I have a little 20 ton H-frame shop press. It would press just fine hanging from a loop, i.e. it doesn't rely on the ground any. However, it wasn't made with feet, and I'm not OK with something that can fall over. So I'm designing feet. I want to be able to move it, so I'm going to dig into my caster stock and put it on casters. What I want to know is, is there any reason it can't stay on casters full time, or should I fuss with some sort of retractable caster arrangement?
GWE
On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 20:30:29 -0700, the opaque Grant Erwin spake:
Unless you have long feetsies on it, when you're really cranking down on the handle to press a 19.999 ton tight-fit combo together, it'll tend to roll/slip out on you. I'd go retractable if it were mine.
- This product cruelly tested on defenseless furry animals - --------------------------------------------------------
Ah, the voice of experience. Just whom I wanted to connect with. Thanks, and will do!
Grant
Would a combination of casters and screw-down feet work? I put two screw-down feet on the front of my table-saw's mobile base to keep it from moving when I am pushing stock through the blade. The saw isn't perfectly level when the feet are lowered, but it's not an issue for me.
Lots of things would work. However, this time I'm thinking of mounting square tubing exactly beneath the feet. The casters would be mounted to the tubing. The tubing would be hinged so I can lift up a side and flip the wheels up and set the press down on its foot, then do the other end. Two casters fixed, two swivel. I've got 4 heavy stainless hinges left over from a shop remodel that I want to stop finding a place to store, and I've got all the metal in my scrap rack, plus 4 5" casters. As I've often said, the older I get the larger is the diameter of the casters I use! :-)
I'll post pix when I'm done, probably.
Grant
Instead of casters on quite a few if my machines I have mounted wheels on one end and when I need to move them I either tip the machine onto the wheels or I have made a dolly that I slip under the unwheeled end. Works for me. Steve
My 15 ton sits on 4 swivel casters with toe-brakes. The feet are 3' long and the casters are at the ends which puts them at the corners of a 3 ft. square. Very stable and easy to move.
Randy
Yes, but space-inefficient. Mine is also 3' wide but I'm only going to use 20" feet. If it falls over I may regret it. :-)
GWE
My table saw is set up like that. I found that the hinged caster plate should hook to the base so it doesn't flip out when a wheel hits something. You could put fixed feet under it as well so you don't have to tip it very far to toe-flip the casters in or out.
There is one fixed and one swivel caster on each plate, with the fixed caster aligned toward the swivel one so it prevents the saw from rolling sideways when I lift the other side.
Jim Wilkins
I finished the feet. I used 4 beefy old steel hinges (might be stainless) left over from a remodel, and a bunch of scrounged or scrap steel to make the feet, along with 4 5" casters, two of which are swivel. I used angle iron for the feet themselves (2x2x¼") and these are hinged to 2" square tubing. Caster mount plates are attached to the bottom of the tubing. Lot of fiddly cutting, drilling, tapping and welding. The casters swing out of the way when I want the press to sit solidly, or I pick up one end at a time and set it down on the casters. Once up, the caster assembly does have to be clamped when moving, or the whole shebang comes down. I found this out the hard way, but no harm done.
The 5" casters have very little rolling resistance. They are in fact a bit too big for this application, but they were free, and taking up space.
I can post pictures if anyone wants.
BTW the hinge screws were 12-24, one of the few sizes I didn't have a tap for! So my budget for this project (adding feet) actually was about $10 to buy a set of 3 taps.
It's sure nice to be able to move this thing around.
Grant
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