A very lucky day!

I have a story that might be worth sharing. Last week some friends helped me move my project to the airport. Knowing that the first task once there would be putting the gear and wheels on, I took it off the typical wood in the wing slot stand and put it up on new, tall adjustable steel sawhorses. This got it up high enough to mount the wheels etc.

So, I spent a couple of nights crouching inside the fuse...up on the sawhorses, putting in bolts etc. Then Bob torqued the bolts from below while I held the wrenches in the gear towers. Today....we installed the axles, brakes and put the wheels and tires on. Sounds pretty simple eh?

Well....I am tightening the right side wheel nut by hand while Bill Truax has just fit the left wheel and started threading the nut on....and the fuselage starts slowing lowering to the ground like someone was lowering a car jack. I was thinking "what the ****" and looked over at Bill just as both mains kiss the floor. It took me a second to look at the saw horse....to find it had bent two legs and squatted. Had Bill T put that wheel on 15 seconds later the fuselage would have sat down on the brake caliper instead of the wheel. Pretty good timing! Woohoo! She is on the gear....and apparently wasn't willing to wait another minute! On those saw horses for 5 days....collapsed 15 seconds after the wheel is placed on the axle.....someone up there loves Marines!

Don't buy these Home Depot saw horses and expect to put any weight on them.

You lucked out there Dude!

rockwoodrv9 said:

You lucked out there Dude!

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Good living and a positive attitude is all it takes Rock! I find that if I just project a positive energy out into the universe, well....the universe bends to my will.

Or maybe its just lots of blind, dumb luck!

ColoRv said:

Woohoo! She is on the gear....and apparently wasn't willing to wait another minute!

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Ha! I love that, Bill. Perhaps now that she rushed to get on her gear, she's going to push you along to get in the air as well. May I suggest no "high-speed taxi" plans until you're ready to fly!

--
Stephen

Looks like the first landing was a greaser then...

Lift It

Bill, get yourself an engine lift/ cherry picker. You can lift the plane with that. Use straps on the engne mount, when you need to change tires, or work on the breaks, ect.
You got lucky!

Thanks for the heads-up. My wife got me two of those exact sawhorses for Christmas. So far I've only used them for light stuff. From the photo, you haven't even hung the engine yet?

I own 3 of those saw horses.....

But I have not raised them up beyond standard height for anything yet - will be cautious about that when the time comes, thanks to your post. Had not seen or heard from Bill since he looked at my HS long ago - if he is now considered to be a lucky charm, then I feel pretty good about my build so far. Assume from the looks of the photo that the "Bob" is Mr. Markert. Love that hangar, and the restroom deco job in the background!

One suggestion though, that HS of yours is begging for someone to write "Wash me!" all over the top of it - nice hand prints!

Build on!

I've always said I would rather be lucky than good. I haven't won any lotteries, but I'm still alive after nearly 63 years.

Jim Bower
RV-6A N143DJ, flying

Yet another builder with those exact sawhorses. I wish I was up to the point of actually having something heavy enough to put on a sawhorse.

Thanks for the heads up. I thought I was being smart when I avoided the plastic ones.

ColoRv said:

Had Bill T put that wheel on 15 seconds later the fuselage would have sat down on the brake caliper instead of the wheel. Pretty good timing! Woohoo! She is on the gear....and apparently wasn't willing to wait another minute! On those saw horses for 5 days....collapsed 15 seconds after the wheel is placed on the axle.....someone up there loves Marines!

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Both of you need to proceed direct to the nearest store that sells lottery tickets and buy one each.

I too,

have the same sawhorses. Thanks for the warning, as I will hopefully be at that stage of the build by the end of the year.

bought the same ones but added angle aluminum to reinforce the legs from spreading.

Never extended the legs all the way up... I guess I was lucky also since I had a motorcycle platform lift for quite a while to use under the belly of the fuselage prior to installing the gear.

Smilin' Jack

The Real Deal

If you want the real deal, then buy the Fulton TS-510S Adjustable Steel Sawhorse. they are the original manufactures and their stands are rated for 1000#.
I have a set that is over 15 years old and one of the best made tools I have.

http://www.fultoncorp.com/sawhorsefrontpage.cfm

I also have three of those, don't they rate them at 1,000 Lb?

Not sure what they are rated at, but I can tell you I lifted the fuselage by the motor mount by myself to put it up on that saw horse...so surely we aren't talking about a lot of weight here. In order to gain the clearance we needed to mount the wheels, the horse was extended to its highest notch on the adjustable legs, but again....if I can lift it, I felt like the horse should be able to hold it. I was mistaken.

Using some angle to keep the legs from spreading is a great idea and would have likely saved the horse had I suspected it would struggle with the weight. Be careful out there....I think I burned all of the available luck and there may not be any left for the next guy!

Btw, the fuselage had been stripped down for transport to the airport. I was trying to save the backs of those helping me carry it up the hill and lift it over the fence from my back yard. Panel, floors, rudder pedals, sticks...everything I could think of had been removed to make it as light as possible and the horse couldn't take it at its most extended slot. There may have been as much as 200lbs on that horse when it collapsed.

I suspect it was ok when we had it lower. But the hour or so it was fully extended proved to much. In hindsight, I could have bolted a 4x6 to the top instead of a 2x4 to gain some height and stayed off the most extended leg slot. If I were to do it again though, I think I would have bolted the wood back into the wing slot and used extended 2x6 legs to achieve the height....and a sawhorse for backup....and an engine hoist backing up the backup....and perhaps a parachute.

TangoPapa said:

If you want the real deal, then buy the Fulton TS-510S Adjustable Steel Sawhorse. they are the original manufactures and their stands are rated for 1000#.
I have a set that is over 15 years old and one of the best made tools I have.

http://www.fultoncorp.com/sawhorsefrontpage.cfm

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A little caution here....there is no capacity listed for the TS-510S. The others are listed as 1000 lbs per pair.

The TS-510S and copies are probably 500 lb sawhorses when used without the leg extensions....compare with the TS-110S.

Fixed legs.

DanH said:

A little caution here....there is no capacity listed for the TS-510S. The others are listed as 1000 lbs per pair.

The TS-510S and copies are probably 500 lb sawhorses when used without the leg extensions....compare with the TS-110S.

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Your right Dan, I have the ones with fixed legs. Still a better product that the cheap Chinese nock offs from HD.