Article: 649 of rec.aviation.homebuilt Path: newshost.ncd.com!ncd.com!olivea!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!dtix.dt.navy.mil!cs.umd.edu!afterlife!blackbird.afit.af.mil!falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil!dsnyder From: dsnyder@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil Newsgroups: rec.aviation.homebuilt Subject: Summary: Aircraft Workshop design Message-ID: <1993May24.145554.2173@falcon.aamrl.wpafb.af.mil> Date: 24 May 93 14:55:53 EST Organization: USAF AL/CFH, WPAFB, Dayton, OH Lines: 241 In response to ideas for my new aircraft workshop I received some great advice so I decided to compile all the ideas into a summary and give credit to the authors. The following is some of the features suggested. * ---- An important part is to allow for adequate workbench & shelf space. The "3 car" garage is popular for this in my area, but your 24 square ought to do it (maybe a bit small for a Stinson). You will need: Heating, Lots'o'lights (preferably flourescent), powered ventilation, and tons of outlets & compressed air connections (even some from the ceiling). Finished walls are a big help light-wise, and good tool/chemical storage space. If you can get some hevy beams built into the structure that are suitable for supporting weight, it's also a help. Skylights are priceless in the daytime. * ---- I am busy designing mine right now. I would open it up to 30 feet if I were you. While everybody tells you that you can build a kitplane in a 2 car garage, they never mention that you will have plenty of parts you will have to store elsewhere. 24 x 30 seems more comfortable to me. The present plans for mine call for a main area of 24 x 32 with a 16 x 18 extension. The 'L' is required to avoid removing a nice tree. * ---- Be sure to run some 220v outlets and plenty of power and light. (Hanging power cables and adjustable height tubes would also be nice). * ---- Hmmm... there is no such thing as enough space. Since you are starting from scratch, I have some suggestions that might help with your compromises: 1. Try to keep a clean 20x20 (minimum) area in front of the door that is not encumbered by workbenches, tool boxes, shelves, etc. The most efficient designs I have seen have an offest area to do the bench work and to keep the tools and machines. If this can't be incorporated in the design, then organize the layout to achieve the same purpose. 2. Remember that you will collect a lot of things over time that you don't anticipate now. Leave some margins for floor space, bench space, shelf space, etc. 3. Lighting is extremely important. Get as much lighting as you can get to prevent shadows while working at any point. A worklight sitting three feet from your face often becomes annoying. 4. It would be nice if you could have sliding doors (or even doors that swing out) rather than overhead doors. The ceiling is a wonderful place to keep and store all kinds of things, not to mention lighting fixtures, electrical cord pulleys, etc. 5. Get several electrical circuits into the garage so that you don't land up overloading any one of them. It might be nice to wire every plug point with sockets from at least two different circuits. Use different color sockets to identify them. Also those electrical cord pulleys hung from the ceiling are just great and avoids having to drag annoying extension cables all over the place. Plan to have two or three of those and DON'T buy those with circuit breakers in them. 6. It might be a good idea to have a nice beam structure in the ceiling to attach hooks and storage racks. Don't skimp on that part. 7. Good insulation is a must if you want a nice temperature differential from the exterior. There are several different heating systems you can put. Try to get convection heating systems over radiating heat systems. Also if you plan to have several tools and machines (metals) that get cold, it takes more Btus than average to heat up the place. 8. Wherever you can, prefer collapsible or foldable fixtures (benches, shelves, etc) or if that isn't possible, try for wheels so they can be easily moved. Don't sacrifice too much of the strength and stability though. * ---- >From my experience I think your 24x24 may be a bit small in at least one dimension. When I built my home I was in the middle of a restoration of a Champ 7FC; similare in size to your project. I cut out some paper dolls and pushed them around a while and came up with a 28x32. I'm a bit of a pack rat so keep that in mind, but I am always rearranging stuff to get some room. Think ahead to the painting process. Are you going to try to paint inside to keep the bugs off of it? I've just put the final coat of paint on the wings and tail pieces. I put up a temperary enclosure with heavy plastic to make a paint booth in one side and installed a filtered air source. The paint booth is essentually a one car garage size. It is just big enough to allow moving around the wing while painting. This has kept the bugs off, but I still have a layer of paint dust on everything else in the entire shop. And now that I have all these pieces finished, where do I store them while I finish the fuselage? I'm trying to put them up in the rafters but even this is not a trivial task. I would recommend framing the attic to allow for storage. Also, as you are thinking about size, don't forget to allow perimiter room for work benches. You will have many smaller parts which will need work bench service to keep you up off of the floor. Speaking of floors, mine is concrete. Quite cold in the winter. I had decided to heat the floor so installed tubing for hot water when it was poured. Also put 2" of rigid foam under the concrete to try to drive some of the heat up to my feet. I've been so busy working on the Champ that I have not hooked up this system. (To busy cutting wood to sharpen the axe!) The walls are insulated, 3.5" of fiberglass with sheet rock. Temporary heat is a old oil heater; during our winters (mild by most standards) it doesn't come close to keeping the shop warm. When you do your shop try to get the ceiling insulated during the build; I wish I had. One last comment on size. Don't forget the size, 24x24, is outside the stud wall. So subtract the 2X the wall thickness, at least 8", to get you actual room size. * ---- I am building a RV-4 in a two car garage. My garage is 24' wide and one-half of it is 24' deep, the other half is only about 20' deep (laundry room takes the remaining space.) I have tried to place as many of my tools (jointer, bandsaw, radial-arm saw, table saw, grinder) on wheeled bases. My planar is portable enough and it is stashed under a workbench when not in use. My drill press is too top heavy for moving so it remains fixed, but that has not been a problem. I have one major workbench mounted on retractable casters so that I can wheel it around. I bought one of those metal carts with a rectangular basin on top and a shelf on the bottom. I added a small wooden shelf in the middle and the optional drawer (got the cart from a Granger store.) Since the cart is also on wheels, I can move it around to the work. I keep my clecos, drill bits, rivet sets, dimpling sets, ..., in the top area. I keep bucking bars, heavier stuff, ..., on the lower shelf, and sanding material on the middle (extra) shelf. I have more tools than I need for a metal airplane, but I also like to work with wood. Thus, my shop is cluttered even *before* I start building :-) That is why virtually everything is on wheels. I made a folding drafting table out of packing crate material to hold my plans. Everything can either fold or be pushed around to maximize space. My current status is empennage and wings finished. Starting to build the fuse jig. The wings are mounted in a wooden cradle (Sport Aviation, December '92 - I think) as shown in a Bingellis column. That has proved to be a real help. The wings take up so much space that if they weren't mobile, I'm not sure what I would do. Also, I added racks on the walls and suspended some from the ceiling to store completed parts and raw materials. The usual shelves, ... were added to the walls to store small parts. I use both old glass jars to hold nuts, bolts, rivets, ..., as well as those multiple drawer cabinets. I personally find that the jars are more useful. I, too, only have one window. You need the wall space for shelves and equpment/parts storage. I store fiberglass parts in a tool shed in the back yard, but I do not store any aluminum there because of the humidity/temp changes and the possibilty of rodent urine (highly corrosive). I carefully removed all the wallboard off, added more outlets (with new circuits), added 220v on both sides (for a decent size compressor), stuffed as much insulation as I could, and then rehung the wall board. Since I was going to spend so much time in the garage, I taped the joints and threw primer/paint ... I added the fiberglass blankets to the garage doors and rubber seals all around; definitely my weakest area as far as heat loss goes. For heat, I use three types of heaters. The best is one of those kerosene type heaters with the igniter. The batteries appear to last forever. The only problem is that I once had a bad batch of kerosene and it took forever (quite messy, too) to replace the wick, clean everything, ..., from all the soot generated. I also use a propane tank (BBQ sized) with a "ceramic" type heater attached. That works well, but is not as effective as the kerosene heater. I use the propane heater as a "fast starter" on really cold days; sometimes I leave it on during the working sessions. Disadvantages of the propane heater are 1) cost of fuel (compared with kerosene) and 2) non-adjustable heat setting - full on/full off. Finally, I have a small electric heater that I use to heat the aluminum skins prior to riveting (reduces shrinking on hot summer days...) The Stinson 108 will virtually fill your workshop. That is why you might want to make as many tools mobile as possible and build movable racks for wings when not actively being worked on, ... * ----- _Lots_ of good exhaust ventilation, in case you do any painting or 'glassing. Lots of light from different directions 100 amp or more electrical service A little john so you don't have to track whatever into the house * ----- Good vapor barriers between the shop area and any contiguous living space. Steam or hot water heat, with the boiler located in another building. A separate garage or shop is good in this respect. Compressed air piping. Doesn't have to be elaborate--so far my CPVC sys- tem has worked well. Anybody heard anything to discourage such? Sound insulation to separate neighbors from the sound of power tools and young ears from the sound of technical jargon. Basements work well, given a tolerant spouse. High ceilings. High enough to hang completed components from and still walk around without a hard hat. * ----- My thanks to Steve Cornelius, David Doshay, Mark Hoy, venky, Bob Gutteridge, Mike Pilla, Paul Burnett and Jeff Matthews who gave me some great ideas on workshop features. It certainly made me think about some things to make the building/restoring workshop easier to use. David