Caster wheels, anyone made them before?

[Com_VC]

I seem to have plenty of uses for casters wheels lately, they are just so useful and it makes moving things around a breeze, especially heavy machinery.

Now buying a couple of sets is fine but when you need larger quantity's the $$$ quickly add up.

Then I thought about maybe making some, has anyone done this before? How hard can it be?

 

[gorilla]

I've made replacement wheels for casters a couple of times when new ones were unavailable but never the whole thing. a fixed caster might not be so bad but a swivel would be tough. Unless you got materials for free you wouldn't save any money. I have seen used ball bearings on a piece of shafting attached to a scrap box used as rollers.It worked well but it was a skid steer.

 

[Hammer1963]

I'll have to agree with gorilla. Unless the materials are free or dirt cheap, I can't see it saving any money.

 

[Com_VC]

I have a whole heap of scrap around and some bearings.

I was thinking of using round pipe for the wheels and welding ends on them.

The only thing I cant work out is how to do the swivel, they usually use a trust bearing I think.

How do you work out what weight bearings can take? I have a heap of 20mm wide bearings that can take a 6mm shaft/bolt.

One of the first projects i'd use them for is to make a set of wheel dollys.

 

[bad_idea]

i could see making the fixed caster wheels if you have the scrap laying around. then buy the swivel wheels, not worth the savings imho to do all of that work.

 

[Steevo]

Around me there are several places to get casters in quantity as way below retail prices.
There is one army surplus place that has them in barrels by size.

 

[Larwyn]

Well, not exactly a cater but when Bruno "the wonder dog" ate one of the wheels off my Weber Kettle I came up with this "pup proof" version.

 

[W-Cummins]

I have made a few wheels for fixed casters, and my engine crane's front wheels. I made them out of 8" well casing for the "treads" and 3/8" plate disks for the wheels with 2" round stock welded to the sides of the disks for "hubs". On the engine crane I used roller bearings and the 4 other wheels I used oil-lite bushings. The hubs were drilled for grease fittings. Lots of work for the outcome but in the larger size wheels it's probably worth if if you need steel wheel casters as non china made ones are $$$.

William....

William...