Upgrading casters on my Rigid shop vac

[Granite80]

I’ve finally had it with the tiny casters on my shop vac tripping over the cord so upgraded the rig to 3” wheels from HF.

It’s working well though the wheel base looks a bit narrow. I might push the casters out another inch or two.




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[HalfTonTom]

Looks like a very good solution. Well done!

 

[Granite80]

The big bolt is just holding the two pieces of unistrut together. The frame is secured to the vac with #10 bolts


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[Shootinok]

Good idea!
One of those “why didn’t I ever think of that?” Ideas.
I have an old shop vacuum and its only real weak point is the wimpy castors


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[Wamsutta]

That's brilliant! Where'd you get the steel cross bars?

 

[4xdog]

...It’s working well though the wheel base looks a bit narrow. I might push the casters out another inch or two...

Agreed that the wheelbase looks a bit narrow. But as everything is nicely contained within the vac's footprint, I'd give it a try for a while to see if there area any concerns around stability. If it's steady, the compactness is probably worth the tradeoff for the visual appearance.

Nice work.

 

[Granite80]

That's brilliant! Where'd you get the steel cross bars?

Just regular unistrut from homedepot. I cut the width of the one out with a bandsaw to nest the other inside


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[Parrothead]

That’s awesome! I’m going to add it to my list of things to do! The weight of the unistrut should help keep it stable too lowering the center of gravity. Personally I might go with less than 3” casters, but that’s personal preference.

 

[JRC3]

I love Ridgid vacs but the wheels ****. I got lucky and took some off the bottom of a baby bed I hauled off for a customer while remodeling her bathroom. They snapped right in and rotate completely. Pretty sure other double wheeled furniture castors would do well. Kinda like the black ones they put on stuff like printer or microwave stand but mine are all metal. Good for portability. In a shop those big ones would be awesome.

 

[larry_g]

Throw an old brake rotor in there or bolt it to the bottom and you'll have a stable machine.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[tarbellb]

Kickass upgrade, well done!

 

[bherren]

I have a 16 year old Ridgid shop vac that I love and curse every time I use it because of those blankety blank wheels. Brilliant idea, consider it copied...and Thank you for sharing it! Things like this that keep me coming back to GJ again and again....

 

[Plump]

Just regular unistrut from homedepot. I cut the width of the one out with a bandsaw to nest the other inside


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So it's nested in between the other unistrut, I get that. So do those two casters have an 1/8" height difference from not being flush with the vac? Did you put some washers to make up for that height on the other casters?

LOVE this idea.

 

[Granite80]

So it's nested in between the other unistrut, I get that. So do those two casters have an 1/8" height difference from not being flush with the vac? Did you put some washers to make up for that height on the other casters?



LOVE this idea.

I thought I was going to have to do that but it ends up not. I bent the unistrut so that all four ends are flush with the shop vac base where the #10 machine screws bolt in. Since that is just inches from the casters, they are all level


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[Kurt4440]

Nice upgrade.
I can't wait to see shop vacuum's with 6" casters, then 8", then...

 

[MushCreek]

What I want to know is how did the Ridgid engineers come up with a caster that will roll over the cord, but once it's under the vac, it won't come back out? I swear mine does that- the cord always winds up under the vac. I have some unistrut, and a set of casters. Brilliant idea!

 

[exmaxima1]

Nice upgrade.
I can't wait to see shop vacuum's with 6" casters, then 8", then...

And why stop at just 4 casters? Add more like Fein used to. I have the small Fein and it seems very stable to me.

 

[rsanter]

I like that, I hate the casters on my Cman shop vac

 

[FigureItOut]

Yes sir! I'm doing this tomorrow.

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