SteelMike

SteelMike

Well Known Member
Curious if you all can help me out. I've "mocked up" my shop with car-in-the-garage and the two wing stands. I'm trying to decide if the shop will be too cramped to build both wings at the same time. In the picture, the 4x4s represent where the wings would be on their stands, should I install the stands where I'm tentatively planning on installing them.

I've put the car in the garage and the DRDT-2 in the frame for size reference. Do you think this will be too cramped? Anyone else build both wings in the one-car side of a two-car garage?

By the way, how thick are the wings?


Wing%20Stand%20002.jpg
 
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I built the majority of my 6A in a 10' * 16' shed. I later added 3' to the back for the fuselage. Later, I moved it to a new house with a three car garage. This worked well for mounting the wings; yet when they were removed, most of the plane sat in just one bay of the garage.

L.Adamson
 
Did you build the wings at the same time as above, or one at a time, and do you think the fit is too tight in the picture?
 
One at a time

Dude, I'm not saying it can't be done, but it is going to be extremely tight working between the two wings if you build them at the same time. If working in one half of a 2-car garage, I firmly believe one wing at a time should be your strategy. When working, you're going to have to sit between them and work, so you'll probably need a good 2.5-3' to maneuver.

My $0.02, YMMV
 
Move the bench

My 2 cents. Move your bench to the end wall instead of the side wall so you can move the wings further apart.

Just for round numbers, wings are about 10 feet long and about 10 inches thick. If you can move them further apart you'll enjoy working between them a lot more. Also, if your bench is at the end instead of the side, it beats the heck of walking around them instead of just to the end to get a tool off the bench.
 
Sounds like it's got to be one at a time. The benches can't go at the end because of the shelving units (dumb design, but whatever). Thanks for the input.

MB
 
Build 2 rolling stands

Just a thought, build 2 rolling stands. Put the car out, roll the wings around to work on them, roll them back out of the way, pull car in.
 
Build the wings 1 at a time...

You can see what I did on my web site:
http://www.n2prise.org/rv9a003.htm

Read the whole section on the wings to get the idea of the space I used in my one-car garage. The car lived outside when the wing jig went up in January 2003. The airplane went to the airport in April 2005. First flight was June 9, 2005.
 
10x 26

10 x26 is plenty to build a RV. I have done it several times. No reason to build two wings at the same time. jig one up and build it, make parts for both as you go,flute, ect, and the second one will go together quicker.
 
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That's plenty of space. I did my RV-10 wings in a similiar area. When the wings were done, that was the time that my wife's car finally got evicted from the garage.

There's plenty of pics on my Kitlog site.

bob
 
That's plenty of room....

Here's a pic from my -6 construction. Of note are the Lycoming and lawnmower under the fuse and the canopy and engine mount hanging from the ceiling (just barely visible). I built both wings at same time and parked the wifes car in the garage nightly.

Tight, but it can work.

FuseFromDriveway.jpg
 
Park the car outside

We haven't parked a car in our garage since I started building. It's really not a garage anymore, it's a shop.

It's only a car. Park it in the driveway.
 
I added casters on my wing jig, which allows me to move the wings aside at the end of the day and move my wife's car in the garage. Has worked good so far.


 
Single garage wasn't working for me

The single garage/single stall wasn't working for me.

I also had a whack of woodshop tools in there, and to work on the wing was going to mean either going under it or opening the big door (gets a bit cold here in the winter for that). This was all going to cost build time.

So, I took 8 months off building, demolished the single garage, and went 24x36 ft, insulated walls, heated, 10 ft ceiling, etc. This size will allow me to almost completely assemble the RV-8eh at home, prior to tranporting it to the airport.

It cost me a landscaping job on the back yard, and an area dedicated to an art studio.

Just finished moving stuff into the new garage, and I am very happy with the space. I hope to be bolting down wing stands in a couple weeks, after re-asserting marital bliss.

I'm away a lot, and time to move stuff around to get access is time I would rather spend building. I did all the reading on the lists, and eventually here about tight spaces and building, and yes, it can be done. Those guys weren't me.

I wasn't comfortable working like that, and life worked out in a way that let me change it.
 
What Jay said

Jaypratt said:
10 x26 is plenty to build a RV. I have done it several times. No reason to build two wings at the same time. jig one up and build it, make parts for both as you go,flute, ect, and the second one will go together quicker.
Click to expand...

I built my wings one at a time although I spent 27 hours prepping wing ribs all at once: deburring, fluting, seaming, etc. The wings took (IIRC) about 350 hours. 200-225 on the first one and the remainder on the second.
 
I'm in a similarly tight space, and built a rolling wing stand and am in process of building the right wing, one at a time. For my vote, the rolling wing stand is the only way to go.
 
Thanks for the thoughts guys, I think I've decided on doing it one at a time. The problem is that I can't park in the driveway either, so it'd have to be on the street which is a major PITA where I live.

Thanks for all the help as usual,

MB
 
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