In Shop Blog, Tricks of the Trade

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A mobile workbench is handy in a small shop—until you want it to stand still! After outfitting my bench with casters, I found that their locks didn’t prevent the bench from wiggling.

My solution is to add levers to each leg. They work like a cam. With the lever in the horizontal position, the bench rests on the casters. In the vertical position, the casters are raised off the floor about 1/4″, so the bench stays put, sitting on wide, flat feet.

Each cam is made from two pieces of 3/4″ plywood— the second piece is a spacer behind the lever for hand clearance. Cut the spacer’s shape to match the cam’s foot, to give the foot a larger area of contact with the floor. Attach each assembly with a bolt and lock nut.

—Mark Thiel

cam style bench feet

cam style bench feet

This workshop tip originally appeared in the April 2019 issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine #245.


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Comments
  • aaronk

    a clevis pin (eg, dowel) through the cam and into the actual bench leg when in the stationary position will keep it all 100 % solid.

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