Once the airplane is finished, and you spend all of your time flying to exotic destinations (and Brenham as well?), what happens to your shop? Do the tools gather dust, the seals on your pneumatics dry out, and that bucket of clecoes in the closet spontaneously vaporize and re-form as coat hangars? How about your building skills? Do they atrophy to the point where you occasionally stumble over a nut plate jig and go ?Hmmm?what a cute little hammer!? Does the sound of a rivet gun far away across the airport send you into a moment of deep reverie, reminding you of those days way back when you used to be a real builder, wrangling rivets and man-handling ribs into position?
If any of this sounds vaguely familiar, you need some little projects to do. And believe me, there is ALWAYS something that will turn up?.here is what a single night in my shop is like (and I use the term ?shop? loosely, as the place I built the Val is no longer mine, and my tools are split between my home garage workshop and my hangar , where the real action happens these days?.).
Project 1 : I have Louise?s blank instrument panel on the dining room table, with drafting equipment, templates and avionics manuals (plus the occasional switch and circuit breaker for size reference) spread all over. This is an on-going design project which attracts my attention as I drift through the room - I like to think of it as a jigsaw puzzle where I solve a piece every time I walk by?.getting close now - only a few things left to decide on!
Project 2: Louise?s new panel needs an annunciator! So I scraped together my raw materials and began building one similar to what I have in the Val - only better this time! Part way through the build I needed some new LED?s, so I swung by the Electronics Parts Store (the candy shop, so to speak) and while there I was transfixed by a couple of bins of brand new (surplus) square indicator lights, LED-illuminated, already set up for 12 volts?.for an INSANE price. I filled a basket with them for future projects, and headed home with the booty. Annunciator Panel ?Mark II? will be unveiled soon. (By insanely priced, I mean it was cheaper than buying an LED and dropping resistor alone?)
Project 3: Danny King, I hate you?.why?d I have to look in the rear baggage area of the Doll this weekend? There goes another few hours?.What a great idea - an access door in the hat shelf to get to the rear mounted battery. Granted, I don?t really need it that often - I have an external power jack if I need a jump, or to power the airplane for avionics maintenance - but what a great way to check the elevator bell crank without taking out all those screws! So now my shop is once again filled with aluminum dust and slivers, the rear baggage shelf is on the operating table, and I am halfway done. I would have finished it except that all my silver clecoes are at the airport (or turning into coat hangers in the closet), and I didn?t discover that fact until I was home for the evening. But the metal cutting is going well?
Project 4: Oh, back to Louise?s Mikey upgrade?.we built her new seat backs a couple weeks ago, and those are still on the workbench, awaiting final hinge placement. Don?t want to put them away, or I?ll forget what parts go with what?.
Project 4a: Don?t forget - Thanksgiving dinner! Better take a half hour and get to the grocery store?.
Project 5: I absolutely love my QT Halo Headset, and I use it for all my flying (unless I am wearing a helmet and parachute) now. I have found that after about tow or three weeks of use, the yellow foam earplugs are shot - they just lose their ability to re-expand and seal well. QT has told me that they can be washed, and they can - they get nice and clean, but still don?t re-expand well. Hey, I am a heavy user! I?m also a bit cheap, and don?t change them often enough, because, well, I look at my little bag of spares, and don?t want to run out. Well, enough of that! I went online and ordered a box of 200 pairs of E.A.R. foam earplugs for $15. Went to the Electronics store and bought 20 feet of 3/32? heat shrink for a few bucks more. Set up a #43 drill in my Dremel tool and started drilling holes in ?foamies?. Cut the heat shrink to length (1.25?), put on a drop of superglue, slide it into the ?foamie?, and voila? - a lifetime supply! (The secret to drilling foam? Freeze it! I use a little Igloo cooler with frozen cold packs, and dump in a bunch of ear plugs. Let them chill about 20 minutes, then drill immediately - they thaw really fast!)
A bag of homemade "foamies - and I still have 130 pairs of earplugs I haven't converted! Approximate cost is $0.12 per pair...
So, ?flying? RV?ers?how?s your shop life? Staying active, keeping your mind and fingers nimble? Gotta keep those skills up, or you?re gonna lose them ya? know?.there?s a repeat offender in all of us, just trying to get out?.
If any of this sounds vaguely familiar, you need some little projects to do. And believe me, there is ALWAYS something that will turn up?.here is what a single night in my shop is like (and I use the term ?shop? loosely, as the place I built the Val is no longer mine, and my tools are split between my home garage workshop and my hangar , where the real action happens these days?.).
Project 1 : I have Louise?s blank instrument panel on the dining room table, with drafting equipment, templates and avionics manuals (plus the occasional switch and circuit breaker for size reference) spread all over. This is an on-going design project which attracts my attention as I drift through the room - I like to think of it as a jigsaw puzzle where I solve a piece every time I walk by?.getting close now - only a few things left to decide on!
Project 2: Louise?s new panel needs an annunciator! So I scraped together my raw materials and began building one similar to what I have in the Val - only better this time! Part way through the build I needed some new LED?s, so I swung by the Electronics Parts Store (the candy shop, so to speak) and while there I was transfixed by a couple of bins of brand new (surplus) square indicator lights, LED-illuminated, already set up for 12 volts?.for an INSANE price. I filled a basket with them for future projects, and headed home with the booty. Annunciator Panel ?Mark II? will be unveiled soon. (By insanely priced, I mean it was cheaper than buying an LED and dropping resistor alone?)
Project 3: Danny King, I hate you?.why?d I have to look in the rear baggage area of the Doll this weekend? There goes another few hours?.What a great idea - an access door in the hat shelf to get to the rear mounted battery. Granted, I don?t really need it that often - I have an external power jack if I need a jump, or to power the airplane for avionics maintenance - but what a great way to check the elevator bell crank without taking out all those screws! So now my shop is once again filled with aluminum dust and slivers, the rear baggage shelf is on the operating table, and I am halfway done. I would have finished it except that all my silver clecoes are at the airport (or turning into coat hangers in the closet), and I didn?t discover that fact until I was home for the evening. But the metal cutting is going well?
Project 4: Oh, back to Louise?s Mikey upgrade?.we built her new seat backs a couple weeks ago, and those are still on the workbench, awaiting final hinge placement. Don?t want to put them away, or I?ll forget what parts go with what?.
Project 4a: Don?t forget - Thanksgiving dinner! Better take a half hour and get to the grocery store?.
Project 5: I absolutely love my QT Halo Headset, and I use it for all my flying (unless I am wearing a helmet and parachute) now. I have found that after about tow or three weeks of use, the yellow foam earplugs are shot - they just lose their ability to re-expand and seal well. QT has told me that they can be washed, and they can - they get nice and clean, but still don?t re-expand well. Hey, I am a heavy user! I?m also a bit cheap, and don?t change them often enough, because, well, I look at my little bag of spares, and don?t want to run out. Well, enough of that! I went online and ordered a box of 200 pairs of E.A.R. foam earplugs for $15. Went to the Electronics store and bought 20 feet of 3/32? heat shrink for a few bucks more. Set up a #43 drill in my Dremel tool and started drilling holes in ?foamies?. Cut the heat shrink to length (1.25?), put on a drop of superglue, slide it into the ?foamie?, and voila? - a lifetime supply! (The secret to drilling foam? Freeze it! I use a little Igloo cooler with frozen cold packs, and dump in a bunch of ear plugs. Let them chill about 20 minutes, then drill immediately - they thaw really fast!)
A bag of homemade "foamies - and I still have 130 pairs of earplugs I haven't converted! Approximate cost is $0.12 per pair...
So, ?flying? RV?ers?how?s your shop life? Staying active, keeping your mind and fingers nimble? Gotta keep those skills up, or you?re gonna lose them ya? know?.there?s a repeat offender in all of us, just trying to get out?.
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