How "deep" do I recess my casters under the cab?

[quarterback]

I've got four 2" casters (2 are swivel, 2 are fixed) that I was planning on putting on the bottom of my cab.

The distance from the caster mounting plate to the bottom of the caster is 2-1/2" (IOW, they're 2-1/2" high)

[Jakobud]

I'm not sure how anyone except you is going to know the answer to this since you have the actual casters and the carpet they are going to be rolling across right in front of you.  Just put a caster down and see how far you can push it into the carpet and take a measurement.

[cdbrown]

I went for abit less than a half inch gap between the sides and the floor but I have very thin carpet and tiles so it doesn't affect me.

Things you need to be concerned with - spongyness of the carpet which is tested like jakobud said.  If you make it have slightly more clearance than it can depress you will be able to move the cab around without hassle.

Next issue is the long term compression of the carpet.  Some carpets may seem quite firm and only compress a little when you push the castor on it, but over a long period of time the castors will compress the carpet further either until the sides come in contact with the carpet or it can't compress anymore.  If the sides come down onto the carpet you may struggle slightly to get the cab to move however this will probably look the best as there is no gap around the base.  If there is a gap then you'll just need a little force to get the castors out of the rut.

[quarterback]

Thanks.

Yeah, with my carpet 9pretty low pile), I was guessing that leaving about 1/2" of the wheel 'exposed' below the bottom of the cab will probably give me enough to roll-it when I want, but prevent it from cruicing across the floor of it's own free will

I was just curious if there's some general rule-of-thumb.  But I'll do some 'press-tests' on my carpet as well, just to check it out.

Thanks

[Bones]

You should also be aware that some caster wheels might leave skid marks. (He he, skiddies!!  )

Ahem......

You can get castors that are non-marking. These are used in hospitals etc. They are more expensive but might offset the cost and frustration of leaving marks on your floor coverings.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I went 1/2", IIRC.
That leaves the cabinet brushing the top of my carpet.
Also be aware that, if the cabinet is on wheels, it will move.
It's not a big deal, but it will shift slightly if you push on it.

Mine doesn't actually GO anywhere, but it rocks a bit in the wheel "holes" that are in my carpet.
I wouldn't do anything differently though, if I had to rebuild it.
Cabinets that sit solely on leg-levellers are a pain.
I've got two cabs now that I need to get casters on before bringing them into the house.

[ALeX K]

i was looking at getting 4 castors, two swivel ones to the front of the cab, two swivel and braked ones to the rear to lock movement.....

is braked a good idea or not worth the money?

[Minwah]

Make the cab sit a little higher than you think.  Mine looks great, and moves around fine in my room, but in some rooms of my house the sides dig into the carpet and make it difficult to move.

I don't have braked castors, but it sits still just fine thanks to the weight of it.

[quarterback]

i was looking at getting 4 castors, two swivel ones to the front of the cab, two swivel and braked ones to the rear to lock movement.....

is braked a good idea or not worth the money?

I picked up my casters (2" - 2 fixed/2 swivel) after reading the Mame-building-tutorial here  He bought braked ones, but I don't see how I'd easily set/release the brakes after they've been mounted beneath my cab, and I figured the weight would do a lot of the stabilizing.

Make the cab sit a little higher than you think.  Mine looks great, and moves around fine in my room, but in some rooms of my house the sides dig into the carpet and make it difficult to move.

Do you happen to remember how far your casters peek out underneath the bottom of your cab?
Thanks

[Minwah]

Do you happen to remember how far your casters peek out underneath the bottom of your cab?

IIRC 10mm was my original plan.  Thing is I changed the rear castors I used, since the first ones I used were all swivel castors (the two rear ones had brakes).  I found these castors were no good (for the rear), as I had to mount them close to the edge of the base to limit their movement to make the thing stable.  So I replaced the rear castors with fixed ones...I believe they were shorter than the originals, so I spaced them down slightly.  I think it ended up being ever so slightly higher at the back.

So I would say allow at least 15mm.  If you have a lot of thick carpet I bet you could even go as much as 25mm (1").

Oh, another reason for added height is if you might need to transport the cab outside.  I found that if I had pushed my cab along the uneven ground from the shed I built it on to home, the sides would have been very mangled indeed.  I had to carry the thing everywhere with a mate.

[NoOne=NBA=]

i was looking at getting 4 castors, two swivel ones to the front of the cab, two swivel and braked ones to the rear to lock movement.....

is braked a good idea or not worth the money?

I went with swivel fronts, and straight rears.
I didn't see any reason to get locking ones because I couldn't really GET to them, to lock them, if I had them.

DEFINITELY get at least one set of swivel ones.
They make it MUCH easier to manuver the cab.
If you get all straight ones, it's like moving the refrigerator.
You have to push one side, and pull the other, rather than swivelling the front around a corner.
That would have made it a huge pain to turn the last corner into the room it's currently in.

As far as moving the cab outside, a good handtruck will solve most of your problem there.
I moved mine from the garage, through the front door, and into the house by myself.
I'm guessing it weighs upwards of 300 lbs, and I'm 5'10/180 lbs.
I wouldn't do it by myself AGAIN, but I did it that time.
Once it was in the house, everything was a breeze with the casters on it though.

[Minwah]

I didn't see any reason to get locking ones because I couldn't really GET to them, to lock them, if I had them.

I purposely put cut outs on the back of my cab to reach the locks....then I didn't use the locking castors anyway (plus I mis-cut the cut outs, so they are too big, but hey) 

[NoOne=NBA=]

I purposely put cut outs on the back of my cab to reach the locks....then I didn't use the locking castors anyway (plus I mis-cut the cut outs, so they are too big, but hey)

[Minwah]

Sounds like I saved myself some work then.

LOL, yeah.  Why is it when you make a positive effort to 'do the right thing' when it's not 100% necessary, it always goes tits up!?  I can't complain tho, it was only the back, the rest pretty much turned out ok

[unclet]

My cab sits on tile, so I made sure I could get a dust broom underneath.   In case someone spilled a drink on the floor, I would want to be able to clean it up without having to move the complete cab away.   On carpet you would not have to worry about stuff spilling and running under the cabinet though....

[RayB]

Midway cabs have 2 wheels recessed on the back and positioned so they only touch the ground when you tilt the cabinet back. You can wheel it around tilted, then when in place stand it back up on it's 4 legs.

[NoOne=NBA=]

Midway cabs have 2 wheels recessed on the back and positioned so they only touch the ground when you tilt the cabinet back. You can wheel it around tilted, then when in place stand it back up on it's 4 legs.

I THOUGHT about doing that design, but then it occurred to me that it is not overly functional in a home environment.
You are putting your cab against the wall, correct?
How do you tilt the cab BACKWARDS while it's against the wall.

If I have to go get a handtruck ANYWAY, when I want to move it, why put ANY wheels on it?
My solution to that dilemma was FOUR wheels.

[quarterback]

Midway cabs have 2 wheels recessed on the back and positioned so they only touch the ground when you tilt the cabinet back. You can wheel it around tilted, then when in place stand it back up on it's 4 legs.

Yeah, I thought about that.  When I my cab up at auction I saw that some cabs had those wheels and mine didn't... I was jealous but had some help moving mine.

I'm contemplating doing that in addition to the 4 on the bottom for the reasons that NoOne=NBA= mentions.  Getting the cab away from the wall and minor readjustments via the bottom 4, but anything else I could use the back 2.  I've got a handtruck but it might be easier if the cab had the back wheels. 

I don't know, this is all still in the planning stages for me.  I've got a Konami cab that has some water damage at the bottom.  My eventual plan is to build a 'base' (with wheels) and then cut off the bottom of the cab and replace it with my new base. 

[NoOne=NBA=]

Another idea that I had was to have leg levellers that came up completely through the floor of the cab.

My idea was to take metal plates, bore a hole through them that was larger than the diameter of the threads on the bolts, weld a nut to the plate, screw the leg levellers through that nut.

Once that was done, I was planning on boring holes through the bottom of the cabinet that were large enough to let a nut, welded to the end of the leg leveller bolt, stick up through the floor of the cab.
That would allow the leg levellers to be lowered from inside the cabinet.

I rejected this idea for two reasons.
First it would have required alot of extra work to implement.
Second, the only access to the inside of my cab is through the coin door.
Not exactly somewhere I am excited about trying to crawl through.

This idea would work perfectly for a cab that has a front access door on it though.