Features:

  • Durable steel construction, easily move heavy workbench up to 400 lbs to desired location
  • Mounting screws included for easy installation
  • 4 Freely pivoting, 2-3/8 Inch diameter urethane casters
  • Has a simple, innovative, and secure foot pedal mechanism
  • Product Dimensions: 10 x 5 x 4.5 inches
Simply perfect...

This set of Powertec 1700 Workbench Casters is a must for any work bench/table in the shop. For $60 (sometimes as high as $79) on Amazon and free shipping it is a great deal at $60. Just received via Prime and installed the same day - about 30 minutes total for all four legs. Simply drill two pilot holes for each caster - one at 4 3/4 inches and one at 2 inches from the floor, screw in the mounts, add the casters and tighten the caster bolts. Done. Works perfectly. I am now able to move my old woodworking table made from a 2X4s and 4X4s which I beefed up and converted to a machining/sharpening/grinding/pounding on table easily around the shop. I added a sheet of 1 inch plywood left over from some barn flooring and added a scrap piece of 1/2 inch sheet of plywood as the top. Then added additional table braces and a lower shelf made from 2X6s. Added a Rockler vise and machinist vise on opposite corners along with an old saw horse vise at one end. It also holds a removable grinder and sharpening wheel that I store on the shelf underneath. This beefed up table is very heavy by design and I needed the flexibility to move it around shop - sometimes it needs to be out of the way of the wood shop area and I also needed the ability to move it outside. The Powertec casters work perfectly for this. I mounted them on the inside length of the bench - mounting the shelf 10 inches high to allow for the caster levers - and this way the casters are not in my way when I have the work table on all fours. A simple detail to consider, but important if you don't want to trip over the casters/levers. Highly recommend these casters for any work table or work bench where you need the flexibility to move it. I plan to build a new wood working work table/assembly table and will get another set of Powertec casters for this as well.

They do what they said they would

Lotta money, but I decided I wanted a heavy work bench that I could move. Opening the box revealed heavy duty wheels and brackets, with detailed mounting instructions. I installed them yesterday, and they work as they should so far....time will tell the tale on function and durability. I lowered the install rating because you have to attach the wheel to the bracket and the way they are designed, the bearing shoulder comes too close to the bracket to get a wrench on the nut on the wheel side of the bracket. The bolt on the other side is fully exposed. So, you have to take and old wrench and grind it thin (unless you already have one from the past) to fit into the gap and grab the nut, or find someway to "bind" the bearing cup to tighten the wheel bolt. I also put the lock washer on the wheel side of the bracket and not the mounting bolt side, to open this gap and to raise the table that small distance higher. Works fine, a lock washer will lock on either side. IT also appears that the wheels will rest on the floor when not locked. Moving/sliding the table a small amount looks like it will jam the wheel. If a small spring could be attached to the wheel bracket, and the other end attached to the foot bracket, the foot bracket would pull the wheel off of the floor when it is in the upright position. I may try to add this to one later to see if it works. Seems to be well worth the money at this point. Installation is putting in two screws and the nut on the wheels. The measurements for the holes are on the instructions....BUT.... I wonder why they do not put a cardboard template in the box to mark the pilot holes? I made one for me to use and it made drilling the 8 pilot holes a snap. I would suggest you do the same until they smarten up and put one in there. Cut up a manila folder and lay the mounting bracket on there to make yours.

Powertec vs Rockler – A Product Comparison

**** Update June 2019 **** See ‘IMPROVEMENTS’ section at bottom **** **** Lots of new pictures added too, all having a yellow band at bottom. Original pictures have no band. **** I have bought a number of retracting casters over the years and none has satisfied me until now. I believe the best ones out there now are this Powertec model and a very similar product made by Rockler. Since I needed three sets of casters for different power tools, I decided to buy both a Powertec and a Rockler caster set and compare them to find out which one is the best. Being a mechanical engineer, this seemed like a fun little test. I would then buy two additional sets of the winner and return the set that came in second place. Read on if you want to know the winner… (Spoiler alert: it’s the Powertec) Please reference all the pictures. First, let me define the part names that I will compare. There are three main steel sections which can be seen in the picture titled ‘Part Names’; with the three labels “Mounting Bracket”, “Pivot Arm”, and “Tilting Plate”. The other parts of the caster sets that I will not discuss are the actual casters themselves and the ¼” and 5/16” nuts and bolts. These parts are identical on both sets. I mean identical. Pivot Arm One picture shows both sets’ pivot arms when looking from the top. The Powertec arm has small ridges on top, perhaps to increase traction with the sole of your shoe? I do not see this as a significant advantage. The real significant difference can be seen in the picture with the caption of “Pivot Arm Comparison” showing side views of the two pivot arms. Notice that the Powertec has a much more rounded surface where it contacts the tilting plate, making it easier to slide and decreasing the wear on both this part and the tilting plate. This is where all the action happens when you are raising and lowering the casters so I think that the Powertec is designed better, will last longer, and will take less foot pressure to raise and lower power tools and benches. Tilting Plate Look at the picture with the caption “Tilting Plate Comparison”. Note that the Powertec plate is slightly flared at the top of the picture whereas the Rockler plate is straight. This will add some rigidity making the Powertec plate a little stronger on one end. However, in looking at where the bending stresses are the greatest (red dashed lines in the picture) you can see that the Powertec’s flared section offers no real benefit. The only real effective difference is that the Powertec is about 1/16” of an inch wider at this high stress point. Slight nod to the Powertec here. Now look at the picture with the caption “Tilting Plate not Horizontal”. I am holding the Powertec’s parts in place when the caster would be in the fully lowered and locked position, i.e., when you would be rolling your equipment. Note that the tilting plate is tilted down 6.4 degrees from horizontal which can be seen clearly in the picture. In a system like this when significant weight is placed on the caster, up to 100 pounds per caster, then this angle will decrease under load. Since I have not yet installed these casters on any of my tools, I do not know what the angle will be under such load. The 6.4 degrees will decrease but will likely not go to zero, potentially making the casters uneven. The Rockler also tilts down 1.8 degrees, much less than the Powertec. My guess is that the Rockler’s tilting plate will be more horizontal under load than the Powertec, although this is really conjecture on my part. I will not know more until they are installed. Mounting Bracket One minor issue is that the Rockler mounting plate has two sides and a center section that should be bent 90 degrees from each other. Unfortunately the sides have been bent slightly more than 90 degrees. See the picture with the caption “Rockler Mounting bracket sides not square with center section”. This is primarily a cosmetic issue, but speaks somewhat to the care taken in manufacturing. The Powertec sides are exactly at 90 degrees. Material Thickness The pivot arm, tilting plate, and mounting bracket on the Powertec are fabricated from steel that is 1/8” thick, or .125”. The Rockler’s components are all a little thinner at .120” thick. This is not noticeable to the naked eye but will make the Rockler’s load bearing capacity a little less than the Powertec. Mounting Screws The Rockler has slightly beefier wood screws supplied to attach the mounting bracket to a wooden frame member of a workbench or similar hardware. Advantage Rockler. Since I usually supply my own mounting hardware, this is a not a significant factor for me. Conclusion I give the nod to the Powetec for the two big reasons of: 1. The more rounded surface on the bottom of the Powertec’s pivot arm 2. The slightly thicker metal used throughout the Powertec’s components I like both caster sets and either would likely meet my needs. But I am guessing that the Powertec probably has about a 10% greater load bearing capacity so I see that as a tie buster. **** IMPROVEMENTS (Updated Jun 2019) **** I finally installed these Powertec casters on a variety of my power tools and decided to make some significant improvements to an already good design. Please read about the changes I made and the corresponding new pictures, all having a yellow band on the bottom to identify as new and updated pictures. Bolts I did not like that the bolts used as pivot points had threaded sections that touched the mounting holes in the tilting plate and pivot arm. So I replaced these bolts with ones that had a longer solid shaft that reached all pivoting areas. See the picture with the word ‘Bolts’ in the yellow band at the bottom of the picture. My new bolts with the longer non-threaded shafts are below the original bolts. Mounting Holes in the Mounting Bracket I replaced the single mounting screw hole at the bottom of the mounting bracket with two screw holes near the outside edges of the bracket to prevent bending of the bracket under heavy load. See the picture with the words ‘Added Screw Holes’. The holes I added have red arrows pointing to them. Flexing Between Caster and Tilting Plate The casters have a small mounting surface when bolted to the tilting plate. This caused the caster body to tilt relative to the tilting plate when under load. It didn’t matter how tight you tightened the mounting nut. This was a bad design. So I added a thick heavy duty washer to prevent any flexing. See the pictures ‘No Washer Installed’ and ‘With Washer Installed’. This improved the stiffness of the caster assembly greatly. The grade 8 washer I used is has a .812” ID and slightly over .2” thickness. You can find them at McMaster.com, part number 98025A036. Raise Wheels Off of Floor I prefer to sweep the floor around the caster without the caster wheel touching the ground so I added a spring to the caster assembly that raises the wheel off the floor when the caster is not engaged. See the pictures ‘Spring’, ‘Spring installed” and ‘Wheels Suspended Above Floor’. I purchased the extension spring from Lowes and shortened it to meet my needs. The spring is 11/32” in diameter, 2-3/8” long before I shortened it, and has a wire diameter of .035”. I really like this new feature and it is easy to do. Tilting Plate Not Horizontal I mentioned this problem in my comparison of the two casters in my original discussion. It turned out to be a very noticeable problem with the Powertec casters I bought, causing the casters to not track smoothly. I fixed the problem by putting in a wedge between the caster’s mounting bracket and the vertical surface of the tool that I mounted the caster on to. This wedge can be seen in the picture ‘Fixing Tilt’. The biggest challenge with this fix is to determine the correct angle that the tilting plate deviates from horizontal when the caster has weight on it. This is tricky as there is no way to mount a level on this small tilting plate so I improvised by gluing two small pieces of wood together to extend the surface of the tilting plate to a point where I could measure it for level. See the wood pieces in the picture ‘Tilt Measuring Tools’. You can see how I measure the tilt using this wooden piece in the picture ‘Measuring Tilt’. I measured the tilt on all four tilting plates, averaged the angle, and made the wedge to counter that angle. This process requires attention to detail but, once implemented, makes my casters glide easily and I can change my tools’ direction of travel effortlessly since all tilting plates are horizontal. As an aside, the Rockler casters that I compared to the Powertec casters had less tilt (1.8 degrees vs. 6.4 degrees) so they would work much better out of the box, without adding wedges, than the Powertec. Tilting Casters on Steroids I installed a set of these casters to my heavy table saw but I wanted the caster assembly to have a much increased weight bearing capacity. The weak points in the design of these caster assemblies are in the tilting plate (metal is relatively thin at about 1/8”) and the caster wheels themselves which are perhaps medium duty at best. So I first manufactured new tilting plates. See the picture ‘Stronger Tilting Plate (Top)’. This plate is thicker at 3/16” and slightly wider where the bending stresses are greater. I also replaced the original casters with heavy duty casters seen in the picture ‘Stronger Caster (on right)’ with each having a 250 pound capacity. McMaster part number 9795T41.The only challenging part of fabricating the new stronger tilting plate was to locate and weld the tube to the plate at the proper height so that the tilting plate, when engaged in the horizontal locked position, would be perfectly horizontal. This takes some trial and error but, if done right, prevents the need for making wedges as I had to do for the stock tilting plates. All in all, these upgrades turned my casters into truly useful tools to easily move my tools around. I encourage you to buy any of these types of casters, whether it be Powertec or other similar brands, and make the upgrades that I outlined above. You won’t be disappointed.

(because they don't show table on floor position I'm including a photo (about 9.5" to top of lever).

I built an 8' long workbench and wanted to be able to move it on occasion or at will for various reasons (working on large objects, working on the wall behind the bench, cleaning...) so at first I was just looking for regular wheels - then I found these. They're a great solution. When the table's down I can put an elephant on it and not worry, though when it's easily lifted up on these wheels by stepping down of the lever, it rolls smoothly and easily despite the work bench's weight (I guess well over 100 pounds). I tend to show them off to those who appreciate such things.

Just Right For Table Saw Outfeed Table Mobility

These casters easily lift the weight of my saw's outfeed table, which has a modified 2x4 base and two layers of 3/4" melamine for the top. They lift upward about 1/2' to 3/4" off the floor, depending on how you affix them to the legs. Urethane wheels roll effortlessly on my polyurethane-painted concrete floor. Two #8 or #10 x 1-1/2" screws attach them to the legs. You can bolt them if you have metal legs. The screws are more than enough in wood. I paired them with Heavy-Duty Leg Levelers, Small Foot (4). These leg levelers allowed me to adjust the table height precisely to match the table saw's height and to assure the outfeed table was in plane with the top of the saw.

Working well on a 3x3 welding table

I just mounted these on a 3x3 metal welding that weighs about 140 lbs. It's made entirely from 1/4" thick steel plate and angle iron. The mounting instructions were simple enough and they all installed without any problems. They work really well and the table glides around effortlessly. It's easy to push the lever up and down to raise and lower all sides of the table. The table's weight feels minimal under foot when deploying the wheels. When letting the table back down, it's also easy to operate the levers, though when the last wheel comes down, it just drops 3/4" with no resistance. With the table being somewhat heavy, I try to lift that last corner while lowering that last wheel, but it's tough to control that little drop when the weight just suddenly drops. This isn't a big deal for me as it sits in my garage on a cement floor, and it's a steel table. The casters seem solid and of good quality, both the wheels themselves as well as the metal frame and mechanism. These are working out great so far and it's been so nice to easily be able to move my welding table around with ease. It was a major undertaking to move it before, but now I don't even think twice about it. These casters come with 8 wood screws to attach these casters to wood legs, but this does not come with bolts for attaching to metal legs. You have to buy your own bolts. I used 8 bolts (1/4" thick bolts), washers, and nuts to attach them to the metal legs. I used a 1/4" drill bit to drill the holes in the metal legs. I'm very pleased with these casters and would recommend them. If I need more in the future, I won't hesitate to buy more of these.

A Better Mousetrap

I have two workbenches and bought a different brand of caster for the first -- that brand was a little tricky to install and I had to shim the mounting plates 7 degrees off vertical to make the wheel sit parallel to the bench leg (and perpendicular to the floor). This was necessary so the bench would roll wherever I needed to push it. So with the second bench I decided to try the Powertec Casters. They mounted easily, directly to the legs of the bench, and when pressed down in the rolling position, the post of the wheel is perfectly vertical and the wheels rotate around the axis of the post with no trouble. The lever to depress the roller is very stout, raising the bench is easy, and when raised, the bench appears to have a one-inch clearance. The instructions are adequate. This is a well-designed piece of equipment and I certainly would recommend it.

Worth the expense

Bought these for a very heavy work table in my wood shop. The table is built with 4x4 pressure treated legs and 2x6 framing of the shelf and top. The top is 3/4 inch MDF and the shelf is 3/4 inch plywood. The table is 4x8. It is heavy. These wheels were easy to install. Just follow the directions and put it together. Once installed, push your foot on the lever and the wheel goes down and the table goes up. Of course, you have to raise all 4 legs, but the mobility is great. The wheels lift fully out of the way and the table sits on the floor once the wheels are released. It works great. I can move the table all over my shop to make it convenient. These weren't cheap, but well worth the expense for the weight capacity and function.

Simple and Solid, Just What I Needed

These are very simple to install on any work bench with very simple and easy to follow instructions included. I wanted to be able to move around the work bench I was building and did some research to try and located some casters or device that would both allow me to move a work bench and set it in place. Most of the options I found did one or the other, or ended up costing more than I could afford. Once I found this PowerTec Casters I thought I would give them a shot. They were prefect form my application and are built solid and very easy to install. The legs on my work bench are constructed with 2x4's and the screws included where just under 1 1/2 inches for mounting the casters. This ended up not being a concern as the steel frame of the casters that are mounted is about 1/8 inch thick, so no screw tips ended up going though my legs. There is even basic instructions for fasteners you can used to mount the casters with bolts. However, bolts are not included for that. Take a look at these and give them a shot.

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