Cheap swivel casters/wheels?

I feel you pain. I was in the local HF last night and they had not one cast-iron-wheeled caster, all were plastic of some sort or another.

I need about 5 sets of 3" steel or iron wheel casters.

Check here.

Bruce

I got mine from the hardware store. HF around here has had the steel wheeled ones on the shelf, they looked OK, haven't actually used any, though.

Stan

How about getting one of these:

These are pretty good quality and are rated for 250lbs each.

Excellent, thank you. *Real* casters, at HF prices, mebbe even better.

Good casters cost real money for a reason...because good casters take effort and material to make.

Compare a good caster to a cheap caster...the difference in quality is easily detected.

What are you putting these casters on? =================================================

Tool cart-type ditty, only 50-75# per wheel, max 2" wheel. Nothing super duty, but the things should roll and swivel, ferchrissakes.... :)

Bigger than what I need -- I'm in the 1.5" ballpark, 75# per wheel.

But, it is a good idea, and indeed, for what you would pay at HD for effing casters, you would come out ahead this way. I had this same idea some time ago, when I thought I might need these sized wheels. Sometimes Nat. Wholesale Liq has these dollies at this $15 price.

Then, with the leftover wood, you can make a small picket fence or sumpn.... :)

Incredible, how that works, eh? Right in line with: cheaper to buy new than to fix..... which in my mind is a major zeitgeist-ical factor in this whole environmental/overpopulation affair.

If we took the responsibility to fix shit as an *obligation*, instead of the mad mad mad dash to frantically produce new shit, we'd likely find this to be an "automatic limiter" in terms of wanton expansion, crazed Ponzi/cancer-like economic "growth".

Our species has been oft-referred to as a cancer.

What are you moving? Old shopping cart wheels are decent, and free.

Steve

I actually looked at those and some others in the store with an eye toward just the value of the casters. best deal I found was a while back at a Homier tent sale. They had a steel engine dolly for $19.95 which had 4 good iron-wheel casters on a nice welded frame. Casters bolted on. Haven't seen a Homier sale since.

Proly someone bought them all, and is selling the casters for $19.95 ea -- on eBay. Yeah, buy it now.....

Okay...light duty stuff.

Are you sure that you don't want to go with a larger weight capacity?

My tool carts frequently carry more weight than that...yours frequently will too.

On my carts I use a minimum of 200 lb per wheel and the larger the wheel the better. I used to use 3" hard rubber casters for shop use...big expensive mistake that almost cost me big when a cheap caster failed and the load shifted. If I had not been able to catch and support the hundreds of pounds load, it would have fallen on me.

Again thinking of your safety here.

As has been noted, Surpluscenter is a good place for casters but consider shipping costs before buying.

In my experience, the local stores that service the ag/ranching industry will have the best prices...farmers and ranchers expect equipment to perform in challenging conditions.

On the welding boards, they highly recommend a store named Tractor Supply Compay (TSC) for casters along with welders...you might want to look them up or a similar store near you to avoid the shipping charges.

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Tractor supply is mentioned now and then even on rcm, another good idea. Proly not plentiful in the metroNY area, but I'll check it out.