I seem to have spent a lifetime creating and re-creating shop made stands, work benches and cabinets. After purchasing a new tool, I often need to make some sort of a stand for it, which usually means something "quick and dirty" with the idea I will make a better one later or ... which I do, but sometime MUCH later ...
Such is the case with my Planer Stand. I love my little 13" (thirteen inch) helical head planer. With my other tools, it is perfect for my shop saves me tons of time and works like a gem, but the stand has always been an issue for me ...
I have long wanted a stand where I could use some sort or retractable wheels so I could re-locate the planer and still set it up "firmly" quickly and easily without a lot of fuss, and a place where I could store some lumber UNDER the machine for a short time, that was out of the way. After stumbling across the Bennington Manufacturing Retractable Caster video HERE, it sparked my imagination, that these could be the answer to my caster issue on my "temporary" planer stand, that was now 3 years old !!
As it turns out, I had some excess Beech Wood from a past project that was just sitting around waiting to be used, it was super dry and VERY hard ... perfect for planer stand.
The new stand would be very similar to the "temp" one, but a tiny bit lower, but would have at least 2 shelves UNDER the planer where I could store wood, long and short pieces. The planer would live in the same location, so everything else was OK.
I started off sawing the 10/4 Beech down to 3/4" and of course planing during process, and every time I planed a new piece I got more excited with the new idea. To make sure the stand was super strong, I used 3/* dowels in my Dowelmax Doweling Jig and found 4 dowels was more than adequate.
If you have followed my channel for a few years, you may recall that I have tried out other collapsible or retractable kinds of casters in the past, none of which worked for me and I ended up removing them for something else, but these Bennington ones looked like they had clear installation method and a caster system like no other that seemed to work as it should.
After the stand was made and while I was installing the first 2 casters in one end, I tried them right away and was very impressed who well worked. Once in a while I found one or the other would not retract or re-set, but all that means in one more lift and reset or the planer stand which takes 3 seconds. I also have an uneven concrete floor (which many of us have) and these still work well, bearing in mind that ANY caster system may wobble a tiny bit in an uneven flooring base.
From only my first couple of weeks of operation, I can say I am delighted with these new casters, they are working well for me to the point I don't have to think about them. When you have to think about how a tool is working ... it probably isn't ... or at least causing some workshop frustrations and these have actually done the opposite ... relieved some workshop frustrations :)
Colin Knecht
woodworkweb
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