Over the weekend, I managed to get the garage in order after two weeks of chaos. And I'm quite happy with the results. A warning, however: This post is full of uninteresting details about how I reclaimed my space.
Two weeks ago today, I moved the Sling 4 components I wasn't working on out of storage and into the garage. This saved about $310 a month; money better spent on other things. But, I created a new problem: overcrowding. Between the partially completed rear and center fuselage, the wing, fuse, canopy, and emp crates, the wing spars and long push rods, cowlings and fairings, the workbenches, paint booth, tool chests, and other miscellaneous items, the small two-car garage was beyond capacity.
My wife was somewhat perturbed as well. She had agreed to moving the stuff out of storage and giving up parking in the garage, but once she saw the magnitude of the situation, she probably regretted her support. I don't blame her, I regretted my decision too. On the other hand, making order out of chaos is what I do for a living.
To start with, we have an unused room in the house that, over time, became a general storage closet. It had many items and boxes of stuff and that we don't use or need, so I pretty much cleaned it out and made the Salvation Army happy campers. Now, it safely houses cowlings, fairings, pushrods, main gear, tires, and miscellaneous boxes of aircraft parts and hardware.
Next, I needed to get the wing spars out of the way. I mounted a couple of large hanging posts to the garage wall and remounting them and remounted them again. On the third attempt, I was able to hang the main and rear spars as well as the long pushrods.
At this point, I have the partially completed rear and center fuselage sections and the canopy, wing, emp, and fuse crates. None of the crates came with tops and most of them have items extending above the rim, so stacking them presents both engineering and physical challenges, not to mention the floor space footprint.
I decided to move all the skins onto an 4'x8' hanging storage rack. It turned out to be plenty of room for all the skins as well as other long, flat miscellaneous components, including subcomponent packages. I mounted 1"x4" planks on the walls and stapled other subcomponent packages to them. I saw another builder do this.
With the canopy crate and the two fuse pieces remaining, I realized that I could configure the space to park a car when no airplane building was happening. All I needed were lots of rolling caster wheels.
The first item I castered was the canopy crate. I then fashion some supports over the top and placed the center fuselage over that. Now, I have the center fuse elevated for easier access and I can move it around as needed.
The second item I castered was the rear fuselage. Like the center fuse, it sits on a wooden platform, so it was easy to mount casters onto 1"x3" studs and attach them underneath. In fact, the platform is triangular formed to match the fuselage shape, so I mounted only one caster to the tail section. I turned a Sling 4 into a tail wheel.
Lastly, I put casters on the two workbenches. I didn't want to do this and I still may change them out for push down casters. But now I' able to move the workbenches around quite easily.
That's it! Everything can now be moved to one side of the garage and a car easily fits in the other side of the garage. Chaos tamed.
Two weeks ago today, I moved the Sling 4 components I wasn't working on out of storage and into the garage. This saved about $310 a month; money better spent on other things. But, I created a new problem: overcrowding. Between the partially completed rear and center fuselage, the wing, fuse, canopy, and emp crates, the wing spars and long push rods, cowlings and fairings, the workbenches, paint booth, tool chests, and other miscellaneous items, the small two-car garage was beyond capacity.
My wife was somewhat perturbed as well. She had agreed to moving the stuff out of storage and giving up parking in the garage, but once she saw the magnitude of the situation, she probably regretted her support. I don't blame her, I regretted my decision too. On the other hand, making order out of chaos is what I do for a living.
To start with, we have an unused room in the house that, over time, became a general storage closet. It had many items and boxes of stuff and that we don't use or need, so I pretty much cleaned it out and made the Salvation Army happy campers. Now, it safely houses cowlings, fairings, pushrods, main gear, tires, and miscellaneous boxes of aircraft parts and hardware.
Next, I needed to get the wing spars out of the way. I mounted a couple of large hanging posts to the garage wall and remounting them and remounted them again. On the third attempt, I was able to hang the main and rear spars as well as the long pushrods.
At this point, I have the partially completed rear and center fuselage sections and the canopy, wing, emp, and fuse crates. None of the crates came with tops and most of them have items extending above the rim, so stacking them presents both engineering and physical challenges, not to mention the floor space footprint.
I decided to move all the skins onto an 4'x8' hanging storage rack. It turned out to be plenty of room for all the skins as well as other long, flat miscellaneous components, including subcomponent packages. I mounted 1"x4" planks on the walls and stapled other subcomponent packages to them. I saw another builder do this.
With the canopy crate and the two fuse pieces remaining, I realized that I could configure the space to park a car when no airplane building was happening. All I needed were lots of rolling caster wheels.
The first item I castered was the canopy crate. I then fashion some supports over the top and placed the center fuselage over that. Now, I have the center fuse elevated for easier access and I can move it around as needed.
The second item I castered was the rear fuselage. Like the center fuse, it sits on a wooden platform, so it was easy to mount casters onto 1"x3" studs and attach them underneath. In fact, the platform is triangular formed to match the fuselage shape, so I mounted only one caster to the tail section. I turned a Sling 4 into a tail wheel.
Lastly, I put casters on the two workbenches. I didn't want to do this and I still may change them out for push down casters. But now I' able to move the workbenches around quite easily.
That's it! Everything can now be moved to one side of the garage and a car easily fits in the other side of the garage. Chaos tamed.
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