Rotisserie question

[Maxrate]

So I?m about to tip the canoe and want to put the fuselage on a rotisserie for a while. I want to use the engine mount holes in the firewall that are factory pre-punched for the engine mount but am concerned about committing to drilling these holes without having the engine mount available. Question is, how close do those holes match up to the Vans engine mount?

I?ve seen a lot of good ideas and pics on other build sites but any additional input and pics on a rotisserie are appreciated. Thanks!

[tgmillso]

If I was in your boat, I would not drill the holes until I had the engine mount. You might get lucky and the mount may perfectly match the standard dimensions, however mine didn't. I built a rolling fuselage cart that could converted into a rotisserie. Because I was going to paint the aircraft myself, I wanted to be able to rotate it so that I could paint underneath. One thing led to another and before I knew it, I had the engine mount on and it on its gear, so I never used the rotisserie component anyway. I ended up painting it underneath just laying on a garage creeper, and to be honest the paint job underneath came out the best on the entire aircraft. It really wasn't so hard after all and the rotisserie was not a requirement. There are a lot of people that will tell you that they wouldn't get out of bed in the morning without their rotisserie, which is fair enough, but frankly if I was to do it again, I would have skipped building it and just used the rolling fuselage cart.

Tom.

[sahrens]

When I installed the engine mount the holes in the firewall were close but not perfectly aligned with the engine mount. I suggest waiting until you get your engine mount before drilling those holes.

There use to be several suggestions for temporarily attaching an automotive engine stand to the fuselage. A search here may find some of those, although many of the photos have gone offline. One method used two pieces of wood bolted together that sandwiched the firewall and support angles. The bolts went through the wood in the opening in the firewall. An engine was then bolted to the wood. You need to support the tail, but that can be done with an old office chair, which can be raised or lowered as needed.

Here is a review of a commercially available option. This one uses the per-existing holes and bolts to angle.

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...ght=rotisserie

[Maxrate]

Scott thanks just the link I was looking for. Two solid ?waits?. Wait it is. Glad I asked!!