Adding casters to Gen 1 and/or Juniors


 
TonyS T-Bone

TonyS T-Bone

TVWBB Super Fan
I am thinking of adding casters to my Junior and Genesis 1 projects/flips. Moving those grills around without casters is a pain.

All I have to do is properly saw off the 1.5" (TBD) or so of the vertical tubing that make up the left side legs. (Making sure that everything is level before we measure and cut). Circular saw with metal blade, grind or sand smooth the newly cut edges, prime and paint. Then I think I'd be good to go to tap in the new insert and caster.

Has anyone ever done this before? and if so, is there any anecdotal info, warnings, successes etc. that you could share? Thanks
 
Yes, I have where others have done that. If the legs are in good condition, I see no "gotchas" or any other issues to worry about. Making sure it is level after the mod is the biggest hurdle.
 
I would measure the height twice, after you have the new parts.

I replaced one of the casters, and found it was about 1/4 inch shorter than the one that it replaced. easy fix with a SS washer, but if you can avoid having the leg too short, that's a good thing.
 
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Yep I did it on my original Genesis 2 that did not have them. IIRC I cut off about 3/4" but then it was a VERY long time ago. EZPZ
 
I did it on my spirit 700 after the bottom of one leg had rusted through, with no issues
The uncastered legs don’t drain at all because the plug seals moisture in, and casters have drain passages built in.
I recommend that casters be routinely added on all of these machines, for both ease of use and for machine preservation.
 
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HankBates said:
I did it on my spirit 700 after the bottom of one leg had rusted through, with no issues
The uncastered legs don’t drain at all because the plug seals moisture in, and casters have drain passages built in.
I recommend that casters be routinely added on all of these machines, for both ease of use and for machine preservation.
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I am waking up to the fact that early caster inserts, as late as 2000, and probably even later do not have drain passages built in, but more recent caster and insert packages (such as PN 6414) do.
When I hacked off the legs on my Spirit 700, of course there were none present, so I assumed that all caster inserts were the same.
So, on both my skyline and 3000, when replacing casters I just pulled the old casters without checking to see what was there.
Only recently when going through a 2000 vintage Silver B did I view the original design (it fell into my hand when the leg crumbled). Right, no drain holes.
See photos showing old and new design. The old design has no holes and is shorter.
Now, I am going back and pulling inserts and replacing with new. So far, on the 3000, a significant amount of fine rust came out....
I guess Weber really had a purpose when the put the kits together. Live and learn.
 

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Thanks Bruce,

If we actually had rain to speak of this would likely be a more urgent task for me. Do you remove the inserts and drill them? or drill them out still attached to the leg?
 
I have always done it with them removed. I remove the wheels as part of my rehab process anyway. Besides, I think it would be much easier to drill them from the top to the bottom instead of the other direction. you can just place the drill in the gap between the fins and drill down ward with out having to worry a lot about where the hole comes out the other side.
 
Like Bruce, I take them out and drill from the inside to outside. If you take them out you can check for rust in the leg and treat it. If there is none you can at least spray some Rust Check, Fluid Film etc in there to prevent it from ever rusting.
 
What do you do to get the caster wheels working for reuse? All that I have seen that have been in service for a while have frozen up, so I have bought new, and they all come with inserts.
 
So I removed the inserts on my Skyline, (I had a few months ago replaced the originals with new Weber boxed 6414 casters and left the original inserts in place) they both came out with their tops broken, see photos.
Did Weber slightly increase the length of the caster rod when they went to the new inserts? It seems to me as if these were broken because the caste rods were pushing against the end of the insert instead of the bearing surface on the bottom....
 

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HankBates said:
So I removed the inserts on my Skyline, (I had a few months ago replaced the originals with new Weber boxed 6414 casters and left the original inserts in place) they both came out with their tops broken, see photos.
Did Weber slightly increase the length of the caster rod when they went to the new inserts? It seems to me as if these were broken because the caste rods were pushing against the end of the insert instead of the bearing surface on the bottom....
Click to expand...
I have several inserts that broke in exactly the same way. I think you might be right - good observation there, Hank... I've never noticed any drain holes but then again, most of what I have is old. I have three SWE type frames out back - I'll have to take a look at those.
 
I ordered a pair from Jon's link https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001HYY0L8/?tag=tvwb-20 above, and they duplicate those I got Weber-boxed a few months ago, except their shafts are about 1/4" shorter.
They are both too long to fit properly in an original insert without knocking the top off., due to physical interference.
They both do fit in the new style inserts.
I put a couple of 306414 casters and inserts from china in the 3K, and while the lengths are the same the shaft and insert hole are much smaller.
Pretty tough to mix and match all of these, it's not as straightforward as it may seem.
 
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