So I am standing in front of the mill (on concrete) and realize that I need to buy a mat to ease my aching joints. Of course, I come here to get some experienced opinions on which mats work best and what size do you recommend. I found a likely mat at Costco in both 2' x 3' and 3' x 5' sizes and think the 2'x3' might be the one to get but there is a local company in my area that makes the same mat to any size you want at basically the same cost per foot. What do you guys think? Here's the link to costco.
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.asp...opnav=&s=1
Lowes sells them for about 15 bucks a pop. 3' x 4', I think. I bought a bunch, and on areas I stand a lot (in front of the workbench) I doubled them up for extra comfort.
I'm working on an adaptation of this
[
attachment=1851].
My problem is to get casters that won't bung up with swarf.
I'm gonna look into that Ed. How do you think the lazy boy's casters will handle that?
I made a sandwich: 3/8" plywood on the bottom, a Sears workshop mat in the middle, and 1/4" plywood on top. This prevents swarf from becoming embedded in the mat.
Actually I simplified a bit. As both my lathe and mill are mounted on 4x4 timbers, I could afford to place 4 1x3 strips (strapping) under the sandwich, giving additional yield and spring to the upper surface (at the cost of 3/4" rise in height). The sandwich is screwed into the strips, holding the whole assembly together.
It's comfy and works for me ...
(06-14-2012, 06:26 PM)stevec Wrote: [ -> ]I'm gonna look into that Ed. How do you think the lazy boy's casters will handle that?
Steve,
The Lazy Boy casters would probably not be good for that matting. Change to some larger diameter casters and you should be good to go.
Ed
Mine is about 4x6' one inch thick the kind with one inch holes. The holes catch swarf,
nice on my feet and as for dropping say a nut (that always dissapears) it will catch
that too. Somebody gave it to me long ago. Just pick it up and sweep. Its a catch all.
(06-14-2012, 10:49 PM)henryarnold Wrote: [ -> ] (06-14-2012, 05:38 PM)EdAK Wrote: [ -> ]I use these.
http://www.menards.com/main/flooring/uti...126534.htm
One side is colored, the other side is gray.
http://www.norsk-stor.com/24.html
Ed
Ed,
I use the same mat tiles but one thing I don't like is the lathe swarf sometimes sticks into the mat. Seems like there must be mat that is just cushioned enough to be comfortable but not so soft it picks up swarf.
Henry Arnold
Henry,
Yup, the swarf does tend to stick to the matting if it's hot but it doesn't bother me. I just pick it out with a needle nose pliers when I clean up. I like that matting because I'm small and a lot of the anti fatigue mats are made from too hard of a material for my weight so they don't cushion my feet much. The foam matting works great for me.
Ed