Thread: Affordable Wheel or legs ideas for vintage industrial looking coffee table?

Thanks for the post vg, I've got some old steel wheels lying around and have often wondered what to do with them. That is an excellent use! Perhaps you could try a metal recyclers yard, they often have interesting things!

Not something I'd ever thought about so this is totally off the wall.

How about an old supermarket trolley casters, take off the rubber wheels, use a metal paint on the rims.

If nothing else - free and you'll probably do some ecological good recovering one from the nearest river or lake!

Okay - a dumb idea.

no not a dumb idea, I might actually go look at one and see what they look like.

Wouldn't overlook ebay! Here are some interesting ones. Only 2 and in the wrong state, but maybe worth keeping an eye out! :

Vintage CAST IRON/METAL wheels; Antique Garden Feature. | eBay

Thanks tea lady, have been checking there for a while. But it's always the same, wrong area and only 1 or 2 wheels.

Can you make it with different size wheels or as a 2 wheels one end and wood the other?

oooOOOooo yes good idea Pac man, I could put two wheels up the front and maybe wheelbarrow legs (not sure what they are called, those bent pieces of metal that wheelbarrows rest on) on the other end.

Hi VMG,

There's always house wreckers yards, they often have strange and wonderfuls.

Rob

I could turn you some wooden wheels perhaps.

Originally Posted by vegemitegirl

Hi I found a vintage timber filing cabinet that was pretty much rotting, it was screwed together in two parts so the top half was savable. So what I have is something that will make an awesome industrial looking coffee table. I would love to put castors on it like the one's in this picture:

http://s2.thisnext.com/media/largest...n/8BAF960B.jpg

However I can't find anything that resembles these and if I did i probably couldn't afford them.

I want a chunky rusty look, can anyone think of alternative wheel or leg ideas that I would be able to find easily and are affordable?

Thanks

Try Richmond castors, they will not have exactly what you ant but they do have cast iron wheels, they are near you in Clayton South.

Try the pulley out of old junked washing machines (just pick the same brands as the pully will be the same in most year models). They will be aluminium, with a V in the outer circumference. Glue in the drive belt to fill the v so you don't mark your floor. Paint black, or with that 'rusty paint' (the one with iron oxide in it) depending on your tastes. Your axle can just be a bolt with some leather glued to it (grease it with some dubbin/olive oil/lawmower sump oil). it doesn't have to be a real axle as the you won't move it a great deal. Bit of u shaped mild steel for the bracket.
These pulleys are usually cast in sand moulds, so they have a nice texture from the mould, and the benefit is that the paint will stick on well due to the texture, if you want to paint them.
You'll get your industrial/chunky look and reduce/reuse/recycle.

added - if not, then see if the metal recyclers or junk yard has old pipe/tube the same diameter as the wheel you want, and some smaller diameter 'water pipe' for the axle 'bearing/centre'.
Ask them to cut it up, and weld the wheels you want, and bend a mounting bracket. I'd expect them to ask me for 2 hours wages (e.g. $60-$80) as they would do it in well under an hour. You'll get 'nice' chuncky welds where they tack weld the spokes in.

if your heart is not set on wheels (not personally my style, the big wheels under a table top) you could use some big thick heavy steel angle bar as the legs, would give it the rustic/industrial look you are after.

i do like the idea of the wheelbarrow though