So I’m only logging this as an hour and a half on the build, but there’s a fair bit more time covered here, over the course of the last thee days.
Most of this was addressing what’s been sort of a chronic problem for most of the build – what to do with plans pages I need to refer to while working. I’ve done various things with the sheets, most recently just laying them out on a workbench. This works, but it means one of my workbenches (half of my “inventory”) is kind of unusable. And I’m about to need my standalone workbench clear, because it’s about time to pull the horizontal stab off the wall and get working on the service bulletin fix.
In the miss of all this, I was watching a youtube video where Steve Thorne (FlightChops) was getting started on his RV-14 build. Somewhere along the way they were using this sort of large podium-type thing, and I thought it looked like a useful thing. I’d thought about getting a drafting table for the plans but those are expeeeensive. This, however, seemed to cover the general idea.
Basically, it’s a ~waist-height table, with a bit of a slope to it. I decided to make mine with a sort of cabinet on top, where the table top hinges up. This way, I could store all the plans sheets inside, and be able to easily pull out the one I need at any time. I also decided to build a high frame on the back, and attach a pair of dry-erase boards that’ve been sitting around the hangar. I’ve been wanting to get those hung somewhere so I can start tracking punch-list-type items and so forth, but I never was sure where to hang them.
So the result is that I have this sort of “admin station” or something like that. Framed out with 2x4s, set on locking casters, and with a plywood cabinet built on top. It’s not going to win any furniture-building beauty contests, but it’s functional.
About the only thing I still want to figure out is some way to clip the plans sheet on the top down…I don’t want it blowing in the wind, after all. Normally I put random heavy objects down when I set these on the workbench, but that doesn’t really work here thanks to the slop. I probably could have made that a bit more gentle.
Anyway, here’s this contraption after I finished it up this morning (note ancient-history markings no one white board…hope those aren’t too much trouble to clean off):
Interspersed with that work this morning, I got the seat floors and baggage pan painted up. Lots of waiting involved here, so it works well as a sort-of concurrent thing. Gotta clean and scuff the things, then let them dry thoroughly…shoot primer, let it dry for an hour or so…then add the stone-texture paint, which also takes an eternity to become dry enough to touch. But hey, painted stuff!
Tomorrow I want to finish getting that workbench cleaned off – there’s still some random stuff sitting on it, but more important, it has my vise mounted, and that’s not going to work. I’ve considered mounting the vise to a small piece of 3/4” MDF, which I can clamp to the workbench when I need it. But I kinda suspect that the vise might not hold as well as I’d like if I do that. So maybe I’ll just consider this a temporary removal, we’ll see.
Also, I still need to talk Josie into helping me finish riveting the forward bottom skins…
Edit: Oh…I almost forgot. While I was picking up the lumber at Home Depot, I also picked up a few different black spray paints to try out (flat/satin/semi-gloss). While I was doing painting stuff today, I cut there little test squares and shot each one with a different black. Tomorrow I’ll compare them to the anodized throttle quadrant and decide which one matches the best. So far, semi-gloss unsurprisingly looks way too shiny, so I figure it’ll be either flat or satin, Given a choice, I’d rather go with the flat if it works, since I’ll likely end up painting the instrument panel with the same paint. Don’t want any more reflection there than I have to have.