A car guy friend of mine has built himself a workbench about 8' long. 4 X 4 legs bolted together with steel brackets. I offered him a solid core door for a top but he bought a sheet of oak plywood. I think he thought OAK plywood would be very strong and tough. He wants wheels he can lever up and down because it's so heavy he can't move it. Anyone have such wheels and do you like them? Where did you get them? Brand?
(I read the reviews on the Rockler ones and they seem to crumble up after a while.)
Maybe he should build a frame under the plywood. I've built benches like that with 3/4" ply on top, several layers of MDF below, and still supported on a frame with 2x4s on edge. Maybe a torsion box - he can search Google for torsion box workbench for info.
The local Northern Tool carries some very good industrial casters but I don't know if they have them with jacks. I bought some from Woodcraft years ago for a smaller bench. Step on a lever to jack up or release. Seems like a very heavy bench would need a long foot lever. I have a mobile base for an industrial saw stop saw that uses a foot operated hydraulic jack - will lift 1000 lbs. If handy he could engineer something for his bench.
Yes, I have wheels on my workbench - a Noden Adjust-A-Bench. They can be raised and lowered using a socket wrench. The bench itself can also be raised and lowered although I have rarely done that.
I wouldn't have one without wheels. The bench is so heavy that lock down wheels aren't needed. My x4 posts are pressure treated, cause I wanted the weight. The top is melamine because it was flat, hard and true plus easy clean up. I'd include a pic, but I forgot I use to do it straight off one of my computer files. sorry
I added the Rockler version to my bench a couple of years ago and like them. While I only move my bench occasionally, they handle the weight with no problem and lever up and down easily. I think I caught them on sale for about $50. They were pretty easy to install as well. The bench is pretty heavy and is easy for one person to move around basement floor, fully loaded.
One of my local woodworking associations has a bench with wheels that we use monthly. The wheels are retractable (most easily with a ratcheting socket wrench) and were supplied with the bench height mechanism by Geoff Noden's Adjust-a-Bench. They work very well, but are a little slow to set up and take down.
My other local woodworking guild also has a bench with retractable wheels, but I would have to go look at it again to ascertain it's mechanism.
The bench in my shop has adjustable bolt actuated feet. I keep them adjusted to a height that I can get a floor jack under the end trestles. I lift one end at a time and roll a furniture dolly underneath, and let the jack down. I put the jack under the other end, and lift it. After I've moved it where I want it, I reverse the process to set it back on the floor.
I have had more than one set of tires on wheels crumble, including the wheels on my Industrial SawStop mobile base. I need to ask them for a new set of wheels. Before the wheel failure, that base made the SawStop my most easily mobile piece of equipment.
I have 3" locking casters under my router table. All 4 casters swivel and lock. Usually, though, one pair of caster lock levers is somewhere under the table, where I can't easily step on it, so if I need a stable platform for routing heavy stock, I need to lock one pair and push the table around until the other pair are exposed. That is not the most convenient arrangement, and I could not recommend it for a several hundred pound workbench, but it is acceptable for my router table.
My radial arm saw's base has wheels as well. but they do not swivel. That is not a problem, as I only need to roll the RAS back and forth along the wall. I don't need wheel locks on the casters either, as I have built a pair of chocks that I keep under the front casters. I just knock them out when I need to move it. I made them from two wedges of plywood, held in place with a small block of plywood on the front side, glued and screwed in place. They also have rubber pads on the bottom for additional friction. They should probably have handles for convenience, but I just knock them out and back in place with a dead blow mallet.
I'm in the process of building a short carving bench with a slate top, that will have a large Oliver patternmaker's vise and a mechanic's vise on it. I hope it will not be so heavy I can't lift one end at a time to operate the Adjust-a-Bench I am putting under it.
Too many choices? Sorry, but I hope you find one that works for your situation.
Well I built a 3 x 8 CNC table (wood..lots 2x4's and plywood gusets) for a heavy CNC machine and put wheels on it. I just went on Amz and looked for the cheapest (but 150lb and over rating) push down lever wheels I could find. I seldom move it, so the wheels are almost always disengaged...works for me.