MadModder

The Shop => Our Shop => Topic started by: klank on May 27, 2009, 09:25:46 AM

Title: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: klank on May 27, 2009, 09:25:46 AM
Floor covering in the workshop has been dealt with elsewhere, but I learned a big lesson from my dog.
Neeps - his name - is a venerable old Westy - going blind (diabetes) but quite happy and companionable, but has to use his nose more to get around since his fading eyesight.
I had been machining quite a bit of Ally in the 'shop - which is my garage - plain, cold, rough finished concrete floor.

I usually sweep up several times in a days work.
That night, I noticed Neeps was worrying and licking at one of his front foot pads - discovered a curly piece of Ally swarf sticking into it quite deep - felt mortified. He rarely comes into the 'shop.
Turns out I had trodden a bit of swarf into the house when getting a coffee.
Wife not best pleased either.
Never again, I decided.

Concrete floor also produces concrete dust - continuously - every time you move anything over its surface, not a particularly nice surface to touch/walk on for any length of time either.

Cannot find a source of cheap thick plastic mats (as suggested in other posts), don't like duck-boards (things slip through the cracks).
Went to our local carpet/flooring supplier and blagged an off-cut roll of cushion backed vinyl flooring in plain cream!! (A most un-popular colour - got it for next to nothing).

Cut to shape and laid all around the areas I usually stand/work at (mill/lathe/bench etc.), under the table/desk etc.
Being cream, it reflects the light better, shows up any swarf, and a bonus - much easier to find those little bits that drop on the floor and roll away.

Far less concrete dust and much easier to sweep through and see where the swarf is.

Oh, and I put a thick coconut door mat by the exit to the garage - and use it!
Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: Darren on May 27, 2009, 10:06:21 AM
Yes I worry about the pets too, though they are not allowed in the workshop for those exact reasons.

The dog would love to come in, shame  :(

I used that 2 pack floor paint in mine, similar to roof expoy, expensive, but it covers really well and is quite tough. Far better than normal floor paint, but it's not cheap.


Still gets chewed up by swarf thoug,

Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: John Hill on May 27, 2009, 02:40:28 PM
My garage opens directly into the house so no tracking swarf through allowed!

A broom should be the answer but mine just stands in the corner and seems to do nothing all day,  my answer is 'garage shoes'.
Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: SPiN Racing on May 28, 2009, 08:05:33 AM
You all saw my garage....

Our 4 Chihuahuas cant go in there..

They would get lost
Get eaten by a fruit rat if there is one in there
OR get eaten by the spider we saw once about 9 months ago... Dinner plate sized. No Lie. And no I have not been able to find him, or any trace of him... but my son and I watched him run away and hide in the tires. <shiver>
And then there is the swarf... some as big as they are.
Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: Bernd on May 28, 2009, 08:50:21 AM
Spin,

Sounds like it's time to get bigger dogs.  :lol:

Bernd
Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: Darren on May 28, 2009, 09:33:32 AM
You all saw my garage....


Get eaten by a fruit rat

A what !!  :jaw:

Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: SPiN Racing on May 28, 2009, 07:09:36 PM
Fruit Rats!

They are like a cross between a Rattus Rattus and a Norway Rat. Basically.. a big dark gray rat. About 9 inches long on Average. Unlike Posums we have randomly around florida.. yes.. in the suburbs.

They look like this:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/AwesomePossum-AmericanOpossum.jpg)


Of course.. the spider Im referring to.. is the Florida Wood Spider... Also known as a huntsman spider if I remember correctly. BIG... like the size of a dinner plate.
Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: Darren on May 28, 2009, 07:24:50 PM
Blimey, I hear you have some other more menacing life forms out there as well. I hear people don't let their pets out untended?

Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: usn ret on May 29, 2009, 02:38:23 AM
How big????? Sounds like a Texas tale to me.  I could have told that in a past life, the spider would have been much larger. :thumbup:
Cliff :beer:
Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: PTsideshow on May 29, 2009, 12:17:10 PM
   Roof Rat: Also known as the Black Rat, Ship Rat, & here in Florida, the Fruit or Citrus Rat. This is the only rat we have to worry about here in Orlando. All of the rat photos you see on this website are from Roof Rats. I have never encountered a single Norway Rat down here. Roof rats are usually gray to slightly brown in color. Adults are typically 8 inches long, with a 9 inch long tail. The tail is long, dark, and scaley. Roof rats prefer warmer, more tropical climates than
Norways. Roof Rats get their name because they spend about 90% of their time above ground. The live in trees, run on power lines, the tops of fences, and they really love to live in the attics of houses. Females have 4-6 litters per year, with 6-8 young per litter. They are fully weaned within a month, and sexually mature in as little as two months. They don't live very long in the wild, seldom more than a year. Roof Rats are nocturnal, which is why you hear them scampering in your attic in the middle of the night.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Florida+fruit+rat&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a (http://www.google.com/search?q=Florida+fruit+rat&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a) Go to Orlando rat control.com site

There is more information on them buggers than most people want to know, :lol: Wife's family moved to Florida almost 30 years ago. Her step father was always yapping on everything in FLA was better, nicer or bigger. He started up about the citrus rats and palmetto bugs. They were bigger at his house etc. He liked to went ballistic When I pointed out that palmetto bugs are cockroaches plain and simple and that he should stop feeding them and a rat is a rat, no matter what fancy name you call it  :doh: I think that time he quite talking to me for the week he was here. :lol: :lol:
http://search.ifas.ufl.edu/search?q=Palmetto+bugs&spell=1&access=p&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&client=edis_frontend&site=edis&proxystylesheet=edis_frontend (http://search.ifas.ufl.edu/search?q=Palmetto+bugs&spell=1&access=p&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&client=edis_frontend&site=edis&proxystylesheet=edis_frontend)

I mean most people understand that due to the semi tropical climate, the insects will love it.

The new problem is the released non native snakes and lizards and fish that people had for pets and release in the glades etc. I guess the iguanas have just about taken over in some places in the keys.

Not as bad as the cane toads in OZ. No native controls(enemies). But the most amazing thing. Was they didn't check out was that the life cycles of the cane beetle and the cane toad were completely opposite. If you every get to watch a program called Cane Toads it was on the discovery channel years ago. tape it watch it. It is informative but it is done in a tongue planted in cheek style. It will have you laughing to the point of crying in sections, with the narrator,music and some of the local characters they talk to!
glen
Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: Darren on May 29, 2009, 03:58:43 PM
Sounds like a comon garden/sewer rat then  :ddb:
Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: bogstandard on May 29, 2009, 04:57:29 PM
No Darren,

Those are only found in courts and parliament.


Bogs
Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: Darren on May 29, 2009, 05:01:46 PM
Very apt John  :clap:
Title: Re: Clean The Floor Up!
Post by: SPiN Racing on May 30, 2009, 02:14:49 AM
He he he Yes Fruit Rats are just that... Big Rats.
The Possums are orders more scary.. cause they are like ugly giant rats, or cats.. or something.. you see them at night... near trash cans.. you go over and yell at them to scare them away.. 50 percent of the time they run.. 50 percent of the time they turn on you and Hiss with thier scary rotted teeth..

The Spiders are my weakness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider)

"While frequently very large – in Laos, Heteropoda maxima males can attain a legspan of 250–300 mm (9.8–11.8 in) – they are (like the vast majority of spiders) not deadly to humans. They do bite if provoked, but the victim will suffer only minor swelling and localized pain, and will recover in a day or two. Some larger types resemble tarantulas, and may be mistaken for them, as huntsmans are related (which is why the term "Australian tarantula" has sometimes been used to describe them by the Natural History Museum in Sydney). Huntsman spiders can generally be identified by their legs, which, rather than being jointed vertically relative to the body, are twisted such that the legs extend forward in a crab-like fashion."

I dont really care that they are non-poisonous per se... I simply DO NOT want to get bit by a spider with 12" leg span.