What's the best value in double-locking casters?

[Dan Friedrichs]

I'm looking to buy a lot of 3" double-locking casters. Who do you think makes a 3" DL caster that's the best value? I've heard good things about the Woodcraft ones, but they're $16/ea! I can't seem to find the Hartville ones that people have recommended in the past. How about the Grizzly ones?

[Paul Ryan]

I would be interested as well. I can only find 4" double lockers from great lakes and would like shorter. But the casters from great lakes are dirt cheap. But shipping is a little steep.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Paul, how cheap are they? The cheapest double locking ones I could find from Great Lakes were $10/ea. Not bad, but I'm hoping that someone will tell me that the $5/ea Grizzly ones are "good enough"

[Anthony Anderson]

Woodcraft double locking caster are, IMHO, hands down the best! I have the Hartville, Peachtree, and Woodcraft, double locking, and the Woodcraft are measurably better than the other two. The WCs have a thicker mounting plate than the others, wider wheel than the Peachtree (which looks the same on their website, but are not the same), and there is less than 1 degree movement in the casters, compared to the ~5 degree in the Peachtree and Hartville. I would rank in this order: 1. WoodCraft 2. Hartville, 3. Peachtree. Unfortunately, I bought all three before I discovered this, so I speak from experience.

Hope this helps. Bill

[glenn bradley]

I'm hoping that someone will tell me that the $5/ea Grizzly ones are "good enough"

Maybe someone will . I have not tried the Grizzly casters but I have tried some $6 - $7 ones that were supposed to be pretty good (Hartville?). I eventually gave them away and got some Woodcrafts on sale. They are very good but the price kept going up.

I got some of the Peachtrees when someone did a review and found them to be indistinguishable from the WC's. There were subtle differences between the WC's O had and the PT's but, the next time I was in a Woodcraft . . . low and behold; the same subtle differences. As Anthony found, the casters you get seems to vary with the supplier's shipment, not the retailer (that's just a guess).

At any rate Peachtree caught on and the price shot up to just below the Woodcraft prices. Fortunately I picked up a few at about $7 each. The purpose of this long blather is to tell you that the Peachtree casters I have are quite good and match the Woodcrafts. The downside is that you will have to watch for sales.

[Joe Scarfo]

i've bought a batch of 3" for about $5 from woodworkers supply in green bay. They're from either shop fox or grizzly. Not sure...

And they're "good enough" for me. they're under my big delta lathe and my old converted bathroom vanity I use from my delta midi lathe.. I think they're a great bargain for the money....

Then again, they're not as nice as the ones from woodcraft.. but they're good enough.


Good Luck
Joe

[Tim Null]

I was looking for the same. I have used the Hartville in the past, but since talking to them, they are no longer carrying the 3". Something to do with the manufacturer. They will only have 4". The price of the 4" is still better than others 3". 11.99 each I believe.

But the other poster is right, Woodcraft are best. Depends on what you need them for. I have a set of Hartville on an assembly table with a full set of drawers and Woodcraft on my router table. Both work well, the Woodcraft are simply a bit better.

[Matt Meiser]

I buy them on Ebay from a seller called sescasterco. Great quality and a set is around $40 shipped for 4 of them (for 4"). I realize that's not the cheapest option, but they are really good quality IMHO. They've held up well in my shop and they look nice enough I used them on a mobile island for my parents. There's a photo of one in my Kreg Klamp Table thread.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Thanks for all the replies, so far.

Let me try to redirect this just a little: I'm convinced that the Woodcraft ones are the best, but they are also the most expensive. I've tried Harbor Freight's casters, and they are JUNK. What is a good middle-of-the-road, economical caster?

If Woodcraft casters = Festool quality, and Harbor Freight casters = Black and Decker quality, who makes a caster that's "Grizzly quality"? I suspect the answer is probably "Grizzly" But I just want to confirm that their casters are up to par with the rest of their better regarded tools.

[Leo Vogel]

Dan, I bought a set of these from Rockler for about $29.00 for a set of four. I liked them so much I ordered three more sets. I think a really good buy.

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?p...filter=casters

[Jeremy Brant]

I just bought the double locker 3" casters from Great Lakes. They call their double locking feature "total lock". The easiest way to find them is to search for that term in the search block at the top. The part number I used was 12-0312-BPX-S-P01-T at 7.78 apiece. If you join their facebook site there was a discount for free shipping. I just put the casters on the mobile base I built for my pm66 so longevity hasn't been tested, but so far they seem like they'll do the trick.

[Jason White]

The Woodcraft ones are definitely worth the money, especially when they go on sale -- which is every 2-3 months or so.

Jason

I'm looking to buy a lot of 3" double-locking casters. Who do you think makes a 3" DL caster that's the best value? I've heard good things about the Woodcraft ones, but they're $16/ea! I can't seem to find the Hartville ones that people have recommended in the past. How about the Grizzly ones?

[Randy Klein]

Woodcraft double locking caster are, IMHO, hands down the best! I have the Hartville, Peachtree, and Woodcraft, double locking, and the Woodcraft are measurably better than the other two. The WCs have a thicker mounting plate than the others, wider wheel than the Peachtree (which looks the same on their website, but are not the same), and there is less than 1 degree movement in the casters, compared to the ~5 degree in the Peachtree and Hartville. I would rank in this order: 1. WoodCraft 2. Hartville, 3. Peachtree. Unfortunately, I bought all three before I discovered this, so I speak from experience.

Hope this helps. Bill

What he said.

[Cory Hoehn]

I, too, have bought casters from secaster on eBay. I've got 4 sets of them and they're all performing VERY well. I think they match up to the sets from Woodcraft, though I only have one set of those.

[Paul Ryan]

I had been looking for 3" casters with a threaded rod style. I have some locking type that were the mounting plate type from great lakes. I have those on a mobile base for my mortiser and they work great. I just ordered 4 threaded stem double locker 3" from great lakes for $28 shipped. Free shipping code is FB1.