Building boards, is there a consensus.

Sounds like it takes me forever to get around to reading my magaines, but I had some recent copies of the Big Three (FM, RCM and MAN) kicking around in my briefcase nd I ran out of things to read during lunch, and they were there, and...

Anyway, December 2003 RCM (Radio Control Modeler) has TWO articles on building boards and work benches. "HOw Flat is Flat" pg 66 "Build an Affordable Portable Home Workbench" pg 94

The first article is the one you really need -- making a flat working surface.

I did a super-flat worksurface about five years ago. Thing will not budge, takes a ton of weigth and I'm no longer making HobieCat glider wings (remember them?) or banana fuselages. Takes about a full sheet of 1-inch ploywooed for the top (3-1/2x8 feet)

Downside is the bench takes up ALL of my available floorspace, and it DOES NOT BUDGE!

Rule 1 of getting a flat working surface: Ask yourself how much space do I have and how much space do I need to put a wing together? Don't think about doing Giant Scale of turbine-powered jets. What is up in your rafters that you'll be building in the next year?

In which case and using the rule, I come up with about 2 to 2-1/2 feet in width and about five feet long gives me a surface that I can have the WHOLE ASSEMBLED airplane sitting on top of and I can work on everything without reaching.

Which brings up the corollary for Rule One: How faar can I reach across a table without stretching or leaning?

Just starting out you may get by with building on your flat hard laminated surface, but live a little... The dropped ceiling tile is a great surface for building models, but it tends to be flexible. If you want to move it, the DIY stores have 2ft x 4ft laminated wood which is cheap and you can fix the ceiling tile to it so its removeable/replacable. I use some small dabs of silicon sealer to hold the tile, and when the tile is too beat up, just slide a knife around the edges (assuming you only seal the edges) and it comes right off. For just a small investment you have a building surface to pin on and can build fairly large models or several small models at the same time.

Moving up the scale, making a building board out of a hollow core door and some 2 x 4 lumber is cheap too, and the doors aren't real pricy at one end of the isle. I have mine set quite high, enough to stand and work without bending over, and I am also able to sit on a kitchen or drafting type stool at the table as well.

My too scents... Mike P

My permanent building board which is 2' x 8' is made by laminating two layers of 7/8" MDF together. This is anchored to an angle iron stand which is on castors so I can move it about my workshop. I have two pieces of 2 x 4 ceiling tile on top of the board to pin my project to.

I also have a 2 x 4 portable building board that you may consider building. It consists of a 2' x 4' piece of 3/4" MDF which I have framed with 1" x 2" hardwood. I trimmed the MDF so that a 2 x 4 piece of ceiling tile fits snugly inside the hardwood frame prior to gluing the hardwood in place. The construction method keeps the board nice and straight and allows me to use it almost anywhere. I currently have it set up on a couple saw horses. I can even set it up on a not so level surface just by placing a couple shims between the saw horse and board as necessary. If one wanted to they could add a couple eye screws to the side or end of the building board and hang it on a basement/garage wall when not in use. Total cost of the portable board is under $20 and can be put together in a couple hours.

H>

Working on anything other than a flat sheet will require some leaning and reaching. If you're building a 1/3 scale model, where the fuse can be upwards of 18" high, a properly located table height will be _way_ too high and you'll need a step-stool to reach over the model to get stuff off the pegboard.

I used to build work benches to a set of ergonomic metrics recommended by OSHA, but I found that those metrics were designed for office drones who only have to reach past a short stack of paperwork.

What I do now is make the table height adjustable one way or another, and change it to suit the _work_.

These days I don't have any problem with table height because I can only tolerate working at the bench about four hours straight. Has a lot to do with a bad fall some thirty five years ago which resulted in compression fractures of T6 through L1.

I've got two work benches. One is a drop-dead flat MDF torsion box building table, and the other is a 34" x 8' 5/8" marine ply work bench.

The MDF building table is set for a reasonable height when I'm seated, and the scruffy work bench is set at standing height.

Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust