# Putting castors on the bottom of a cabinet



## Renenet (Aug 5, 2012)

Hi, 

Well, I found a great cabinet that I intend to convert into a home for one or more reptiles later. For now, I'll simply put my stimmie's enclosure on the top of it.

I bought some castors to screw into the bottom of the cabinet. The thing is heavy even without reptiles so I thought it would be a good investment. Now that I have the whole shebang home, though, I've realised there's a possible problem. 

Each castor has four holes so that it can be attached to a surface with bolts or screws. There isn't enough space and one of the holes hangs over the edge. I shouldn't think it would be problem - the screws are to hold the castors in place, not anything else - but I thought I should ask the more experienced DIYers before I drill the wood!

I'll try to attach a picture of what I mean, but I'm not sure how to do it successfully using this site. Please let me know if you can't see the picture.




Thanks,
Ren


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## cagey (Aug 5, 2012)

I did the same thing; just glued a block of wood in the corner on the inside so all four screws could be seated and the castor sits square


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## Joemal (Aug 5, 2012)

cagey said:


> I did the same thing; just glued a block of wood in the corner on the inside so all four screws could be seated and the castor sits square



Was about to say the same thing .I'd use liquid nails and just a square off cut of pine or whatever you have handy to fill in under the corner 
.As Jamie Oliver would say "easy peezy"


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## J-A-X (Aug 5, 2012)

For a stimmie size enclosure it's probably not an issue but on larger enclosures think about the overall weight that will transferred to the 'floor', which is what will be taking the total weight. Larger furniture pieces are weight bearing on the walls,back and front. By putting castors in the corners of the floor the total weight is now being taken on 4 small points, and most floors are only secured enough to take the weight of objects put on the floor, not the weight of the entire piece.
I hope I've explained it enough, if I've confused anyone, let me know and I will try again


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## wokka (Aug 5, 2012)

All our enclosures are 2 meters high x 0.9 deep x 1.2 wide with 6 shelves, and weigh a lot ( about 200 kilo) We put 2 pieces of 100mm x 50 mm across the bottom from wall to wall, and then mount the castors on that. The key is to make sure the walls are transferring the weight onto the castors as opposed to putting any pressure on the floor of the enclosure.


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## J-A-X (Aug 5, 2012)

That's the point I was trying to get across but didn't quite get there


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## Joemal (Aug 5, 2012)

The beauty of working with melamine .Nice flat surface to screw your wheels into .This one weighs over 200kgs and runs on 8 wheels rated at 40kgs each


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## J-A-X (Aug 5, 2012)

Its not just a case of a flat surface to screw to, its about the floor not bring secured sufficiently to take the weight of the etire enclosure.
That's the advantage of DIY. You know the floor is properly secured to the walls and aren't just stapled with 4 staples to save $$. 
Awesome enclosure too !


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## Jeannine (Aug 5, 2012)

what about making a frame for it to sit in and on, similar to the ones fish tanks sit on? that would give u somewhere to put the wheels plus distribute the weight?


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## J-A-X (Aug 5, 2012)

That's the idea  to spread the weight, rather than on the small area of contact the castors have


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## Renenet (Aug 5, 2012)

Thanks for the help, guys. I screwed the castors in. They are definitely mounted on the load-bearing areas rather than the floor.


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## rvcasa (Aug 5, 2012)

I've done similar but only used 3 screws, around the solid edge (frame) of cabinet...
(on your photo, the bottom right corner) 4th hole of castor does not need to be screwed as the other 3 are plenty!

P.S. I cannot see how the floor is fixed to cabinet, you may need to take into consideration just that if you're planing on putiing heavy stuff at bottom though. 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## J-A-X (Aug 5, 2012)

Renenet said:


> Thanks for the help, guys. I screwed the castors in. They are definitely mounted on the load-bearing areas rather than the floor.



I didn't see your photo before, maybe I didn't give it chance to load ( using my phone ) but yes, that's the way I was trying to explain,


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## hurcorh (Aug 8, 2012)

Joemal said:


> View attachment 261484
> View attachment 261485
> 
> 
> ...



This is awesome. Did you make it for the kids? 

But seriously what is it holding? Olive? scrubbie? Small elephant?


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## Joemal (Aug 8, 2012)

hurcorh said:


> This is awesome. Did you make it for the kids?
> 
> But seriously what is it holding? Olive? scrubbie? Small elephant?



Lol sadly not for elephant or the kids . Its scrubbies new home .


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