Ultimate & The Best Way Of Attaching Casters To The Workbench Legs
Attaching caster wheels to the workbench legs is not an easy task to perform. However, you can do it yourself if you have the right tools & use the right technique. Follow the below given steps carefully in order to attach the caster wheels to the workbench legs:
Step 1: Insert The Screw Across The Grain
Pocket holes that are on the opposite sides of the leg are an extremely easy, and well-built way for attaching a plywood square to the base of your bench leg & then secure the caster bolts to that square. The bolts are cutting from one side to the other side of the grain of the leg. And, the bolts need to be facing inward, at an angle. This eradicates the side-to-side sheering, even if you hit a bulge every now and then.
Step 2: Use A Plywood Square
Rather than installing the caster instantanously to the end of the 4×4 post, you need to install a plywood piece to the post. After that you can install the caster to the plywood square.
Step 3: Cut Your Plywood Squares
A 4×4 post is generally 3.5 x 3.5 inches, which as a result means you need a 3.5” wide by nearly 14” long piece of plywood. It is a good idea to trim one nearly 24” long. For example, if in case you had a 17” long abondoned piece of plywood that was teared down to 3.5” wide. Then insert it on mitre saw and start trimming off 3.5” at a time. When you reached to the last one, you will probabily face a problem. The board will be extremely small that no safe place is available to take hold of it with the material clamp or even not with my hand. Even if somehow you could have taken hold of it, there is a danger of expeled from the saw. Therefore, you need to have longer boards and clamps in order to take hold of the short plywood piece in place during trimming.
Step 4: Plan Where Your Screws Hit
You need to make sure that the screws for the casters don’t strike the pocket hole screws for the legs. At the most you can just go close to the edge of the leg with the pocket holes. So, it is important to plan about the screws before you start drilling the pocket holes.
Step 5: Test Caster Placement
You need to drill the hole on the left side of the Kreg K3 in order to attach the plywood square. After that, move the K3 over and then drill the hole on the right. Now roll over the leg and drill 2 more pocket holes in the same places. You can use the orientation of the 2” caster on your bench. The caster installing holes are without any doubt to the inside of where the pocket holes will strike. Therefore, it’s safe to install it this way and the two bolts will never touch. The caster mount is usually rectangular, so, if in case you turn the mount 90 degrees, either way, it would most probably still be safe to install that way.
Step 6: Drill The Pocket Holes
With the help of the edge of mitre saw station material support shelf, clamp down the bench leg. For example, you can drill into the left hole, which is 9/16” from the edge of the leg. Set the K3 exactly the same as you would for drilling into a 2×4, which is usually 1-1/2”.
Step 7: Attach The Plywood
You can attach the plywood squares immediately after drilling the pocket holes, but it is better to wait until building the bench frame. You can use handy Kreg right angle clamp at the top, and the floor at the base, to take hold of the plywood square to the leg, which as a result will make it extremely easy to attach evenly.
Step 8: Mark For The Caster
Building a frame also means that it would stand up itself for attaching the caster. During the process of building a frame, you can flip it upside down anyway. Make sure that the screw holes should be inside the pocket holes. At this juncture, it is simply the outline of the caster mounting bracket as well as holes.
Step 9: Drill The Pilot Holes
The leg bolts that gets fixed to these casters is 1/4” x 1”. You can use 12/64” or 7/32” drill bits for the pilot hole. Make sure to mark a bit so that you don’t drill too deep.
Step 10: Mount The Caster
- Insert the screws in diagonally.
- Make sure that all are well started before securing any of them down fully.
- Securing the up, which means thumb tight, diagonally.
- Secure all down, which means wrench tight, diagonally.