Protecting garage floor when welding???????

[Garage Dweller]

Looking for ideas to protect my painted garage floor from weld splater. I know that I can purchase a large weld blanket for a couple hundred bucks but I was woundering if I could lay down some visquen (however you spell it) and maybe put a layer of sand on top for protection.
Any ideas????

[VR4 Shaun]

A piece of sheet metal would work. I wouldn't mess with sand, that sounds messy. In the past I have used cardboard but bigger pieces of slag will burn through. Maybe doubling or tripling the cardboard would work. I will say that when using cardboard there was ALWAYS a fire extinguisher (clean agent or halon, no messy powder) within reach...

[1993KA24DET]

Cardboard is what I have used and another plus is that its comfotable to lay on if working under your project. Just one other thing about painting to protect your drive way, I use a garden hose to coat the concrete with water to catch the over spray

[Boostaddiction]

Use a non-spattering process like TIG- Then you don't have to protect against the problem.

Absent that, use welding blankets. Cardboard is a fire hazard, sheet metal is usually hard to get in the right size (because the optimal size is different for every situation), may be a source for unexpected ground paths.

You can get welding blankets for stupid cheap at Harbor freight.

I have several, but they tend to stay folded up as I generally just don't need floor protection when using TIG. They do come out when the heat wrench gets fired up, though...

[westtexass2k]

I had a air conditioning/heating company that makes its own ducting bend me a few large pans about 4x4 out of galvanized metal. You can slide them in place they are very light weight and easy to handle. You can always butt them together for larger jobs. I often stand in mine while welding and catch the slag.

TIG is great for clean weld and no clean up. It also take 10 times as long to do. If I weld aluminum I will either tig or gas weld depending on the application. I use the TIG for the occasional stainless item.

I prefer the mig for building chassis or items with alot of welding its just faster. If you really have the time and only doing a few welds then TIG. IMO