Floor for Lathe

[Jim Young]

I am about to get another lathe and decided I will try a different area of my basement. The area I have picked out had indoor/outdoor carpeting on the floor. Since I don't want to go through the trouble of removing it and scraping the glue off the floor I thought I would just lay down some chipboard. The chipboard would help make the cleanup easier. Anyone tried this or have any suggestions? I don't want to get involved with installing some high dollar flooring where I have to dissasemble half of my basement.

Here is the area that I'm thinking of using.
http://www.simoli.net/images/Woodworking/Shop/Shop%20Tools/jy_shop7_12312004.jpg

[Jim Becker]

I would think that the carpet would be somewhat comfortable to stand on...whereas chip board would be...not. But if you must, a couple sheets of T&G subfloor material would work nicely as a "floating floor" over the carpet. Glue 'em together, let it sit over night and then move in the lathe.

[Matt Meiser]

The problem I see with OSB is that it is no where close to smooth so it will get dusty and be hard to clean. What about using a cheap laminate floor? More expensive, but they can be had for well under $1/sqft these days. And with the carpet you could probably skip the foam pad.

Oh, and that dust collection pipe in the background looks aweful small. :)

[Mark Pruitt]

Jim, I wouldn't sweat it--I'd just use what's there. It's indoor/outdoor carpet, so it was made to get dirty.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Jim, my shop is also located in the basement and is mostly covered with indoor/outdoor carpeting. At first I thought it was going to be a big problem with wood chips and dust but have found that with time I like it better than areas of my shop that are without the carpeting. Like Jim mentioned - it is a lot easier to stand on and with time that does become an issue. Clean up has never been a problem except when turning bowl blanks with really green wood. When that happens I just wait a little bit for the chips to dry out and then go back and use the shop vac.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Jim I agree and wouldn't sweat it. Leave the carpet and don't look back.