Green is the thing these days, and while I am not sure I want the COLOR green in any of my airplanes, I don?t mind taking dual advantage of an opportunity to make a few ?green? points. In this case, you might say I got a triple score - recycling materials, avoiding chopping stuff up for the garbage man, and a nice (if utilitarian) work platform/cart for the next stage of the RV-3?s construction.
After getting the fuselage out of the jig a week ago, we needed to keep the clutter down (and still be able to fit the two flying airplanes) in the hangar, so the newly flipped canoe got put back on top of the jig, right-side-up. This is, of course, too high for practical work on the interior, but it was a good position for some additional riveting we needed to do after the flip. Meanwhile, I turned over the options for a work platform at a better height, and flipped through the available ?on-hand? materials from which such a stand might be made.
Yesterday I got out the woodworking tools and cobbled together a nice solution that is sturdy, portable, and allows good access to everything we need to work on. No, it?s not a rotisserie - we really didn?t have a good location for that, and the -3 is narrow enough that I think we can work without that luxury - but it sure is portable. And boy, does it recycle! The basic ?frame? is the bottom of my old Mattituck Engine crate from 2004. Back when that engine arrives, I put castors on the bottom of the crate to facilitate moving it around the shop. Once the engine was removed, it became a utility pallet, used around the shop and hangar for a number of purposes. Now it formed a nice stable platform for the center of the -3 Fuse.
I needed something to keep the aft fuselage off the ground, and since I had a couple of castors on hand, I only needed some structure - and I had some scraps of 2x10 left over from the jig build that served the purpose just fine. Along with one end of the disassembled wing crate, I had a nice support. Tying the two pieces of ?rolling stock? together is one of the side boards from the wing crate - it even still has ?Partain? scrawled in spray paint on the side. Since a 3/4? board on edge is a bit weak, I added a 2x4 left over from the jig project to form a ?T?-structure (load analysis will be forthcoming?.yeah, right!). Additional support material to build the fuselage up to a nice working height came form the fuselage crate and miscellaneous scrap. The fuse sits supported by the stub spars and a cradle under the F-308 bulkhead. And the entire thing rolls around the shop effortlessly - now as we change tasks, we can move the fuse to the appropriate workbench, rather than move tools to the job.
Basic platform - ready for support structure to bring the fuse to working height:
It took about three hours of shop time to build it - half that time was scrounging appropriate scrap. Why not just cut down the fuselage jig to an appropriate height? Well, I have grown fond of that jig in the short time since I built it - almost feel like it is part of the family. It?s already promised to at least one -3 builder looking to get started on a fuselage, so I know it will have a good home (and most importantly, will be out of MY way?.).
The final result of the recycling project:
Paul
Recycling
Linear Mode
