. They're some kind of plastic, looks pretty tough, but
after 3 or 4 years in my shop (and only used a couple of times a year to
actually move the bench), the plastic turned to a crumbly mess and fell apart.
Here are the two on Amazon: http://a.co/gLlTBus and http://a.co/5PhCu1J

They're a metric size (62mm), or approx. 2-1/2" diameter. I.e. a size not
found at your local hardware store. I wanted high-quality wheels, and it took
a bit of searching, but I found a really nice caster wheel at MSC that was an
almost-perfect fit and much higher quality. They are part no. 66043571 at
mscdirect.com, or see it directly here: http://bit.ly/2mes4kz (photo
attached). Took about 5 minutes to replace all four wheels.

I'm wondering whether anyone else has found these useful, and whether you've
had this same problem?

Happy New Year, keep wrenching!
 Lee
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