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Minor epiphany

For a while I’ve been pondering how to set up the new wings on my bench. He’s got a pair of 10′ long steel rails, made from square tubing with slotted brackets to bolt them to his bench. He had put those together to support a router sled for flattening slabs of wood. Early on I figured out that we could attach them to the bench to properly orient the wing ribs for attaching the trailing edge and spars. The trailing edge stock needs to be glued on so that the taper exactly matches the angle of the aft end of the wing ribs, and the easiest way to do that is to have a flat surface that aligns the bottom of the TE stock witht he bottom cap of the ribs.

The plans call for attaching a 2×4 on edge to the edge of the work table with a shim under one side. This tilts the top edge of the 2×4 to the correct angle, which I measured at bout 14 degrees, to establish the right pitch to align the trailing edge and ribs. I was concerned about finding a perfectly straight, flat 10′ long 2×4, as well as shimming it consistently. All in all, I was nervous about how to set up the new wings on this bench.

A few days ago, I grabbed one of the ribs I have here along with a short cut-off piece of trailing edge stock. I started exploring different ways I could jig up a wing on the bench, and came to a surprising (and happy) discovery. With the TE stock flat on the front edge of the bench and the rib inserted into the notch, a standard 2×4 on the opposite side of the bench will perfectly support the rib right under the main spar location. So, I could clamp the trailing edge down on some release tape or waxed paper (to keep the epoxy from sticking to the bench), support the other end with a 2×4 – or multiple shorter pieces of 2×4 – and assemble the wing that way. Sweet! I’ll test that configuration when I bring the lower left wing home, which is built but not varnished yet. I’ll need to apply the varnish before taking it to the hangar for storage, and I can check to make sure my jigging idea will work as well as I think it will.

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Aggravating delays

Well, it’s now been close to five months since I did any meaningful work on the actual – you know – airplane. I’ve built the new workbench, cleared out some space in my garage, and moved the new bench to said garage. I built and installed a wood storage rack. I fitted and leveled the bench extensions, which involved a little fine-tuning of the support braces. Along the way I had to remove the extensions and plane off an angle on the bench and extensions to clear the hinges that attach the extensions to the bench.

As will happen any time there is an available, clear horizontal surface, “stuff” accumulated. Tobacco jars, pipes, tools, a furniture restoration project, more tools… sigh. Then I decided to install some T-tracks for clamping and whatever else one would use T-tracks for, so I did that. Now I have a 10′ long bench with T-tracks on each end, with the extensions flattened and leveled relative to the main bench top. I have no illusions whatsoever about the bench being perfectly flat, but it’s close enough for my purposes. I’d say no more than 1/8″ variation anywhere along the 10′ by 3′ surface. I’m building a wooden biplane, not a supersonic jet or spacecraft.

All of this hasn’t been the sole cause of delays. For most of the winter it’s really been too cold out there to work with epoxy. Climate control has not been stellar. Our old small space heater died, so I bought a new, larger one – which holds the temperature at a level tolerable for humans, but not a temperature I’d trust for woodworking and epoxy. But, we’re close to being in the warmer part of the year. I’ll have a mini-split heat pump installed at some point, but that’s not a limiting factor right now.

Today I got 7-1/2′ of the bench cleared off and clean, tools put away, and various other “stuff” rearranged and cleaned up. I now have a clear path around 3 of 4 sides of the bench, with one end still a little cluttered. The drill press is repaired and back on its stand, and I got the runout down from its original .007 or so down to .003 or .004. Still not fantastic, but I think it’s mostly chuck. The spindle now shows about .001 after I removed and cleaned it with mineral spirits. I may need to tweak things just a little more.

Unfortunately, as much as I’d like to clear off the remaining extension and start the next wing, I need to build some storage for the bench or things will rapidly deteriorate. I want to put a rack for clamps on the front side, and some storage drawers or at least shelves. I want the spindle sander and small shop vac in the back, at a minimum. I need to build this stuff, and for that I need either a table saw, a trip to Stu’s to use his, or some other acceptable way to cut down plywood sheets. I’m thinking seriously about a new, relatively small circular saw and some way to hold a sheet off the table so I can clamp guide rails and cut the sheets up that way. I’m going to try to get to Home Depot tomorrow for some 1/2″ ply and circular saw. I have one, but it’s probably 60 years old and I’ve been fighting it to get straight cuts – I think there’s probably something better out there. Maybe even cordless.

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Getting closer to resuming work

Between other projects and bitter cold weather, I haven’t gotten anything done on the plane for a while. With one project essentially finished and the workbench finally cleared of it, I took the opportunity to fit the entire bench top. It looks like I’ll need to shorten the supports on the left end to get the left side extension level… I’ll need the chop saw for that.

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A different kind of plane

For obvious reasons, I want the top of the new work table to be dead flat. As I set the top pieces of particle board on the bench, it became obvious that there are (and I know this already) some high spots on the frame. Obviously the 2×4 dimensional lumber I used was not perfectly straight, so no shock there. The bench was constructed on top of a bench that is pretty much dead flat, but is covered with a layer of indoor/outdoor carpet – so there’s some room for high spots to compress the carpeting. Anyway – it needs to be flattened.

I suppose a person could attack this with a sander and some really coarse grit paper to knock material off where it needs to be. It would work, but it’s inefficient and in my humble opinion might lead to a “wobbly table” scenario, where you progressively over-correct making legs shorter to try to stop a table from wobbling until you end up with a Japanese tea table on 6″ legs. I opted to plane the wood. I didn’t own a plane, so I went and bought a couple. Lowe’s had two planes on sale for good prices, so I took a risk that they would be usable. They may not meet the demands of a professional producer of hardwood cabinets or something, but they’re certainly good enough to take consistent paper-thin shavings off of a pine 2×4. One is a 10″ bench plane, the other a 3-1/2″ block plane. I’m not taking the top off of the bench to start flattening it just yet; I still need to stain and attach the fancy quilted maple veneer to the gossip bench while I’ve got a working bench. Once that’s done, I’ll slide the particle board back off and get a flat surface to screw them down onto.

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Getting the new bench ready

Since getting the bench pieces all home yesterday, I’ve been knocking out a couple of backed up tasks that needed done. Lisa needed a larger rectangular overlay for her ironing board – useful for ironing quilt tops and such. I cut out a 24″ x 56″ piece of half-inch plywood and, with he outline of the existing ironing board top traced onto the bottom side, attached some guide rails cut from 3/4 particleboard. I wish I’d used pine instead, of course.

With that done, I’m currently working to determine the best approach to staining the quilted maple veneer for the gossip bench. I tried the same red mahogany stain that I used of the rest of the piece — it really just obscures the beautiful grain patterns of the quilted maple. My next attempt will be with the same stain, applied after a wipe down with mineral spirits. A quick test on a scrap of particle board (which soaks up stain like the maple veneer does) looks pretty promising.

I’ve got the main top and one of the extension tops in place. I haven’t screwed the main top down, because the top frame is not flat. I’ll probably hit Lowe’s on Monday and pick up a hand plane to fix that. Now I’m wishing I’d grabbed Dad’s old planes when Mom was having the estate sale. At the time I didn’t see that I’d ever have any use for them… too soon old, too late smart, as Dad was fond of saying. I’m sure a new plane will require some work to turn into a really nice tool, but for right now I just need to knock some high spots off the edges of a few 2x4s. It’s not high precision work, but after all of the work and money I’ve put into this bench I’m not going to end up with a top that’s not flat. Once I get the central part flat and secured in place, I can work on getting the extensions properly aligned and get everything screwed down. I did screw one extension top in place, just so I could get the supports under it.

Along the way I’ve been thinking about how I was working over at Stu’s shop. I had the bench littered with tools and materials. I’d often spend several minutes looking for a pencil, knife, saw, or something else that was underneath or hidden behind a spar or something. Then I had a 24 x 40 inch rolling table covered with other stuff, and usually had a box of clamps sitting on top of the wing as I was building. I don’t have rolling tables here, nor do I have room for any. Time to work smarter. Rather than leaving the large shelf under the bench open to collect everything in a big jumble (it’s happening already), I want to figure out exactly what I use or will use for construction, and design some under-bench storage to make sure everything is close at hand, quickly and easily accessible, and can quickly and easily be put away.

I’ll likely want a drawer for the large number of spring clamps, though I wish there were a better solution for them. I want a carpenter’s square and a speed square hung onto the edge of the bench. I want one place for the epoxy syringes, mixing cups and stir sticks, and disposable brushes. I want both the coarse and fine razor saws close at hand, and marked so I know which is which just by glancing at the handles. I want masking tape and marking pencils within easy reach. The list goes on, but you get the picture. I figure if I do this right, I may be able to trim a month or so off the build time just by eliminating the cumulative time I spend trying to find that blasted tool I just had in my hand.

I’d write this all down or draw up a plan, but I seem to have mislaid the mechanical pencil I just bought. Sigh.

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Bench tops and bottoms

On Thursday I picked up the particle board and plywood and Stu helped me — er, that is to say, Stu cut the sheets up for the top and shelf of the new bench. He’s got a massive SawStop table saw, and he’s a virtuoso using it. It seems to be a challenge for me to rip a 2×4 in half on a table saw; he can zip a 4×8 sheet of 3/4 particle board through that thing like it was a sheet of paper. I try not to use his saw, because even though I’ve never in my life hit the blade of a running saw with a finger, sure as hell I’d trigger his SawStop and add the ignominy of replacing a blade and cartridge to my list of accomplishments. I have, however, found that when I do use his saw things go a lot easier. My old table saw was a challenge to use — for most of the time I owned it the fence wasn’t parallel to the blade, and once I got that fixed the blade was dull. It was actually halfway decent in the end, for smaller pieces. Once I got it finally set up and a brand new carbide blade on it, some asswipe stole it… so now I get to buy new, some day when I have a place to put one. But I digress.

The tops are two layers of 3/4″ particle board, glued and stapled together. The lower shelf is 1/2 plywood, mainly because I had to buy some anyway for another project. The shelf is in three sections, so I’ll need to join them with some scraps of particle board or something. I plan to build some sort of storage to slide in on top of that shelf.

My casters and levelers also arrived Thursday afternoon, so on Friday I went over and installed those. I also cut the plywood for the lower shelf to fit, cut some corner blocks to keep the top square, and made the diagonal supports for the two extensions. Those are lengths of 2×4, notched on the lower end and with a double 45 cut on the upper end, that will brace between the lower shelf support and the top of the extension on either side.

The last thing to be done before final assembly is to flatten the top. As the bench was built with dimensional lumber on top of a workbench with a carpeted top, it’s “more or less” flat but the 2x4s aren’t perfect by any means. In a perfect world I’d have used a 6 foot jointer and a thickness plane to turn them into perfect boards before building, but I didn’t have access to a jointer. I know for sure one of the long edges of the table frame has a hump in it, and I want the top to be FLAT. I’ll evaluate how much needs to be done to make that a reality and see how I’ll make that happen.

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Episode V: A New Workbench

I guess I missed a chance to make this Episode IV for a catchier title. Ah, well.

Today I bought some 2x4s, did some measuring and cutting, gluing, screwing, clamping, and ended up with a new work table mostly built. I’ll try and finish it up tomorrow. The main section is 60″ long by 36″ wide (that’s roughly 152 x 91 cm for you metric folks). Each end has a 30″ folding extension, so you can have a 5′, 7.5′, or 10′ total length depending on your needs. For most of the airplane build I’ll likely have it fully extended, but it will be nice to be able to shorten it when needed.

I used the basic EAA 1000 work table plan, with a few changes. The width is increased, of course, from 24 to 36 inches. The folding extensions are another departure. I also lowered the shelf to about 4.5″ from the bottom of the legs rather than the original 8.5″. In hindsight, I kind of wish I’d made it even lower, but it’s fine. Tomorrow I’ll be adding some corner blocking to keep it perfectly square and solid. I still need to install the top (two layers of particle board) and the supports for the extensions. Those will be simple lengths of 2×4, with one end notched and the other cut to fit into the extension, Stu has a similar setup on the work table I have been using at his shop, and it’s absolutely rock steady and completely flat.

I thought long and hard about how to put retractable casters on this bench. I’ve seen a lot of different ways to do it. I had another work table, 3′ x 8′ with a setup on it that worked, but was a little more involved than I wanted. I’ve seen a few more designs on Youtube, several of which look kind of fidgety – making custom steel latches, etc. Anyway, in the process of working that out I managed to forget to re-add 1.5″ to the legs that I’d subtracted for one of the designs. Then I came up with what I think is an absolutely brilliant method, and I think it would work really well… on any workbench that does NOT have folding extensions that will block access to the end of the bench. In the immortal words of Homer Simpson…

So, I have ordered some retracting casters from Amazon that will be here tomorrow, and will cut some blocks of 2×4 for the bottom of the legs. No biggie. Perfection is the enemy of completion.

I think it’s very likely that I’ll build some sort of cabinet, shelving, and/or drawers under the top. I can only imagine how handy it would be to have all of the woodworking tools, clamps, glue, and so on right there at hand, and storage to keep it well organized and clean. That will wait until I have the bench at home and set up in the garage; that way I can cut the wood and do the assembly there. I can think of a long list of items that I will want to always have within easy reach, and more importantly have a place to put it within easy reach so I don’t end up with tools and supplies scattered everywhere.

Of course the very first thing the new bench will be used for is finishing the rebuild of the “gossip bench”. The veneer for that should arrive later this week.

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Garage prep, chapter four

I’m nearing the end of the gossip bench rebuild, but that’s on hold while I wait for some fancy quilted maple veneer to arrive. It’s been stripped, sanded, reassembled, and stained. Only the curved plywood and veneer remain, then it will get lacquered.

While waiting for that, I decided to attack my rolling tool table. I’d built it years ago when I was working on an RV-7. It’s a 24” square rolling table, with one tool on each corner – tabletop band saw, belt/disk sander, drill press, and a buffer with a cloth wheel on one side and a 3M Scotchbrite wheel for smoothing aluminum on the other. It had become a bit of a junk collecting place, so I’m cleaning that up. It need to come down a bit; the newer drill press is a foot taller than the old one. I’ll either put smaller casters on it, remove them altogether, or just take a couple inches off the legs. It is awfully nice to be able to easily roll it anywhere I need it, and quickly rotate it to bring the tool I need to the front.

My drill press is a Wen benchtop 10 or 12” model with laser lines to mark dead center of the drill bit with a nice red X. Well, they do that with two straight line lasers, and one is dead. I’ve got a new one coming, so hopefully that shows up this coming week along with the veneer.

On the plus side, I’ve got a final plan for the work table, a materials list, and a cut list for the 2x4s. I may build that while waiting for the parts. I can always make the gossip bench the first project for that. Oh, and the extended top my wife wants for her ironing board…

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Garage prep, chapter three

Yesterday I built a storage rack on the back wall of the garage. I call it the back wall; it’s the “back” only from the perspective of the door from the house to the garage. It’s the side of the last garage space. Anyway… Three 8′ 2x4s and an hour or so with a chop saw, pocket hole jig, glue, and screws, and I had the three wall brackets. I spaced them 32″ apart and screwed them to the wall studs. Each bracket has three 18″ horizontal supports on which I can stack lumber or whatever.

Going through my stock of random left-over lumber from previous projects, one of the things I found was a 1×12 board about 10′ long. I suspect it was left over after disassembling and old Van’s Aircraft shipping crate, though it may have been something else. It’s a pretty crappy board, and I can’t imagine using it for anything else, so I cut it to length and used 67″ of it to screw to the bottom supports as a shelf for shorter stock.

One task remains – finishing up the “gossip bench” – before I can get a work table built and get back to building. I discussed the general plan for the work table with Stu yesterday, I just need to figure out exactly how I want to build it.

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Garage prep, chapter two

Tool boxes have been swapped, a cabinet moved, more cleaning and organizing done. I’ve made a calculated decision to take a side trip to disassemble, sand, reassemble, and refinish an old “gossip bench” or telephone table that belonged to my wife’s grandmother. It’s been sitting in the garage for many years, rickety and falling apart. The top portion is an enclosed shelf made with a curved piece of plywood with solid beech for the top and bottom – you know, to hold a phone book. The plywood got cracked by something long ago, so I’ll use some new birch plywood and bend it to make a replacement. I figure a week to finish this up, then it can come inside the house for my wife to make a new seat cushion and find a place for it, which she has assured me she can do. As long as it’s not in the garage, I’ll be happy.

Now on to figuring out how to wedge in some wood storage.