1st Gen. Lunch Table - General Discussion

Came preloaded with full length woody.

All my measurements of the new box included that as part of the total height.

 

Or just enough enough space for a sub-woofer, a couple mid-range speakers and tweeters.

 

There's a bunch of different grades of polyurethane some are much harder than others. Something like this would be my choice, hard enough that dirt won't stick too bad but soft enough to absorb some sound.
https://www.grainger.com/product/GRAINGER-APPROVED-Standard-Plate-Caster-5-in-1ULP1

 

Could just put some nails there

 

I completely forgot about grainger... and I didn't know that about polyurethane. I'll give them a browse. Those look good!

 

Just remembered I've had these Colson casters for a hot minute. And that I had this picture. I'll see what the interwebs turns up on these

 

So, my advice is to use a solid wheel of course. Not poly. If you have a Tractor Supply anywhere near you they have a shitload of wheels to choose from, both center-post and on a plate. They list the load ratings clearly on their bins also so there's no guesswork.

I've got at least four sets of of spare solid casters at work from some center-post racks I had to disassemble yesterday. I'm shooting one of the racks over to @daveeasa hopefully 1st week of March, but I've still got these wheels if any are interesting for you or anyone else. All I've got other than this is a pair of dolly wheels, and a set of four (inflatable?) slightly-smaller-than-dolly-wheels I was using for a parts dolly I built.

https://www.tundras.com/attachments/upload_2022-12-7_9-4-8-jpg.818169/

https://www.tundras.com/attachments/upload_2022-12-7_9-4-41-jpg.818170/

I realize those images suck for showing the wheels. I'd need to measure, I know two of them are only 2"-3". I think one or two are in the 3"-4" range. I'm thinking for a box that size you may want to go 6" solid, though. Two straight, two swivel.

 

The only bad part about these, when dealing with heavy loads, the rubber/poly part tends to compress then de-lam off the wheel. I'd show you the 6" set I had fail on my wire racks in the shop, but they went to the metal picker in my n'hood in December. This is the best example I could find online. It's worse when it's poly on plastic than poly on steel, but as you see here, poly on steel can fail too.

 

My toolbox wheels blew up in the move last year. I should have at least separated the two toolbox portions for transport. Some frame bending too. I might replace the entire toolbox (Costco) at some point and give the old one away or make it stationary.

However, after tons of research, and two orders (one of which I canceled soon after) I settled on replacement 4x2 polyolefin wheels from servicecaster.com for a whopping 8.25 each or 45 w shipping for the set. They are rolling nicely and replacing the wheels but recycling the casters worked better than I expected. Now the only major damage is the bent frame making one wheel slightly angled, not a huge deal and could be fixed with a bottom frame or plate if I needed to. Also one drawer tends to slide open more than the others which stay closed and I haven’t figured out why, maybe new drawer slides would fix that.

I also bought a 72” workbench from Costco which is fantastic, it was on sale but still not cheap. Much bigger wheels. I was doing all the FBC stuff with it until it got cold, I’ve since moved that inside and now I use a $200 husky bench top from HD which isn’t nearly as nice but can be adjusted so I leave it at standing height.

Can do photos if desired, hoping the caster info is useful. Lots of caster specific websites, the trick is to know your size. I thought I was 3x2 but it turns out I had broken and worn 4x2’s.

 

We have cart racks at work. They're probably 4.5ft×4.5ft. The forklifts "dolly" them around, ergo, they stick their forks in em, and drop em down so the mast weight is on the wheels of the carts. I've seen this happen ALL the time.

My wheels have always been fine. Even when doing heavy duty retarded shit I didn't need to be doing without a frame. Still rocking the same set of wheels.


This isn't even the heaviest thing my little $180 box has held. I'm really gonna miss this thing, but I'm gonna step up my game on the next one. Speaking of, I need to go to the what have you done thread and post up some pics...

 

Latest tinkering after blowing out my back moving my new battle barge.

Added this metal plate for magnetized shit. Moved the power strip down some to accommodate.


Shifted the chargers down to the bottom right as I talked about.


Not sure if anything needs added other than what I've already ordered. Still tweakin'

 

Then I'll have to follow you over to tell you that's only for TRUCKS.

 

https://youtu.be/V92tFAFvgEE

 

Has anyone used a Harbor Freight winch? I'm tempted to try one for the price. I wonder if I could swap the roller for a hawse fairlead. I know synthetic line is preferable to metal.

 

I wouldn’t want their chinesium cable to snap on me under tension. Could be a life changing event losing an appendage.

 

Fab Rats uses them on his offroad wrecker. Swap the cable out for synthetic.

 

Customer states he use to beat Z06’s before the head gasket blew. I want what he’s on!!

 

He could be right. There was a time when certain S-10 trucks could whoop corvettes in a zero to sixty

 

Yeah, but that was only in early 90s. And those trucks are ungodly expensive now. I still want one though.

 

Are you thinking of the Syclone?

 

Everything is made in China. Smittybilt and even some Warn winches are now made there. I wouldn't be surprised if they are made in the same factory.

These Harbor Freight winches have surprisingly good reviews. That said, I'll probably replace it with a synthetic line for weight savings alone.

 

Yeah, but if the vendor assembling the winch has better quality control, they can test every incoming batch of cables they order to insure it meets requirements. Since the whole assembly is built and assembled in China you have no insight into the company selling it and what sort of testing they did. Usually for anything that could seriously get me injured or killed, I'll pay more knowing the company has better quality standards and has it meet some specified test standard for strength in their advertisement.

But hey, it's your choice. Just my two cents on it.

 

My brother has a 95 or 96 S-10 with 4 SPD and manual everything. He moved to his island home in Bonaire. Runs great with like 200K. He gets offers weekly. Simple trucks are good.

 

I agree on that. I wish I knew what those standards were. Last night I watched Project Farm's video where he tested different batteries. The cheapest battery from Wal-Mart performed better than the more expensive batteries. You just don't know anymore. We get marketed to death but it feels like quality is constantly declining.

 

Bill, I think maybe many of us don't know what you do, about different importers having different product testing procedures. Can you post more about companies you know are assembling and/or testing here in the U.S. Like you, I'd appreciate it, and pay more for it. But when I research, it looks like others have posted; all products made in same factories in China, shipped straight to retailer, boxes never opened.

 

Quality is always declining, as profits rise. The curse of greed.

The same thing is happening with people. The quality of people is declining as the teachers have less, and less time to teach, or rear the newbs. The curse of the times.

 

I’m an electrical engineer by trade, so I can only speak in detail about electronics.

However, one thing few people know is that company A ordering widget X from one factory in China may be ordering the same widget X or some variation of it as company B. However, that widget may have a requirement that it perform to different standards or that a sample from each lot created requires verification that it meet some basic requirement. The better companies will require more rigid standards with sample testing while the others do not. Sometimes those tests are done on incoming material at the company ordering it if the manufacturer doesn’t have that testing capability. It’s something we do ourselves to verify the part meets requirements since it’s a more costly mistake to assemble it at the next level and fail in a complex assembly.

A lot of that isn’t disclosed to the general public unless the vendor wants to disclose it unfortunately. One good thing about companies based in the US is that you can generally call or email and ask questions about the product. A good company will be willing to disclose some of that information while others will not.

Standards are generally in place so that companies know a certain set of requirements must be met to be compliant with that standard and that it will compatible with other items designed to interface with that standard. When researching, if there’s something of interest in that standard, I’ll ask the company how it meets that requirement and if it normally exceeds it.

As far as companies designing and/or assembling items in the US, that’s just something you have to research. If you’re not knowledgeable, get knowledgeable, so you know what to look for and can ask better questions. It’s what I do and believe me you don’t want to annoy other engineers not knowing what your talking about. But that’s next level stuff that I have to deal with as a gubermint contractor.

 

If there’s very little info you can get on the cable for the winch you’re purchasing, you should consider buying recovery dampers as well for safety.

 

If I buy that winch(currently not in stock) I'll immediately replace the cable with a synthetic line.