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I have an old wooden bed which is not easy to move (fairly heavy), so I want to put castors on it. The feet of the two headboard legs are rectangular and measure 45mm x 33mm. The feet of the footboard legs are circular and are 45mm diameter. I was thinking of putting castors on which have a metal sleeve which goes into the wooden foot, and then the bolt of the castor will screw into this. But with the headboard feet being only 33mm wide I don't think they would accommodate the metal sleeves. Can anyone advise on this please?

Zacccc wrote:I have an old wooden bed which is not easy to move (fairly heavy), so I want to put castors on it. The feet of the two headboard legs are rectangular and measure 45mm x 33mm. The feet of the footboard legs are circular and are 45mm diameter. I was thinking of putting castors on which have a metal sleeve which goes into the wooden foot, and then the bolt of the castor will screw into this. But with the headboard feet being only 33mm wide I don't think they would accommodate the metal sleeves. Can anyone advise on this please?

Get the kind of casters that have a hole in them, drill a hole in the bed legs that are a little smaller in diameter than the bolt, chisel out a recess for the nut, sink the nuts into the legs (you can use epoxy if you want but if the bolts are long enough and the sockets for the nuts are a good press fit epoxy isn't necessary).
Then just let the bolts cut threads into the wood.

Depending on the hardness of the woodyou will need a minimum of 40mm of thread into the wood, the softer the wood the more thread you will need in the legs.

Sometimewoodworker wrote:

Zacccc wrote:I have an old wooden bed which is not easy to move (fairly heavy), so I want to put castors on it. The feet of the two headboard legs are rectangular and measure 45mm x 33mm. The feet of the footboard legs are circular and are 45mm diameter. I was thinking of putting castors on which have a metal sleeve which goes into the wooden foot, and then the bolt of the castor will screw into this. But with the headboard feet being only 33mm wide I don't think they would accommodate the metal sleeves. Can anyone advise on this please?

Get the kind of casters that have a hole in them, drill a hole in the bed legs that are a little smaller in diameter than the bolt, chisel out a recess for the nut, sink the nuts into the legs (you can use epoxy if you want but if the bolts are long enough and the sockets for the nuts are a good press fit epoxy isn't necessary).
Then just let the bolts cut threads into the wood.

Depending on the hardness of the woodyou will need a minimum of 40mm of thread into the wood, the softer the wood the more thread you will need in the legs.

IMG_7193-3.jpeg

IMG_7194-3.jpeg

Sometimewoodworker wrote:

Zacccc wrote:I have an old wooden bed which is not easy to move (fairly heavy), so I want to put castors on it. The feet of the two headboard legs are rectangular and measure 45mm x 33mm. The feet of the footboard legs are circular and are 45mm diameter. I was thinking of putting castors on which have a metal sleeve which goes into the wooden foot, and then the bolt of the castor will screw into this. But with the headboard feet being only 33mm wide I don't think they would accommodate the metal sleeves. Can anyone advise on this please?

Get the kind of casters that have a hole in them, drill a hole in the bed legs that are a little smaller in diameter than the bolt, chisel out a recess for the nut, sink the nuts into the legs (you can use epoxy if you want but if the bolts are long enough and the sockets for the nuts are a good press fit epoxy isn't necessary).
Then just let the bolts cut threads into the wood.

Depending on the hardness of the woodyou will need a minimum of 40mm of thread into the wood, the softer the wood the more thread you will need in the legs.

IMG_7193-3.jpeg

IMG_7194-3.jpeg

Thanks very much for taking the time to send such an informative reply. I also posted on another forum where someone suggested using Teflon furniture glides, which, he said, allow easier movement than castors, so I'm going to check those out. Apart from anything else, they'd save me a lot of work and I'm not a great DIYer anyway. But if they turn out not to be suitable, the method you suggest sounds like the way to go. I had been concerned that the headboard feet, being only 33mm wide, wouldn't be able to take the sleeve for the bolt, but with just using the bolt to cut its own thread I think the 33mm feet would take it. The only part of your reply that I wasn't clear about was where you said "chisel out a recess for the nut". Do you mean to chisel out a hole around the hole, if you know what I mean, this hole being a snug fit for the nut and shallow enough so that the face of the nut is flush with the bottom of the foot? If so, I suppose the hole would have to be hexagonal, so I'm wondering how easy or difficult would it be to chisel out such a hole. As I said before, I'm not great at DIY, so apologies for the dumb questions! Thanks again.

Zacccc wrote:
Thanks very much for taking the time to send such an informative reply. I also posted on another forum where someone suggested using Teflon furniture glides, which, he said, allow easier movement than castors, so I'm going to check those out.

If they will be any good will depend on the surface you are moving the bed over. They can certainly mark some surfaces badly, and be difficult to move over others.

If you get good roller bearing ones they are infinitely better than any glide. By current workbench is over 250kg and is on wheels, even SWMBO who is under 55kg can move it easily.

Zacccc wrote: The only part of your reply that I wasn't clear about was where you said "chisel out a recess for the nut". Do you mean to chisel out a hole around the hole, if you know what I mean, this hole being a snug fit for the nut and shallow enough so that the face of the nut is flush with the bottom of the foot? If so, I suppose the hole would have to be hexagonal, so I'm wondering how easy or difficult would it be to chisel out such a hole. As I said before, I'm not great at DIY, so apologies for the dumb questions! Thanks again.

That is it.

Put a couple of nuts on the bolt, drill the first part 5~10mm of the hole slightly larger than the bolt. Put it in the hole then give a couple of wacks with a Birmingham screwdriver and you may not need to use a chisel.

If they will be any good will depend on the surface you are moving the bed over. They can certainly mark some surfaces badly, and be difficult to move over others.

If you get good roller bearing ones they are infinitely better than any glide. By current workbench is over 250kg and is on wheels, even SWMBO who is under 55kg can move it easily.

Ah, thanks for pointing that out ie. relevance of the floor surface. In my case it will be a medium pile carpet. I'll also look at the roller bearing glides.

Put a couple of nuts on the bolt, drill the first part 5~10mm of the hole slightly larger than the bolt. Put it in the hole then give a couple of wacks with a Birmingham screwdriver and you may not need to use a chisel.

Thanks for that tip.

Btw, as a spin-off I've learned what a Birmingham screwdriver is and what SWMBO means!

Zacccc wrote:Thanks for that tip.

Btw, as a spin-off I've learned what a Birmingham screwdriver is and what SWMBO means!

Happy to encourage learning.

FWIW I have a complete set of the Birmingham screwdrivers, from a Japanese 100g one all the way up to a 2.5kg one. Sometimes they are the perfect tool.

But as to "what SWMBO means" if you have managed to get a reliable way to know that then guru or expert would be accurate ;) 0) :-)

Sometimewoodworker wrote:

Zacccc wrote:But as to "what SWMBO means" if you have managed to get a reliable way to know that then guru or expert would be accurate ;) 0) :-)

No guru, mate - I don't currently have a SWMBO, so fathoming meaning is not a problem these days. But from experience, I do know what you're alluding to. :-)