Casters mounted to plywood or stud?

[coasternuts]

To conserve space in my cab I was thinking of just attaching my casters to the 3/4" plywood, would this be ok?  Or should I create a stud on the bottom like

http://spystyle.arcadecontrols.com/35a.JPG
http://spystyle.arcadecontrols.com/35b.JPG

I got all 4 2" swivel casters too, not thinking, is it necessary to take two back to get non-swivel.  I've searched and seen others discussing that the weight of the cabinet on carpet should be good enough to hold the machine down.

Thanks for any input!

[HeadRusch]

Stud, absolutely.  As soon as you try moving that cab around you're going to be putting a ton of stress on the the screws or bolts holding the casters onto the bottom of that cab.  You want that reinforcement or else you stand a good chance of ripping the castors off the bottom of the cab.

I speak from experience on this.

Take the extra 10 minutes and add studs.

[AlanS17]

I think I've seen it done both ways, but there's no reason not to be safe - especially if you have a larger cabinet.

Make sure your casters are heavy-duty enough, though - espescially those stationary casters. They're going to endure at least some amount of torque no matter how hard you try to avoid it. You'll bend the wheel right off it's plate if you're not careful. (This is where I speak from experience.)

[Timoe]

they dont necessarily need to be 2x4 studs though.

[CJK]

If your cabinet is full size, you might want to consider 3" casters, as they will be much easier to move around under load than 2" ones, even though the 2" ones might technically be able to handle the weight.

Also, go with the 2 fixed/2 swivel method -- it will make getting your heavy cabinet into a stable position much easier.

I agree with the recommendation to avoid particle board -- it will never hold up under the lateral stresses of the bolts, and eventually the casters will be ripped out, even if you through-bolt them to a backer block. For the base, I'd use at least 3/4" plywood with a backer block of hardwood, as suggested above.

Personally, I'm going to mount these casters...

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?familyid=1989

... on a base constructed as a torsion box. The casters will be through-bolted, and the spots where the bolts pass through the box will be solid wood.

-- Chris

P.S. Brief summary of torsion boxes: http://www.workbenchmagazine.com/main/276-torsion.html