Fittings done and working with center foot casters

A wee bit of progress today!

First, I checked on the silicone job I did on the knurled fittings. I wasn't sure how well just applying it to the bottom of the fitting would work out. As it turns out, its fine. I was able to lift and dangle the battery box around and the silicone held up fine. I cleaned up as best I could what was visible and think it will work out fine. Another option is to apply a huge blob on the threads from inside the battery box. This way if bonding from one side ever fails, the other side "plugs the hole" so the fitting can't pop out. Honestly, the fitting goes in rather snug so I am not sure that would be necessary. (But hey, its easy enough to do and I might do it)

I finally got around to starting work on the center foot casters. One thing I noticed right off was that the Home Depot casters axle hole needed to be enlarged for the neoprene wheels.

I also discovered I did not have a 3/8th drill bit. Thankfully, my coworker Tom has a much more complete shop area than me and was willing to bore out the hole for me. THANKS TOM!

The axles I bought from McMaster Carr seemed, on paper, to be a perfect match for the wheels. But as you can see, they are a bit long for the caster mount. I am thinking I can simply shim it up and still use the same axle. As long as the nuts thread completely and the wheels move, I am a happy camper.

Following Jerry Chevalier's advice, I went with these casters from Home Depot, replaced the plastic wheel with the 2.5" neoprene wheel and lined them up on the center foot plate. As you can see, they fit alright on there! (I also test fit these inside the center foot several weeks ago. I trimmed out the "trim" around the edge of the foot to make sure there was enough room for free movement)


Now the next fun thing is going to be drilling holes in the plate to mount the caster mount...yet also creating new holes, as pass thrus, for the holes already there. Those holes are how the plate mounts into the foot assembly.


Thankfully Jerry posted an image of his setup a while back (and I was smart enough to save it!).


So with that as a guide, I have something to go by. And for those who are also looking to go this route (center foot castering wheels)...here's a great image to save and reference!

That's it for tonight!