Santa gave Sweetie a new sewing machine for Christmas.
Sandbags are a pain and leave a mess so one 25 pound bag of shot and some sweet talking and I have two new custom shot bags. 12.5 pounds each.
Pretty cool.
Lucky you. Anything around my house that needs sewing,well, the wife may be playing me for a fool but I usually end up doing it. Thank goodness for those mandatory sewing, cooking, & typing classes all boys had to take back in the 60's in my school district. It all came in handy later in life!
Probably not for flying. Only 12.5 pounds each. Not a bad idea though. I'll need some bribe to get Sweetie to make a few more!
I wish I had them when I was dimpling skins but at the moment they are holding my wing sweep line on the floor. Stupid sand bags were leaving a mess.
The key for sand bags is to put the sand in a heavy plastic bag inside a cloth bag so the sand/dust doesn't leak. Duct tape the plastic shut and put a couple wraps around the bag to keep sand movement to a minimum. I have a set of a dozen bags I made like this and they have worked for several years and several airplanes as ballast for test flying, holding the tail down for maintenance, etc.
I use Shot Bags daily
They hold all sorts of parts steady while drilling, riveting, sanding.
I have several shapes and sizes. Steel shot and lead.
It's hard to rivet a moving part! Add several to your equipment / shop. You will be glad you did.