Casters on foam floor mats

[Ben Hatcher]

How durable are the EVA foam mats Harbor Freight has on sale this month with respect to rolling power tools on mobile bases over them? Would carpet tape or contact cement be sufficient to prevent the tiles from bunching up and sliding out of position?

[glenn bradley]

The ones from Sam's club offer a better value. I have mats from 3 different providers all will crush with any sort of focused weight on them. Walking and standing is fine. setting a carcass on them with a wide flat surface down is fine. The leg of a stool or rolling a 4" caster across them equals a crush that may or may not recover in my experience. I use them as anti fatigue mats and they work fine. As a general floor covering, not so much.

[Jim Rimmer]

I have the Rockler mats and they won't hardly handle the weight of my cart that has my shop vac & Dust Deputy on it without bunching up. Can't imagine rolling a heavy machine tool over them.

[Van Huskey]

Machines on all but the heaviest (very expensive) mats is a recipe for bunching, the HF ones will NOT support the weight.

[Randy Rose]

Tractor Supply has horse stall mats ( SKU 2219003) that are 5/8ths thick and extremely dense. 4' x 6' mat weighs 80lbs. $40 each = $1.66 per sq ft

[Ben Hatcher]

@Randy, thanks for the tip. I've tried to find rubber mats for a reasonable price for some time to no avail. Horse stall mats sound like just the ticket.

[Ted Calver]

There was a thread here (which I can't find) where someone outfitted their shop with mats purchased from a fitness center going out of business. The mats seemed to support heavy tools on casters. I looked for similar mats and found them here:
http://www.greatmats.com/products/ru...terlocking.php
but have not purchased them yet. You might check them out.