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Macfee writes:
I really appreciate everyone's contributions in this thread. It has
been really fun and I hope is a good resource. Hopefully it isn't over!
So I thought maybe time to do my part and submit my beloved and
well worn wheel collection for review.
Here is our assembly area and a few of my favorites.
In the foreground is our assembly table which is on wheels.
Next up is our all purpose double-deck carts. Originally I just wanted something
that would hold a set of 6 large chairs to move around the shop. When
you're
spread out over 5000, and now 8000 square feet, moving chairs and other
smalls
was driving me nuts.
I built 3 to start with and it wasn't a week later we saw how
versatile they are for so many things. We have around 20 now. I especially love
them
in my spray room, which is narrow and long (60'x20') I use at least 2
of them in finish all the time for
moving smalls to and from the booth.
Next up, the thing in the first picture that looks like an old
hospital gurney, actually is an old hospital gurney. I inherited
this from the first shop I went to work for when it closed. It
had been passed through 4 previous shop owners and probably has
rolled half a million miles and still rolls smooth. In any case
it remains the favorite for a large table top. I hope to soon
purchase a few of the yellow carts Fred McLean showed as and I
suspect they will instantly become our prime table cart. I saw
these at Groopshop and they are NICE.
This platform cart is my mainstay. I have about 30 of these. It's
approximately 2'x4' and is just a plywood deck screwed to 2x2
frame, with 3" wheels. These were the first carts I ever spent
money on. Prior to that I had just a few odd carts and my gurney
and it was hand carry everything everywhere. In 1991 When we made
the move from 2000 to 5000sf I finally began to see value in
doing something about material handling.
Most items land on these when they come in and it stays on the
cart till it leaves, except when the task requires it to come
off. I spray things on these carts too, so you will notice the
buildup of finish. This doesn't seem to cause any problems. At
the point of finishing, I have a bucket of small 1/4" ply cutoffs
and I put these under the feet of items so they don't stick to
the cart.
I have about 6 high carts like this I built for table halves and
other like size items. They are ok for that but again, I would
much rather have several of the yellow carts Fred showed us. We
also use these as accessory work tables. For example if I'm doing
some touchup work away from where I store my material, I'll
collect what I need on the cart and wheel away wherever.
This is door and shelving rack. I have 2 of these and could use a
couple more
Here is a closeup of 2 platform carts. On the left is a 3" wheel
and the right cart has been recently fitted with new 4" wheels.
The difference from 3" to 4" is night and day. 3 inchers have
worked well, but they squeak and take more effort to start. The 4
inchers roll with a touch and make no noise whatsoever.
These are the same type of platform as the last, only longer to
suit average and longer buffets. I use about 15 of these. I also
have maybe 10 others of varying size not pictured; A couple large
ones for the big desk and a few very small ones
This is a cart I built for touchup materials. If I have a big on-site
deal where I need all my stuff, I take this cart to the
job site.
These are 2 specialty racks on wheels we use strictly in the
stripping area. No big deal here. Just a 2x4 grid work to set
things on so they can drain and dry after water rinsing. When
ready, roll the whole rack into the area where we sand.
This is a finishing rack. The divisions are fixed and the main
use is to hold drawers in the finish room.
I saved the worst for last. This is the quickie cart that I came
up with to use on the big church pew job we did last winter (I
know, I never reported back on that and I swear it is a good
story and I will do it someday) Anyway, the cart is made from a
couple of 2x10s and a cheap ready-made cart I bought from Grizzly
for $15 each. I ripped the cart in 2 and screwed it to the 2x10s.
I would have been a genius for this idea, except the Grizzly cart
is pure trash. I will refrain from a detailed description which
would be a thread unto itself. Suffice to say, I think they used
gravel for bearings because they didn't roll or spin worth a
crap. Hence when we could get them started, they rolled whichever
way you did not want them to go. Anyway, we were in a time crunch
and I bought 50 of them, so we had to make it work and we did.
But after the pew job they were immediately retired. I still have
a couple here that I didn't take apart.
A closeup of the grizzly el-cheapo cart. Please tear this page
out of your grizzly catalogs.
Here is my stack of retired Grizzly carts ready to trash. So you
dumpster divers beware.
