wingless' Antique Bassick 900 Three Wheel Furniture Dolly Restoration

[wingless]

Long, long ago I somehow got this set of four antique Bassick 900 three wheel furniture dollies. These might have been in a house I purchased right out of college, but I don't remember.

 

They are really handy, put a leg into a pocket then roll the heavy furniture around.

 

The wheels all had severe age degradation, then eventually one broke off, greatly decreasing the utility of this set.

 

I have an upcoming need for this dolly set, so I decided repair, then also decided restoration was in-order.

 

Much to my surprise, Bassick is still in existence, established in 1878, still making casters under the Shepherd brand name. A set of twelve Shepherd 2" diameter polyolefin caster, 90 lbs capacity each were purchased from Amazon for this restoration. It appears that Bassick has discontinued offering dollies for sale.

 

The old casters were popped out of the dollies, then the cast iron was sanded, filed, scraped and otherwise cleaned up to remove the casting marks and crud prior to painting. 

 

The new caster design is an improvement over the old. The new casters have ball bearing swivels. The old casters used the stem within the cast iron dolly bore for the swivel function.

 

Once the dollies were cleaned up, the caster holes were masked and the cast iron was painted in semi gloss black Rustoleum Professional High Performance Spray Enamel spray paint.

 

After the paint dried the new Shepherd casters were pushed into the dollies. 

 

The caster set stacks nicely for storage between usage.

 

This dolly set will now outlast me...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wingless]

An online search has revealed that there are also newer versions of the three wheel Bassick dolly.

 

The newer versions are much lighter duty. The newer versions are made of stamped steel instead of cast iron. The newer versions have smaller / lighter duty casters. There are currently several listings on eBay for those newer Bassick dollies.

 

Here are some images from eBay that are representative of the currently available Bassick dolly listings.

 

 

 

[Eric - TIA]

Wow, you made those look brand new.  Thanks for sharing.  Your right, the newer ones look like light-duty.  I like yours as they should hold up for another 100 yrs.

[wingless]

My immediate requirement for this dolly set was to shuffle around my heavy welded steel frame / thick glass top table on my front patio, over a paver surface. The table frame diameter is about 3' and the thick glass top diameter is 4'.

 

Moving this table w/o the dolly set is a two person job. It is easiest to first remove the table top, then reposition the table frame.

 

My first effort using the dolly set resulted in the table feet shifting around in the dolly pockets, until the dolly would tilt, inhibiting desired movement.

 

My solution was to make a paper template of the dolly pocket. That template was used to make four plywood inserts out of scrap plywood. The plywood insert was drilled to have a hole matching the foot on the bottom of the table legs.

 

The result is exactly what I hoped / expected.

 

Now I can easily move this table around on my pavers, permitting me to repair / paint those exterior surfaces w/o the table being in the way.

 

 

 

 

 

[Eric - TIA]

Nice.  Always great to have something work out.  I like the idea of the plywood inserts with the legs so they don't slip.  

[wingless]

Completed usage of these restored / updated dolly set.

 

It worked out sooo well for shuttling this large / heavy / awkward table around while working on the area, then replacing at the correct location.

 

Now back to the tool room shelf.

 

 

[Eric - TIA]

They came out nice.  I like how you put the plywood in there also.  A good dolly set is always handy.