Shopsmith Forums

after finding out the old MKV caster wheels had gone flat I decided to order a new set , got to say rolling the ss around now is a breeze ,I bought the original set this time around ,the old ones were from the 80's , if this set last as long as the original set then the next set will be on some one else . SS got them to me very fast even being hit with the tornado''s the weekend I ordered them . Thanks for the fast service and a great product .

Depending on the surface of the floor you have to roll them on, they can either break down fast or last forever. My Shopsmith is a 1983 model and the wheels still work like new. My concrete floor is nice and smooth so they roll easily. A rough floor can beat them up so they eventually get so bad they need to be replaced.

I still haven't gotten around to changing the set on my 1988 510 yet. The originals are still fine but I bought a good quality set locally that are a bit softer (I wasn't really after softer) and have the ball bearing swivel bearings. I tend to get annoyed when I want to go left but it wants to go right. I find it a big PITA to unload it to flip it over on sawhorses to lube the stems. I have a small cabinet to mount under it (and one for a Mark 5) that I bought at a garage sale and when those are in place it will be even more of a PITA. Flipping them over and cleaning and lubing them works wonders but doesn't last long enough and they start fighting back again. The casters think lubing should last 6 or 8 months and I think it should last 30 years.
I'm still going to try the new set on the 510 but with 5 Shopsmiths in the shop, the double drill-press and the router table on a SS base I can't afford that many ball bearing swivel casters. I'm going to try something else. I want to try popping the casters out and after cleaning using a small brush to paint the stems and sockets with graphite paint. I have used it on a lot of things on the farm over the years. Back in the days of handling ear corn I used to paint the floors of hopper wagons with it so the ears would slide out smoothly without jamming. It would last for several years and polish with use to the point that you could not stand on those sloped floors.
I use it constantly as a spray on coating for many garden tools and especially on digging shovels where it keeps dirt and mud from sticking to the faces.
In the farm shop I have a steel cabinet of heavily loaded drawers that slide on steel runners of thin angle iron against the steel drawer bottoms. They worked fairly hard so I painted the bottom corners of the drawers and the angle irons with graphite paint and they have worked beautifully for a long time now.
One trade name is "Slip Plate" and other names are usually similar. As opposed to oil or grease that graphite paint does not attract dirt. I'm going to try it on the SS's.
Footnote: You don't want any of it on any tool surfaces where wood slides, it does rub off on wood.


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robinson46176 wrote: . . .
Footnote: You don't want any of it on any tool surfaces where wood slides, it does rub off on wood.


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Sorta like aluminum oxide(non-waxed).

JPG wrote:

robinson46176 wrote: . . .
Footnote: You don't want any of it on any tool surfaces where wood slides, it does rub off on wood.


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Sorta like aluminum oxide(non-waxed).

Your note brought back memories of our hog days of my youth. We raised thousands of hogs here on this farm. Not all at the same time mind you but thousands none the less. Our base lines were purebred Yorkshire hogs, long bodied and all white. We also raised a few purebred Hampshire's for the male side of the Yorkshire line of sows. We were never a confinement operation but on any given day there were usually 600 hogs on the farm mostly running pasture and having shelter to run to when needed. The York sows and the Hamp boars produced amazing cross bred market hogs and we were hauling at least a truckload a week to market. At that time (mid to late 1950's) the old "fat" hogs were falling out of favor as people demanded leaner pork and the York/Hamp cross filled that market.
Any-who... Most of even the cross-breds came out mostly white. The connection here is that we used a lot of automatic water drinking fountains for all of those hogs and most of them were made by Nelson. Those Nelson fountains were made mostly out of cast aluminum. Now hogs like to rub on stuff... Much of the time those hogs had dark blue looking sides from rubbing daily on those aluminum fountains.
Yeah, it doesn't take much to excite me... But it did bring back a lot of memories, not all of them good but that is life.
With all of those black and blue rub marks they would have been tough to stain and finish...

At one time there were cows and hogs , chickens everywhere , I remember stopping to help chase cows back in the fence , today some crazy fool would run them down and cry about hitting it !
seems like we were all healthier and the animals were treated better back then . jmo