Workbench 2.0 was finished tonight. There is a big difference in the sturdiness and look from the old workbench. Overall the height of the new bench is better ( slightly lower ).

The bench is also much flatter, as confirmed with the level ( made from 6061-T6! ).

Underneath the spars and skins can be kept safe, so we even gained additional room in the garage.

It only took two of us, an hour, a plywood plank and some cinder blocks to lift the frame onto the new base. Shimming, leveling, and attaching the table top took a few more hours.

Here is the first iteration of the old bench, followed by the second iteration:


v1.0:

v1.5:

Once again work is keeping me from the project. The workbench was a forbidding project for some reason, but we now have a plan, materials, and most of the work finished. We are going to use the wing crate as a base ( as mentioned previously ), but the question of how to add legs has been perplexing.

We finally settled on the simplest, most stable, and most ghetto idea: cinder blocks. The crate's frame rails will sit on slats which will rest on the cinder blocks, kinda like a mattress and a box spring. The only problem is lifting the crate... a problem that should be easily overcome with the help of a few people.

Using the crate has many advantages. It's better built than I could do. It already exists. It's about the right size. The wing skins and spars can be safely stored inside, yet easily retrieved. It's easy to make.

We bought 16 cinder blocks. The idea is to have four "legs" per side, with each "leg" two cinder block high. Each cinder block "leg" will have a footprint of 16"x8" and will be 6" high. .

Tuesday night we spent one hour closing the two remaining flaperon halves. Deburring, corrosion protecting and riveting are all activities I can now do in my sleep.

The fuel system and wing crate arrived on Wednesday just before Thanksgiving, and Saturday evening the inventory was done.

The fuel caps do not look like they are vented, nor do the tanks look like ten gallons capacity.

Before work on the wing can begin, the workshop needs to be redone. The table I built is not perfectly flat for it's 8 foot length AND it needs to be extended an additional four feet. My plan is to use the crate the wings came in as a workbench frame. All I need to do is raise the crate an additional two feet and provide for an adjustable shim method to keep everything level. I'm going to use the MDF from the current bench as the table top.

Project Status:
Wings: Inventory complete
Flaperons: ( DONE! ) 23.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1h, 1h, 1h, 1.5h, 3h, 6h, 3h, 4h, 1h )
Paint Design: 2 hours spent ( 1h, 1h )
Elevator DONE!: ~31.5 hours spent ( 3h, 1.5h, 3h, .5h, 3.5h, 2h, 4h, 1.5h, 2h, 4.5h, 1h, 6h )
Horizontal Stabilizer DONE!: ~28 hours spent, 3 pieces replaced ( 3h, 2h, 2h, 2h, .5h, 1.5h, 3.5h, 1.5h, 5, 4.5, 2h, .5h )
Rudder DONE!, minus horn : ~16 hours spent, ( ~8h, ~8h )
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Total Done: ~102 hours