Casters: Poly or Rubber?

[dlminehart]

I'm planning to install casters on some of my shop cabinets. Any reason to prefer the (red) polyurethane treads over the (grey) rubber ones? I'm concerned with not leaving marks on my painted garage floor, but also with the wheels being firm enough that they're not hard to push around with heavy loads.

[LCHIEN]

There's a lot more to chose than just poly or rubber - solid or with a bushiing and what type of bushing? hub or not?

Here's a comparison of the types and styles of wheels. As you can see more than one config of rubber and more than one config of polyurethane.

http://www.castercity.com/caster-wheels.htm

more from the same site
Floor Protection
Floors are expensive to repair or replace. Poor floors damage castered equipment, reduce productivity, and are hazardous to personnel. Selecting the most floor protective wheel appropriate for your application will protect good floors, and will reduce the rate of wear on floors already starting to deteriorate. Only wheels with a soft rubber tread are truly floor and cargo protective. These include SELF-ENERGIZING, PREMIUM, SUPER CUSHION, Conventional Moldon, Pneumatics, and Gray Rubber wheels. A common mistake is to think polyurethane wheels are floor protective. Although under load they are capable of some tire deflection, actual "tire give" is rarely noticeable. Most polyurethane wheels have a hardness comparable to "hard tread" wheels (phenolic, polyolefin, hard rubber), but are not as noisy. The "Jack Hammer" action of hard tread wheels is destructive to most floors with time. However, even metal wheels fill an important need when the operating environment or capacity prohibit the use of anything else.

Rollability
Remember that a human being has to move the load, so select the largest wheel your application will allow. Except for SELF-ENERGIZING rubber, load capacity ratings do not take into account the effort required to manually move the load. Conventional moldon rubber wheels are not easy rolling. We recommend you reduce the weight to no more than 50% of their rated capacity if the load is to be moved manually. Polyurethane and "hard tread" wheels are only easy rolling if you do not exceed the load capacity of the same size rubber wheel, and then only if the floors are smooth. They are not easy rolling when loaded to their full rated capacities. PREMIUM rubber wheels when loaded to full capacity can be moved manually. As long as your loads do not exceed the rated capacity of PREMIUM rubber, its selection means you will not have to give up the benefits of resiliency (floor and cargo protection) in order to get rollability.

Sounds to me like rubber is your best bet if super durability is not a factor. protects the floor and rolls easily whereas poly will be harder on the floor and not want to roll over small bits of stuff if the floor is not smooth and clean.

[perpetualapprentice]

LCHIEN hit it on the head. Lots of other factors to consider beyond what a wheel is made of. I shopped options for a LONG time (including castercity) before finding ones I considered worthy that did not break the bank.

From my personal experience, the heavy duty double locking casters sold by Woodcraft are awesome. It's rare that I run across a product worth recommending without reservation but I LOVE those casters. I've not used them on anything heavier than 600 lbs. but they handle it with no problem.

They can be found on sale 3-4 times per year but are still a good value at normal prices, IMHO.

Good luck.

[dlminehart]

The Woodcraft casters look nice . . . but at $18 each, they're a little beyond what I was hoping to spend. I'd hoped for $10 . . .

[ironhat]

I just ordered some 3.5" casters from SES Casters on e-bay - Polyurethane on Polyolefin - I'll have to let you know how they work out after they get here. I currently have 2" on the controversial Craftsman DP and I don't have any trouble moving it about. I suppose a larger wheel would allow for smoother movement. The reason for the change is for the locking swivel and wheel lock on the 3.5's from SES. I had purchased the 3", threaded stem model at $4.74 but they ran out and offered the 3.5's at the same price. Check their e-bay store for sizes and prices.