rubber ball casters

[kzinNOSPAM99]

Hello,

I've seen these casters that simply a rubber ball in a steel housing with a plate for attaching. There are probably some ball bearings fit in that housing somehow as well. I've googled and otherwise searched the web to no avail. I've called a few contractor hardware places in the area and while they know what I'm talking about no one has a clue where to get them.

I'm not talking about the stem type ball caster you see used on chairs. This is a plate caster, plate 4-6" square with the ball centered w/respect to the plate and held in place w/enough of a steel sphere to keep it there. The idea is a very very smooth swivel.

Anyone have a source for these casters?

Anyone have any experience with them, i.e. do they suck? I'm thinking they'd be a lot easier to find if they were popular.

thanks for the help ml

[Upscale]

They're called hood casters.

[kzinNOSPAM99]

referring to is pretty much a symmetrical unit and there's no axle to the wheel. It just sits in the housing and rotates however it needs to.

thanks for the info though ml

[Upscale]

Only think I can think of is a roller ball with a steel ball, not rubber.

[kzinNOSPAM99]

were rubber. It has to travel across textured ceramic tile so steel is out.

again thanks for the effort ml

[Upscale]

I'm pretty sure you're not going to find very much. Even the hooded casters had an axel through the ball. Roller balls as in the last url I gave you only work because the encased steel ball is able to withstand the pressures and friction. A rubber encased ball wouldn't stand up to that kind of abuse for very long, at least not being used as a caster holding whatever weight was put on them. I have seen entirely plastic units, but only for something light as in a roller balls on something like a grocery outfeed table.

[dadiOH]

I've looked for soft casters for tile too. Only ones I found are the hooded rubber ones and a two wheel furniture caster (stem or plate) that has relatively hard urethane as wheels rather than plastic. Haven't tried the latter. Home Depot usually has both kinds.

The hooded rubber ones work well but are held together simply by the stem being punched over the plate; because of the offset nature, there is a lot of pressure/torque on that connection and if the load is heavy (normal man in a chair with four casters) it will fail at which time you have ball bearings all over anywhere.

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[Larry Jaques]

I got some of these to make a mobile kitchen cart...some day.

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[Lee Michaels]

Uhhh......, Larry, just how big and heavy is this kitchen cart going to be?

Assuming that you just use four casters, these casters would be capable of holding 616 lbs.

You could move a side of beef around on that thing!

[DanG]

You might look at these. It would help if we knew what you are moving and what kind of cart/chair/tool on the ceramic tile.

have always used Shepherd brand ball casters on "nice" stuff and would not hesitate to recommend. posted for your convenience) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Keep the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) [e-mail]

[Larry Jaques]

Small, but capable of leaping over entire -carrots- in a single bound. ;)

Probably 24x30x30" and 100# at the most.

Right. the bigger the wheel, the easier it is to move and the less there is which will stop it. I use all 5-inchers in the shop.

?itemnumber=38711You can roll 400# over the air hose without much trouble at all.

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[kzinNOSPAM99]

w/maple countertop. Total weight is somewhere around 60 lbs. Though I suppose a

20 lb turkey might find its way on there sometime...

I've got some standard casters on there now. They work, but not great.

The spherical wheels are sort of the thing I'm looking for but not as fancy. I've seen these things before though they could of easily been custom made for the product I saw em on. Was a while ago.

anyway thanks for the links ml