What's your process?

Fellers,
have a look at the front muffler mount..............
He does not mention it, what else ??????
The muffler may not be important to some of you guys in the US, but what else has been "left out" ?

Happy flying

Dave

PS
Leonard, I like the look of the board, if I don't get chopped like on Isky ( which I still like for the informallity ) you've got a convert here.

Randy,

Personally, I think there are easier and less obvious ways to ask for material which can be used in your Stunt News column. Which you only write for half the issues produced.

Dan,

I won't dignify your petty jealousies with a response.

Is that your wind tunnel beyond the right wing tip?

Somehow I don't think this thread is getting off to the start Randy was hoping for.

I have DON build my planes............But I do the soldering

Randy,
Next time you load up your spray gun with some of that high zoot 2 part auto paint in white, you should blow a little on your walls. I'm getting tired of looking at your lousy drywall job. I want that place looking good when Chris and I fly down for a visit next month.
Alan
P.S. No inklines, rivits or letraset please.

Alan,

It's a shop, man. Get over it.

LAST EDITED ON Mar-10-04 AT 07:13 AM (CDT)
 
Great question! Hope to get some new ideas from some reply's myself...

If I'm scratch building, I basically cut out a "kit" first. If it's a kit, I go to the next step...

From there I make my own uncovered "ARF".

I usually like to build the wing first, for some odd reason. It's a mental thing, I feel like I've really started something when the wing is done I guess.

I always do a floating belcrank. Then the Flaps and Elevator. Next build the motor crutch, drill it for the engine, the fuse doublers get laminated to the fuse sides and build the fuse in my jig next.

The fuse is the last major assembly. I tack on the top block and shape it. Pull it back off, hollow the block, install the engine, get out the incidence meter and set Zero Degree to the prop shaft, install the wing at Zero Deg relative to the prop shaft.

Most of the time I choose to rough out the cowl here. Why? I don't know!

I probably spend more time next than on anything, and work the control geometry to the elevator until I'm happy, installed the stab on my Legacy at 1/2 deg positive incidence last week, man, those incidence meters are too cool.

Make a final commitment to the controls,(based on self doubt and second guessing the previous work already done) put some garage door opener white grease on the pivots, and final glue the top blocks and constantly re-check the stab for tilt when glue is drying. Have learned that stab tilt sneaks in usually when closing up a fuse. Never force anything with weights, always cut and shim. Forced fits will spring back eventually or push something else out of alignment!

Landing gear mount, if on the fuse, then tail wheel & bottom block or sheet. Vertical fin goes last.

And for some even more bizarre reason, the very last thing I do, after covering and paint is wrap the stinking leadouts. Anybody else afflicted with this malady? I think it's because I shove old fuel tubing over them while I paint to keep them clean.

Oh, and I often forget to put the tank plumbing on the fuse too! (like I just did now, while typing this)What a pain. If you forget and don't want to mess up the paint job too badly, sharpen some brass tubing and make a clean hole. Oh, and when you mount your intermediary tubing DONT USE THIN CA from the inside, it will whick to the outside and screw up your paint, and can even run down the side of your fuse and make a run almost impossable to sand out. Don't ask... But epoxy works best, or slow/thick zap.

Probably nothing new here, but someone had to go first.

Eric Viglione

PS: I am one of those that has to clean as I go. Probably a form of procrastination. Also, it gives me time to think through the next step. But also, look at the pile of wood I removed with my new Exacto Router blade, how could I work with that pile left there? Heh...

Intersting question..

For the plane I'm building now, I've been trying to keep many parallel module processes going more or less simultaneously. I am building a MS Project gant with critical path..some things MUST be built before other things can be assembled. There will be a generic order and much can be in process at the same time. It works well to use the curing/drying time for instance. As the plane gets toward the end of construction, the process becomes more linear.

It will take me a couple of iterations but I think it will help. I've also started to build some of the "utility" parts in batches of two or three. Things like the LO slider, BC retainers, Nose rings, etc.

In the fall, I did two crutches at the same time and it saved probably 25% time over making them one at a time.

Anyway, I'll post the project plan as it becomes more complete.

FWIW

Howard,

How did you guess?

Process or progress? My process is to clean & re varnish the Building Table at the start of each new plane every thing else is a pig stye I never sweep the floor.
My progress is tomorrow I will be flying my new Junar again ,still working on its cowl. My first foam wing is lacking the glassed center section to be complete it will go in Jim Armor's
"Epic" also building a Classic plane it is a Spacehound.

Randy, How about some info on the fuse jig?? What is it homebuilt, commercial or what?? Sure looks neet and my shop is a mess until I finish the model, then clean up... Gil;)

Gil,

It's acutally part of a full plane jig. I just set up this for the classic I-Beam wing construction. Oh, and just I made it.

Bill,

Based on what I have so far, I'm guessing under 60oz.

Randy,
Just a hint: Keep it at 55oz or less, but under 60 should still work ok, with enough power. Flies on that thin airfoil much better then.
Bill <><

Bill,

Well, in spite of the opinion of some, power can't really overcome weight and lifting capability. It can moderate an overweight plane to some extent and make an otherwise unflyable plane tolerable, but it doesn't "fix" it. The fuse is coming out a bit heavier than I had hoped. About 4oz for the basic box without wing as it sits there. Should have been 3. I'm hoping to hit about 56 or 57oz, but we'll see.

Er...utter chaos.
Having to go from a 20'x20' workshop to a 10'x7' shed..!!
Next building project after the new model is an extension..!!
It doesn’t always look this bad....
Some times its worse...!!

Good Flying

Tony,
Put about 1/4" of Balsa dust on everything & you will have my shop.

Tony,

I spent about 3 years in a 10x12 shop. Heated with a microscopic wood stove. Much like you, I had all kinds of stuff hanging from the rafters. Had to keep paint and epoxy in the house so it wouldn't freeze.

LAST EDITED ON Mar-10-04 AT 07:51 AM (CDT)
 
Hey Randy!
I know what plane that is! LOL!!!!
Building process????
Ain't no stinkin' process.
Just ask anyone who has seen my shop at least 10 minutes after the once a decade clean up. I do that whether it needs it or not. ROTFLMBO!
If I were to clean up as I go, I would NEVER get a Jim Walker 10 cent hand launch glider done.
I start with whatever I pick to build first and keep going until a plane comes out the other side. No rhyme or reason, and I doubt that the same order of operations has occured twice in my building for the last 40 years. But they still get built. I do certain things certain ways, but hardly ever in the same order.
Bill <><
P.S. That plane must be 53 oz., or less finished RTF..... gotta beat the weight of mine!

I use the "80%" rule: I work on one until it is 80% done then start another. Projects asymptotically approach "complete" and most are unintentionally reconverted to seperate parts before reaching the completed state. 80% of the reconverted parts are not reusable.

Process? I don need no stinkin process. Ha. I usually do the rudder first and I really don't know why. A shrink could probably answer that one. I do clean off the glass table top first, then if it's an I beam do the fuselage first (actually second) other wise I do the wings. I have lately started to do the engine crutch first as it's easier to drill the holes before the plane is completed. Man is that embarassing, to finish the plane and realize I forgot to drill holes for the engine. Sometimes I'm not sure which engine I will actually use, so I drill holes to hold the aluminum plate the engine will be bolted to. I do clean up every other day while stuff drys, cures or just don't feel like painting. So much rain here lately, that I can't justify painting. Most rain in five years according to the handsome fool that lies to us about the weather. And still gets a pay check. Any other profession, he would get fired for being wrong 99% of the time.

I tend to study the plans for a few days and come up with a game plan for construction. Then I buy 100 things I think I'll need, use 25% of them and buy 75 other things

I also tend to start with the wing. It motivates me to get the rest together quickly. That might not be a good thing, btw...

I usually do the wing last. I have no idea why. Except with this plane since it's an I-Beam. Sorta have to do the fuse first then the wings. I like to start with the stab and elevator. Don't know why. I suppose it seems like an easier job to tackle and let's me ease into the project. When taken as a whole, building something like this plane can seem overwhelming. Just so many parts. A 150 ribs! Sheesh!

But when it's broken into component parts and each job tackled in succession, it doesn't seem so bad. That's the problem with an I-Beam for me. So much of the the plane has to be constructed in a single gulp. But it's coming along.

Confusion,indecision, ungluing bits because I got the sequence wrong, repairing 'hangar rash' during construction, trying to hide from the missus the fact that I'm actually building a plane, sticking to kits (pun intended) because I've tried scratch building and weren't very good at it!

However the Pegboard and MDF required to turn my shed into a workshop is coming tomorrow and installed Monday - hoorah!

Tony

When building one of my own designs, I make up a flow chart which saves me a lot of grief. I build the stab and elevator first becuse they finish up pretty quickly and give me a sense of progress. Then I do the wing ribs, because I don't enjoy doing wing ribs as much as I enjoy other parts of building. So when the ribs are done, it is all downhill from there.

I always build the tail first, wing second, fuse third.

Many young modelers have asked how I produce so many models so rapidly. I tell them that the key is a well-organized shop: a place for everything and everything in its place. Below are pictures of my shop, taken this morning. The keen eye will note the disciplined storage. For example, all the dialysis machines are stored on the same set of shelves.

Howard,

Much, Much too neat for a true dedicated stunt modeler, I'll post one of my non shop once I get back home.

Good God, Howard, you've *still* got that Starduster 900 wing? Didn't the fuselage nearly explode when it punched in?

Come to think of it, you have had that wing laying around nearly as long as I have known you. This is really sad.

Or inspiring, as I used to think I hang on to stuff for too long.

My SOP is wing, tail feathers, fuse and assemble. There are variations, but not many.

LAST EDITED ON Mar-12-04 AT 02:35 PM (CDT)
 
See, now this is the Howard I know.

Gee, what's the expiration date on that fire extinguisher?

LAST EDITED ON Mar-12-04 AT 05:32 PM (CDT)
 
Howard-

If mine were that big, I could have piled more stuff in it. You have an unfair advantage! Sharp eyes will note the computer, so happy in balsa dust; tools and supplies; bench with old, new, and unfinished models; balsa supply; "library"; violin, more "library"; world's heaviest Yak-9; plans; kits; and other things "in their places". Egaaaaaad!

SK

I've seen small workshops that some guys are forced to put up with . I really wonder if I could manage on a 6 x 8 room. Howard does have a Large area. Mine is about 75% of Howard's in size but I have JUNK stowed . I need a larger garbage can.

John,

I do have a lot of room comparatively. It's the "second" floor of my oversized garage so it's about 24 x 30 with a very high ceiling (about 20 feet from the floor to the ridge beam). Allows plane storage racks. Still can't manage to find horizontal space for more than one plane at a time. I'm also storing the Christmas decorations, saddles and whatnot in a storage closet that is yet to have a door.

LAST EDITED ON Mar-15-04 AT 07:38 AM (CDT)
 
Howard Rush: Are you located in an earthquake area?

>Howard Rush: Are you located in an earthquake area?
>
>Norvald Olsvold

Remember when Mount St. Helens blew up? You can probably see it from Howard's roof, although it is still a big mountain and far away.