Sysport Questions

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Jul 27, 2018
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I'm about to build a couple of Sysports, and:
  • Does anyone have any favorite casters? The Sysports will be made out of plywood, and the bottom will overlap the sides, so casters with the plate above the wheel that accepts four screws are probably ideal.  I'd like at least the option to lock them, but I don't want to get so bulky that they stick out from under the Sysport all the time.
  • For those of you that have built your own, do you prefer a back on the cabinet?
  • Anybody got a preferred interior cabinet height? I'm not worried about matching the height to a workbench, but I would like to be able to use the surface on the top to set things on as I'm working.
Thanks much.
 
I like the Tente Lavina casters, though they may be a bit fancy for a shop project;https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/sho...s/112175-levina-75mm-stem-caster?item=00K2209

I believe LV has a plate mount available for these as well.

00K2209-levina-75mm-x-110mm-3-inch-x-4-1-4-inch-stem-caster-each-f-16.jpg
 
I built three of them for my shop and now need to build one more. As far as height, mine are 1024mm and I discovered that any taller than that and they tend to get tippy.

I put backs on all of them mainly so I don't have to worry about them going out of square, but there are many other ways of accomplishing that.

They aren't carrying a ton of weight so really any caster that rolls nicely will work. I used a four 1.5" casters recovered from a data center tear down.

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Thanks, all.

[member=7806]twistsol[/member], yours look fantastic in that dark grey.  Thanks for the pics - seeing the capacity at 1024 really helps. I had been thinking about going a little shorter, but yours look to hold just about a perfect amount for me.
 
The gray is a couple of coats hammered metal gray #7214 one part epoxy by rustoleum put on with a roller. It gives a nice finish, is easy to clean, and more importantly hides the fact that these are made of scrap plywood.
 
twistsol said:
They aren't carrying a ton of weight so really any caster that rolls nicely will work. I used a four 1.5" casters recovered from a data center tear down.
Says "any caster will do" and proceeds with evidence of using the most heavy-duty small casters around.
[big grin] [big grin] [big grin]

But yeah, pretty much any 100 lb or stronger casters will do.
IMO the size should be more based on floor quality than anything. With an even and hard floor, small 2" ones are great and save vertical space. But with a rougher floor, or with soft rubber floor, you may want to go 4" overkill path if plan to slide the cabinets around.

Ref size, we did our cabinets so they are the same-height as the work tables (930 mm in our case). That way they are usable as ad-hoc workpiece supports etc. Works a charm.

/Server rack use some of the strongest small casters. 19" racks can easily have thousands of pounds in the installed kit and the casters must handle that./
 
mino said:
twistsol said:
They aren't carrying a ton of weight so really any caster that rolls nicely will work. I used a four 1.5" casters recovered from a data center tear down.
Says "any caster will do" and proceeds with evidence of using the most heavy-duty small casters around.
[big grin] [big grin] [big grin]

But yeah, pretty much any 100 lb or stronger casters will do.
IMO the size should be more based on floor quality than anything. With an even and hard floor, small 2" ones are great and save vertical space. But with a rougher floor, or with soft rubber floor, you may want to go 4" overkill path if plan to slide the cabinets around.

Ref size, we did our cabinets so they are the same-height as the work tables (930 mm in our case). That way they are usable as ad-hoc workpiece supports etc. Works a charm.

/Server rack use some of the strongest small casters. 19" racks can easily have thousands of pounds in the installed kit and the casters must handle that./

Point well taken; I should have been more specific. These casters are rated at 75 lbs each and were taken off the tape carts (from back in the dark ages of the early 80's when we still pushed around reels of mag tape.) The hardware racks were all stationary.
 
twistsol said:
Point well taken; I should have been more specific. These casters are rated at 75 lbs each and were taken off the tape carts (from back in the dark ages of the early 80's when we still pushed around reels of mag tape.) The hardware racks were all stationary.
Oh, those were some proper times!

And I should have looked better on the photos. Rack casters tend to still be 1.5" but have much wider wheels..
 
Mine are not as nice as many I have seen here, these were built from my own plans using 18mm utility-grade plywood. 

The interior height is 1125mm and the overall height (including casters) is 1295mm.  The photo below is generation 1 which used 14" full extension slides and shop made trays, generation 2 used SYS-AZ which allows for more units when configured for SYS-1 and SYS-2.

I used the LR-32 to create the holes for the slides, I think the length of the rail was a factor in choosing the height.  They are quite stable rolling around and even with two drawers open, I would not want them any higher.  I also use the tops for additional storage.

I used inexpensive 100mm "thermoplastic" casters, the weight rating is 81kg which is more than adequate for this application.  These are not locking but that seems unnecessary in my application, they are used in a workshop so they mostly stand against a wall, but can I move them when necessary.  They don't go in vehicles or other places that I would need to secure them.

I have the top and bottom overlapping the sides, this seemed better than the typical case construction where the side overlaps the bottom, because all the weight is supported by the sides which bear directly on the bottom instead of relying on the shear strength of a joint.  Construction is Dominos and pocket screws.

After doing a few with plain sides I added a cutout in the upper portion of each side to serve as a handhold, this makes it a bit easier to move them around and will be very helpful if/when it is necessary to move them e.g. up a staircase.

Building these was my first LR32 project, it was a good way to learn and practice that.  At the time I had a modest stack of Systainers but even then unstacking and restacking was awkward, this was a great project to make everything more accessible and portable.  Since then more Systainers have arrived and more Sysports have been constructed.  I made simple jigs and spacers, these together with the plans (in Sketchup) make it pretty easy to build more as they are needed.

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