HELP, PLEASE! Adding casters to a heavy cabinet, then getting it back up by myself ... aaaggghhh

[puginabug]

Karen, I need to go take a nap now after reading all that! Good job!

[karen_in_nh_2012]

So I was so proud of myself for getting that cabinet UP, FINALLY, after so many attempts. That was this past Wednesday 6/14/23.

Well, so much for that!

I thought the 2nd one would be easier -- i.e., the cabinet that had 1 caster that had broken off. On Thursday 6/15/23 I got it on the floor, reinstalled the caster that had broken off (it was its SCREWS, not the caster itself -- I had INCREDIBLY STUPIDLY left in some 1/2" screws that I used to make "unofficial" pilot holes, but then I forgot to replace them with the longer screws!! aaggghh!! ), and strengthened the rest of the casters, then tried to get it up.

Nope.

I tried over and over and couldn't figure out why THIS ONE felt SO MUCH HARDER TO LIFT than the other one. Using the wall as a "stopping point" instead of the workbench (which I'd pushed out of the way) seemed to not work as well, but I didn't really understand WHY. And then, DUH , it occurred to me that this one ALSO still had its top, which must add 15-20 pounds to its weight -- so of course THAT was making it a lot harder to lift too.

I was planning to try again yesterday, Friday 6/16/23, but I saw when I got up in the morning that my elderly kitty Berkeley had gotten worse health-wise and I would have to say goodbye to him at the vet, and I did, and I was a wreck all day. So yesterday was just a horrible, sad, sad day.

Today I got out of bed missing Berkeley horribly but determined to get some work done, so I tried again after I got the top off this cabinet AND moving the workbench back where it was, since it seemed to work better.

And it worked again! I used the same technique -- 6' 2x3 as a lever plus pushing a gray crate underneath with my foot as the cabinet got higher and higher. It seems to me to need to be pushed up about 60 degrees (not 45 degrees) to get to the point where it's clear it's going to get up the rest of the way and be fine, but it only took a couple of attempts today for it to work, so I am feeling a bit more confident.



Anyway, I started putting the top back on that cabinet from which I'd just REMOVED it - it's a bit of a pain because of course the screws have to line up with the holes and it's hard to get everything perfect. But I will get there. Oh, I also started taking off the clothes hangers -- I definitely don't need those on the basement cabinets and likely not the garage cabinets either. I will stick them all in a box with their screws for future use, a CLEARLY LABELED box now that I am trying to get organized, lol!

It's been pouring rain all day, gray and gloomy, and that's going to continue until midnight or so, so I won't get another cabinet from the garage to the basement today. Hopefully tomorrow!

And speaking of the garage: I got virtually all of my wood/moldings/etc. ORGANIZED into categories and onto the shelves of the workbench!



I had to add a plywood "extension" to the top of the workbench (at the other end) to get it to be over 8' -- its "real" dimensions are 4' deep by 7' long, but I have a lot of 8' wood pieces and I didn't want to have them stick out the back (especially because I will often have a rolling desk at the end of the workbench shown above ^^^ -- it's a cinch to move it in and out of the way of selecting wood pieces since I added casters to it ), so the solution was to add room on the other side. I have mostly 1x lumber on the middle shelf PLUS moldings (that will hopefully be installed by my contractors at some point!!) and mostly 2x lumber (2x4s, 2x3s, 2x2s) on the bottom shelf. I had all this wood in various places around an EXTREMELY cluttered garage, so I had no idea what I had -- this gives me a good idea so I won't buy again what I already HAVE! (And the top "shelf," of course, is my workspace!)

Oh, you can see garage cabinets #1 and #2 on the right -- there's about 38" of space between them and the workbench so I have lots of room to get stuff done on that table. The drop-down stairs to the loft are in that workspace too, but of course they're usually out of the way.

I'll be back to the basement stuff tomorrow. I got a cabinet in the garage moved closer to the exterior door to the back yard, where the bulkhead stairs are too, so I'm hoping to get that down in the basement TOMORROW and get some casters on it ... and just maybe I'll be able to lift that THIRD one!

[springfieldva]

I have to spread some more reputation around before I give it to you, Karen. But, what you have managed to accomplish is truly incredible!

[NORTY FLATZ]

OP~ you might apply for a "home improvement" show on TV.

There are hundreds of stations, looking for content.

I'm not kidding, either.

[karen_in_nh_2012]

Originally Posted by springfieldva

I have to spread some more reputation around before I give it to you, Karen. But, what you have managed to accomplish is truly incredible!

Originally Posted by NORTY FLATZ

OP~ you might apply for a "home improvement" show on TV.

There are hundreds of stations, looking for content.

I'm not kidding, either.

Awww, thanks, you two! Norty, I am WAY too much of an introvert to want that kind of attention, but I could never do it anyway as I am NOWHERE NEAR a home improvement guru. I make a TON of mistakes as I go through every new project -- I wasn't kidding when I wrote earlier that I wish I had MacGuyver's type of brain! Then it wouldn't take me so long to fix issues.

=====

Just a quick update with some pictures ...



This one ^^^ is called "how to attach heavy cabinet doors by yourself" -- just keep stacking items until the holes in the door line up with the appropriate holes in the hinges! The hinges are very heavy-duty wrap-around ones and they take a lot of screws.



This one ^^^ is called "how to get a cabinet MOSTLY on its side for sliding out the exterior garage door and onto the full-size pallet cart with pneumatic wheels"! When it was totally upright, it was too heavy for me to get down by pulling when I was standing on the outside steps -- I think I wasn't stable enough. But once it was lifted some on the back end, as shown above, I was able to easily pull it down...



... and pull it out and onto the pallet cart ^^^.



And a word of warning ^^^ : see the pipe running underneath the door frame? I constantly remind myself, "BE CAREFUL OF THE GAS LINES!!" (I don't THINK the cabinet could actually hit it unless something really weird happened, but still!)



And now ^^^ it's been wheeled over to the bulkhead stairs and is ready for lift-off onto the new, improved plank (made with lots of pillows, batting like you'd use for quilts, and a tarp over everything).

And again, it made it down just fine, although it got a bit stuck near the bottom (I'd put down a 2nd item as cushioning, and OF COURSE, lol, it got stuck on THAT -- remember the rule, "Nothing is easy in Karen's world" ) but it was very easy to just pull it clear, then get it upright.



Above ^^^, it's moved from basement area #3 (the south end of my basement, where the bulkhead stairs lead to the back yard) to area #2 and is on its way to area #1-a for casters, a critter shield, etc. I use sliders underneath for this part -- they generally work quite well over the concrete.

So now I have 3 cabinets down in the basement with 1 or 2 more to go. (Probably I'll leave the 9th in the garage as the 5th one there for now -- at some point, I MAY actually USE IT as a wardrobe cabinet in the master bedroom's dressing area, but I would definitely need a helper to get it upstairs -- that is one thing I would not even attempt! The 10th cabinet, I gave to my electrician because he is amazing and wonderful and SO affordable -- unusual in contractors!)


Oh, I also assembled a Seville metal shelving cart for basement area #2, my 4th one of their carts (3 regular 48" wide by 18" deep, 1 corner, all on casters). I bought the 4th one years ago ONLY for its extra shelves as I needed shallow spacing for a very specific purpose on the other 2 regular units and they only came with 6 shelves each. I don't need the shallow spacing any more so will be able to use the 3rd unit.


This is my last week of summer teaching (and it's all online asynchronous -- i.e., no meetings even on Zoom unless the students ask to meet with me one-on-one) so I am HOPING that I will get the entire basement, garage, and some interior areas (ha!) ORGANIZED by the end of July. Wish me luck!

[karen_in_nh_2012]

This will likely be my last update until I have ALL 4 (or 5!) cabinets IN THE BASEMENT and finished and USABLE. I am hoping for mid-July but every time I look around I see MORE projects that need doing so who knows?!!

But I'm writing THIS update because ANOTHER broken-off caster (on a different cabinet) caused me to re-think how I've been putting them on. So I decided to try something new on the cabinet I had just gotten down to the basement in my previous post (the post just above this one): wood blocking inside, all screwed to each other and to the cabinet itself whenever possible, then 3 sets of 2 casters on 2x4s screwed into the wood blocking (actually 3 "layers" of OSB). (This is basically option #3 in the OP, but I was able to make the casters much closer to the front & back of the cabinet itself even without screwing them into the perimeter of the cabinet.)

I hope THIS update can help some future person figure out how to lift these kinds of heavy objects even when working alone!

Here's a photo from post #2 of this thread showing how I had been doing the casters, AND showing the interior area below the drawers and the right-side shelving area -- that whole area got FILLED with blocking ...



I had THOUGHT that adding SOME blocking when it was clearly needed -- as shown above with the bottom right caster -- and then screwing the casters directly into the cabinet perimeter would work. But clearly those were NOT great choices. (Ironically, that caster with the blocking was the one that broke off!)

So below is some of the wood blocking (the 1x4 was just to keep it in place while I took the photo!) ...



That's ^^^ actually the 3RD layer of OSB; the other 2 layers are a bit smaller as they were made to fit the smaller area right ABOVE that (you can see in the 1st photo in this post why the 2 layers above were a bit smaller -- the OSB totaled 7/8" and that's exactly what I needed to fill before THIS 3rd layer).

After adding all that wood blocking, basically making the bottom as "solid" as I could, I added 3 2x4s cut to size, each with 2 casters screwed in all 4 places with #10 (thick!) 1.25" screws ...



I could have notched the 2x4s to make them fit over the cabinet triangular blocking (you can see the little triangles of wood near the top left and right casters), as I notched the 3rd layer of OSB, but the casters are very close to the FRONT AND BACK of the cabinet in 3 places each, so I figured that would do. The 2x4s are screwed into the OSB layers with 2.5" #9 construction screws, 5 in each 2x4, so those 2x4s are attached in 15 places total to the OSB that is attached to the cabinet.

THAT should be secure enough ... right?

Anyway, I was worried that all that blocking would have added a lot of weight to the cabinet and would make it impossible for me to lift by myself now. But, much to my amazement, I was able to lift it with my trusty 2x3 lever and gray crate. (The gray crate got pushed underneath as the cabinet rose, just so I could take a rest if needed AND so if I dropped the lever, the cabinet wouldn't fall on me or all the way down to the floor!) AND it took only about 45-60 seconds, including stopping once for a few seconds to take deep breaths -- and then it was UP!



I suspect the change in caster location AND the number of casters helped me get it up even more easily than my 2nd one.

The bad news, of course, is now I have to do that blocking in ALL the cabinets I'm putting on casters, just to be on the safe side. I will do the one whose caster broke off next; the other cabinet seems to be fine after my "fix" of ITS broken-off caster (I've moved it around basement areas #1-a and #2 without any issues), but I will re-do that one too just to be on the safe side (maybe not right away!).


Wish me luck as I re-do the other cabinets (well, re-do 2 and do 1-2 more right the FIRST time!) -- at least I feel good the casters after adding all that blocking AND an extra 2 -- that is supposed to be "worth" 750 pounds of weight but I will never have that much inside them!

[NORTY FLATZ]

Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012

Norty, I am WAY too much of an introvert to want that kind of attention, but I could never do it anyway as I am NOWHERE NEAR a home improvement guru. I make a TON of mistakes as I go through every new project -- I wasn't kidding when I wrote earlier that I wish I had MacGuyver's type of brain! Then it wouldn't take me so long to fix issues.

Actually, this just might be exactly what a home improvement show needs. Someone who may lack confidence in their abilities, but always seems to achieve. Someone whom doesn't want the notoriety/fame of being on TV. (This is a big one.)

This might even be worthy of a "pitch..."

You'll need a helper, too.

How about a strapping bronzed Aussie in shirtless over-alls? LOL. (I can't believe I just wrote that.)

You know, someone worthy of your attention.... LOL

[karen_in_nh_2012]

Originally Posted by NORTY FLATZ

Actually, this just might be exactly what a home improvement show needs. Someone who may lack confidence in their abilities, but always seems to achieve. Someone whom doesn't want the notoriety/fame of being on TV. (This is a big one.)

This might even be worthy of a "pitch..."

You'll need a helper, too.

How about a strapping bronzed Aussie in shirtless over-alls? LOL. (I can't believe I just wrote that.)

You know, someone worthy of your attention.... LOL

LOL, that would be a funny show! I would be mostly trying to hide from the camera, but viewers would love the helper's Aussie accent.

Seriously, what my latest "correction" shows is that I should have done all that blocking AT THE START instead of thinking that my easier, shortcut approach would work. Nope!

At least now I know how to fix it for cabinets #1 and #2 AND how to do it RIGHT the first time for basement cabinets #4 and #5 (unless I take #5 to the master bedroom, which is possible -- well, my contractors would do that as I would not attempt the stairs to the 2nd floor ... unless, hmmm, maybe I could make a pulley system ... ).