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I have an ikea östavall coffee table. This particular model~

It is great however there is a problem which I didn't realize before buying it. I need to move it about 30cm twice a day because I have a convertible sofa next to it where I sleep. The floor is wooden (parquet) and I'm a renter in this apartment so I'd like to avoid scratching it if possible, to avoid paying for damages when I leave.

For now I sticked 4 small FIXA floor protectors on each "leg", but everytime I slide it they rub onto crevices on the floor and get peeled off, I'm guessing it's not gonna last very long also even with protectors I noticed some scratches.

I looked at casters to move it more easily but the legs(?) or the coffee table are very thin (about 18mm wide), so regular plate casters are too wide for it. There are some L shaped casters but I couldn't find ones with stoppers + no swivel (only need to move in 1 axis). I think stoppers would be useful because I don't want it to slide everytime I open the tabletop to access the storage. Also, I'm not sure if casters with screws will work because I don't know if the material of the table allows screws. There are sticky casters too which don't require screws but they are made for light loads and the table is pretty heavy, especially when the storage part is full.

Is there a caster that's (thin+has stopper+can carry the table) or is there a different solution without casters that you can suggest?

uylmz
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You say "about 18mm wide". I reckon pretty much exactly 18mm, because it's a sort of standard, but you should check.

I thought I'd seen something before, and I've found it (unfortunately on Amazon). I searched for caster with slot 18mm. You'd then drill the legs through the hole in the top part, and use a machine screw and nut to secure them (I suggest a button-head hex screw for appearance). These swivel but 2 in each set of 4 lock.

Non-castering wheels with such slots (if I could find the right size for you) would have wheels fixed to run parallel to the leg panels. This may or may not be the axis you want. Ikea themselves use something similar - the bottom drawers of some of their wardrobes are not really drawers but boxes on wheels. These are similar but have plates, not slots. They'd last a little while on very smooth floors but would fail pretty quickly.

This is from the bottom of a Malm (I think) bottom drawer. The edge is the same 17-18mm you've got, and chipboard. I've backed out one of the screws to show you the relative size. Note that if you go down this route you should use a pilot hole a little longer than the screw (and a fairly tight one at that) and do the screw up by hand stopping when it feels like the head has firmly contacted the bracket. Driving it in with power tools is far too likely to ruin the hole. This has held pretty well, on carpet, and if it starts to loosen you can fill the hole with epoxy and re-drill it. But in the case of drawers it's unlikely that someone will deliberately or accidentally try to move it sideways.

Ikea Malm wheel

These non-castering wheels exert less leverage on the screws than casters (which are always taller), and the direction of forces on the pair of screws is less likely to cause damage than it would be at right angles.

Chris H
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