The caster1.
You really are a well-rounded piece of equipment. Things just go smoothly when you’re around. You’re always there, holding things up, helping things move around. If not for you, we’d just be stuck, with no way to go.
You come in every style and material anyone could possibly want. Every application, every purpose where you need lil’ rolly guys – you’re there, sliding yourself in exactly where you’re needed.
But I have a very important aspect I need to address.
Four swiveling casters.
Arrangements
So, in a standard, 4 caster application, there are various ways to go about it.
Need it to go in just a straight line? Fixed casters will do the trick.
Want some steer-ability? Swap out two of the fixed ones for swiveling ones.
More steeryness? Embiggen your fixed casters, add a handle on the opposite end, and voilà!
Too much freedom? Clamp some locks on ’em.
Not enough? *deep breath*
Four swiveling casters.
Now, in theory, it’s great! Push your cabinet or generator or whatever in whichever direction you please! 4 directions, unlimited possibilities! It’s simple laws of motion. Apply force to one end of the object, the casters swivel to trail in the direction you push, and it goes where you want.
The Problem
The problem is, there are other forces at play, like gravity, slopes, wind, and teeny-tiny eensy-weensy itty-bitty pebbles.
See this comprehensive chart!
Oh, and if one of the casters aren’t in perfect condition?
Maybe binding a bit, not quite so swivelly as the others, or bent?
Good luck.
Rant
Do you know, how many times I’ll be dragging a generator, or pushing a saw stand, and it just won’t. go. straight?
EVERY TIME.
It drives me absolutely insane! How on earth does it just go THAT way, when I’m pushing it THIS way?!
Why can’t those stupid casters just do their job?
I’ll be dragging the generator through mud and gravel, digging ruts, but it’ll go (mostly) straight. As soon as I hit the sidewalk, BOOM! Right off the sidewalk onto the mud. Drag it back on, PEBBLE! Push it off the pebble, back into the mud. The only way it’ll go down the sidewalk straight is if you have one of the casters off the path, scraping along the edge of the concrete, and you pull perpendicular to the direction you want to go, to keep it scraping. Then it’ll just start going the way you want, for no good reason other than to spite you.2
“So, you’re telling me that it can traverse gravel and rocky ground, but a tiny pebble approximately a cubic millimeter stops it in its tracks?”
YES. AND I DO NOT UNDERSTAND IT.
I’ve been literally spinning that generator around and around me, but I try pushing it out of the spin, and a usually-non-locking-perfectly-spinning-a-second-ago caster will suddenly lock up, and the entire generator will tip over onto its side.
And usually, it would have been a billion times easier, if only that same generator3 had two fixed casters. Then it would roll perfectly fine!
Whoa, who hurt you? Years of dragging a generator did. That's who.
There is a time and a place for four swivel casters. That time is almost never, that place is an almost-never moved cabinet in a shop with a perfectly smooth floor.
Now, sometimes the random nonsense does actually make sense, and I’m just in a bad mood, so I decide to fight against all of nature like a madman.
But sometimes…
UHHHRGGHHH.4
Apparently, hooks are governed by a similar set of physics. Go check out the Laws of Hooks.
Wheels may have been the greatest invention, but along with them come the most awful situations. How about potholes?
Have another vexation? Comment below, and maybe I’ll write an article on it!