Time has come. Space is losing ground. It's time to build a real hangar out of my living room we don't use and haven't for years. The boss says it's OK, she just wants a corner for her crafts. I'm looking for recommendations, plans, websites or what have you for wing racks, plane holders, tool organizers and a workbench. I've seen the typical racks for wings and planes`that Tower has but I wonder if there's much better or different choices out there. Anybody got any ideas. TIA Howard
One thing to consider is TONS of electrical outlets, every 6 feet on all the walls, if you can, and even more lighting. You may need to power heat irons, vacuums, radios, multiple chargers, air filters, Dremmel tools, and a lot more. When you get to be an old fart, the bright lights will help you find those small parts.
On the floor, consider something besides rug. Almost anything! It's not easy to vacuum balsa dust, CA spills, and paint from a rug. Don't ask how I know.
Amen to the rest of Rich's list, except that I do have a rug under my workbench. It's to protect the hardwood floor from the ordinary spillage. I have a plastic office mat over the carpet where my chair is located.
I do lose things in the carpet. So far (knock on wood) I've found all of the most essential pieces. If it's a small nut or bolt for which I have extras, I may leave it be until I need to search for unique lost parts.
A very good friend of mine, now departed, used to crack me up by bringing out his big magnetic wand on a broom handle that he made up just for retrieving parts/screws from his carpet.
He and I were ham radio enthusiasts and modelers. He lived in an apartment with carpeted floors, but didn't let that stop him from working on his projects. Every week or so, he would break out the wand and scour the carpets. Seldom was there a time when he wasn't rewarded with one hard to find screw or bolt.
A modeling friend gave me one several years ago. Handiest tool in my shop. Had it wrapped at Christmas, looked like a golf club - I thought he had lost it!
Right on about the outlets. Put some UNDER work benches, then with holes in the back of the work bench you can have cords out of the way for stay in place power tools, and instruments. Also under the front lip of work areas so that you are not dragging a cord across it all the time. Then if you really are hung up on handy, put in a bunch of 12 volt DC outlets (banana jacks) fed from a decent power supply to power chargers and other 12 volt devices.
That 12 volt outlet idea is a great one! Same with the under the bench ideal. I have some of those at work, but never thought of it for a hobby bench.
I would also add that putting a double wide box (or even a triple wide box of outlets) instead of a single wide outlet box is the way to go, and put a little more space between what would have been single boxes. Don't forget, that wall space is valuable - for hanging parts, or whatever.
Also, where you plan to put chargers, think about having a string of boxes that are fed by a drop chord (going into the wall) so that you can plug a seven day timer in, then feed the drop cord, (or else use a hard wired industrial timer for the whole thing) thus pulsing the whole string of chargers for an hour or two per week.
An over-head hanging extension chord or two is also a good idea. Add a couple weak, long springs with a Velcro cable tie on the lower end, and you have a way to keep your soldering iron chord, or sealing iron chord up entirely out of the way.
A suction system can be made from some 2" PVC pipe, powered by a shop vac, hopefully sitting outside, or in the basement, or wherever you will not have to hear the noise of the thing running. You can position a hose next to where you are sanding, or use it to suck up all of your bits and pieces that are too small to use. Put multiple T's, and a short nipple, for maximum placement utility. Sand out the inside of a cap, so it slips on and off easily, to plug the places you are not using. You can get replacement shop vac hoses at the big box hardware stores to adapt to your needs.
Wow, Guys. Where do I start? What a great bunch of ideas. Actually, I started at the bottom and I'll work my way up. I removed the carpeting and tack strips and I'm putting in self stick vinyl tiles. I found this about the cheapest floor that I won't be so concerned about epoxies, CA's, paints, what-have-you from spilling on the floor. I chose a dark color, so I can spot the little things like screws, bolts, connectors, linkages, etc. that most floors swallow. I have built two workbenches already. One for me and a smaller one for my son. They're waiting in my garage. They are simple 2 x 4 construction with an MDF top. Mine is a large
4 x 8 and his is a little smaller at 3 x 5. I built them tall at 40" so standing while working won't kill my weak back from leaning over too much. My son is quite tall so it will fit him well also. I tend to stand while working on my planes. I'll probably build wing racks from PVC, and I'm debating the same for fuselage racks or wall holders. I'll consider all these invaluable recommendations from all of you as I put it together. Thanks for all your input. Howard
On Sun, 18 Mar 2007 10:33:54 -0400, "Ed Forsythe" wrote in :
That's a good general rule, all things being equal.
I've got enough equipment in my workshop to blow out the circuit, but I only run one machine at a time. Once in a while, I might have a soldering iron or a covering iron on along with something else, but that's very, very rare.
OK, and I might be charging some stuff in the background and watching TV or listening to music. It still has all come in safely under budget so far.
The breaker will protect the wires, no matter how many outlets you put on one circuit. It would only be inconvenient to blow breakers, not dangerous.
Multiple outlets are only convenient, in this context. It would be very unusual for a one person shop to be running so much at one time, to start blowing breakers.
Two circuits would be more than enough for a shop for building model airplanes.
So Morgan you are saying that one can plug in two 5-outlet terminat strips to the same duplex outlet and load them all with no sweat because the circuit breaker will protect the circuit? Ask any fireman and you will be told that is a fire waiting to happen! Have you ever unplugged any appliance and found that the plug was *hot*? CBs fail and some do not function properly from birth. If I'm handling a gun with the safety on I'm just as careful as I am with the safety off. In my home I have plugged the vacuum in and a few minutes later the CB blows. On the other hand I once plugged in a space heater and all was well until I detected the odor of burning/melting insulation. As the number of outlets on one circuit increases so does the likelihood of someone overloading the circuit. Of course we modelers are an extremely intelligent and careful bunch. Probably why we constantly stick our fingers into the propeller arc or insist on taxiing into the pits - ;-)) BTW, doesn't "the code" vary with municipalities?
Correct. The breaker will protect the wires in the wall, from being overloaded and getting hot enough to be a hazzard. They DO NOT protect the things that you plug into the outlets, or power strips.
My saying to install twin or tripple duplex recepticals in close prozimity is to keep from using power strips, as thay are a larger hazzard than extra recepticals.
See above. Breakers protect the circuit, not the devices plugged into them.
Temperature rise in wires is permitted, and calculated. A hot plug does not have anything to do with how hot the wires inside the wall are getting. Most 13 to 15 amp vaccuum cleaners use 16 or 18 gauge wires, and the wires in the wall are at least 14 gauge, for 15 amp.
I have never seen a CB fail in any other way than tripping early. (less amps) They are built that way so they are safe. The UL testing assures that.
Most likely melting wires in the heater. If you are running an excessively long cord, it will cause a voltage drop, and make the device draw more amps; above the designed wires ability in the device.
How so? You can overload a circuit with one device plugged into it. A person has to be smart enough to not plug in 5 15 amp devices into one 15 amp circuit.
Not much. Small differences in location mostly to grounding needed, due to the type of soil. Most everything else stays the same.
The standard code used in the country is the NEC (national electrical code), and there is less difference in electrical code across the country than any other discipline in building trades.
I recall that the limit for devices on a circuit is 12, ( each outlet or light counts as one device) but although I think that is the limit for 15 amp, it might be the limit for 20 amp lines.
True, a blower will deal with dust, but not so easy with shavings and scrap, like a vac will.
A vac will do both, and a small opening will move the same amount of air a large blower would require, and you can position many small vac openings, and close them off, and save time moving a blower all over the place. If you have to take time over a couple seconds to move a blower, it will prolly not get done.
The vac does need to be outside the area, if it will be used much, that much is certain.
is a link to the hangers I have in my shop. I think a friend got a bunch here on sale once and sold me a few. I have some mounted on the ceiling opposite each other with PVC pipe between them to make a wing rack and some on the wall to hold a plane by the empennage. mk
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