Casters for carts

At the Library of Virginia, our Artwork Curator is responsible for
the Commonwealth's vast artwork collection which consists mainly of
portraits scattered around various offices in various buildings.
Frequently, paintings must be moved and put in short or long term
storage, taken to our conservation studio or switched to satisfy a
loan request.  She has developed a wonderfully satisfactory packing
system using mirror-packs. To then move the packed paintings, a
"panel moving" cart was purchased, similar to those used to haul
drywall, sheets of plywood.  With its three removable uprights, it
works perfectly, except for the casters.

Initially, she purchased the "quiet" rolling casters which have a
"soft" wheel as opposed to the harder, standard casters; all four
casters swivel.  They do nothing towards reducing vibration and are
not all that "quiet."  In addition, since we almost always are
moving paintings between buildings, the cart travels along asphalt
parking lots, brick pavements, over door thresholds, and carpets.
Even in our own building, there are abrupt thresholds to "hurdle."
Because of these rough terrains, the soft wheels have apparently
been damaged and now cause more vibration. Next we purchased
pneumatic casters which wonderfully and gently overcome all those
obstacles, *except* that turning the cart is now near impossible,
especially when weighted down, because these rubber wheels won't
spin to readjust themselves.  During our first outing with the
pneumatic tires, we found ourselves trapped in an elevator unable to
roll the casters turned around.

We are clearly frustrated by this situation and can not seem to find
casters that will both absorb shock and vibration adequately, yet
turn on a dime.  Unless we can find another caster, we feel
compelled to put the original casters back on the cart.  We have
considered trying various types of cushioning material between the
caster plate and the cart frame. However, the ideal caster seems to
be one whose outer layer is like the so-called "soft" material of
the original casters around a pneumatic core to absorb vibration.

A search of the CoOL and Museum-L archives yielded little.  Any
ideas? I put this problem before your collective knowledge and
ingenuity.  Thank you,

Bryan L. W. Draper
Special Collections Assistant
The Library of Virginia
800 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219-1905
804-692-3704
Fax: 804-692-3709


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:6
                   Distributed: Friday, July 21, 2000
                        Message Id: cdl-14-6-016
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