build table size ?

[fairchild]

havnt gotten my plans yet- but I am getting steel for a couple of tables to build on......
I am going to try making 2 tables which can be used for both wings and fuse. My understanding is that 5 foot by 18 foot is good for the fuse. construction. So that would be two tables
each 5 by 9 feet. Is that correct ?
Do I want to make them slightly lower than a standard table height ? ( to offset the height of the fuse. when the top and bottom get joined ) would about 28 inches be too short ? 30 ?
Love to hear what you wished you had done now that you have done it and look back........

Thanks- Tim B.

[alaskabearhawk]

Hey Tim...

I am assuming you are building out of wood. One thing I remember to keep waste at a minimum on my projects is the rule of fours. Dimensions should be divisible by four because dimensional lumber is most efficiently used that way. The next less waste rule of thumb is that every dimension should be divisible by 2. That having been said, my building table is 4 feet wide and 18 feet long. It is 33 inches high, including adjustable feet. It really depends on how tall you are and how good your back is. I'm 5' 11" and having the table at that height allows me to reach the middle without any problems and to be leaned over it for extended periods. Any shorter and it would be uncomfortable, any taller and I would have issues reaching the center effectively. I used a two step ladder occasionally when jigging the fuselage top to the bottom. YMMV...

[DRLPatrol]

Paul is right. It depends how tall you are. I'm 6'5" and mine is 37" including adjustable feet.

Doug

[fairchild]

Hi Paul and Doug-
I am building the table frames out of steel- have a couple good surplus places here to get steel.
Got some thin wall 2 inch by 2 inch and some thin wall 1 by 2 inch. Going to try making 1 first and see if I like it. Maybe a top out of 3/4 hardwood ply.
Screw-down feet to level.
Yes I am between 5-11 and 6 feet tall. I was thinking about 28 or 29 might be a workable compromise......
The main dimension I was unsure about was how wide the table needed to be for the fuselage. Looks like some make 5 feet- but I don't think I want it any wider than it needs to be-
I guess I want a little border - enough to leave room for the hold down blocks at the widest width of the cabin. I just don't know what that is yet............

I see on the specs. that the cabin width is 42 inches. I assume that is measured on the inside. That might mean about 44 to the
outside of the tubes- which would leave 2 inches of table outboard of the tubing (at widest point)

Would that be wide enough to not cause any problems ?
If I could keep it to 48 that would make sheeting the top surface much easier......

Tim

[JakeP]

We built an LSA fuselage on a 28-1/2" high table (the 1/2" was for a layer of MDF on top to draw on, screw into, and generally ruin as necessary). I'm 5' 8" and the the height worked great for us. This was only 3' wide for the LSA, but I doubt 5' wide would make a difference in comfort for a person of my size. One thing to watch out for is the room height. With our tailpost on the table we were under the shop ceiling by only two inches.

[fairchild]

Hi jake and all----
My garage has 5 bays- one being a high one I could use by simply sliding table(s)
I looked to see what the wing chord was but couldn't find it written- so I took wing area and divided by span and got about 5.5 ft. I would think flaps and ailerons would be at least a foot
wide - so that would leave 4.5 feet wide-
Does that width mean I have to go 5 feet wide or will 4 feet still work fine ?

Like to pin this down before I start cutting steel.

Tim

[alaskabearhawk]

I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish by having the table the exact width of the wings. My wings, without the flaps and ailerons are 4ft wide on the fuselage end, 4ft 3in on the tip end. I don't know if that helps or not. My table is 4ft wide and that's plenty for me, if that helps.

[fairchild]

Yes- I just don't want to get the table too narrow- that's all - wanting to know if 4 ft is wide enough for both wings and fuse. don't see a consensus so far though....

[fairchild]

OK- found what I needed exactly !
I went to some of the builders blogs- looking at The Mudbug's fuselage page- he mentions his table is 48 inches by 18 feet. You can clearly see that there seems to be plenty
of extra room off the edges at the widest points- so it appears they 4 feet is good to go.. I will go back and look and see if he has a good view of the wings on the same table
to see if that also looks like enough room.
Tim

[Bcone1381]

I also have been hunting around for workbench ideas and keep coming back to a Paulk Workbench II. Has anyone tried this one?

http://www.paulkhomes.com/order-plans.html

[alaskabearhawk]

Kinda overkill I would say...

[LukeS]

That's a really cool workbench design, but a lot of it's advantages involve ease of set-up and portability. I'd like one for my shop, but not for the bearhawk. For the Bearhawk I want I want a table that if I bump into it, the table isn't going to budge at all. Once it's level it stays level. The tool compatibility features can be adapted to 4x8 benches without much difficulty if that is what you want. Also if you consider the value of square footage in your shop, a more conventional bench would have a full size shelf for parts storage, and more storage space beneath the shelf.

[LukeS]

This is my bench. It was built in a weekend.

[JakeP]

For the Bearhawk I want I want a table that if I bump into it, the table isn't going to budge at all. Once it's level it stays level.

We bolted ours to the floor with concrete anchors (red heads), to a small piece of angle iron at each foot, leveled as necessary.

[JakeP]

Okay, not anchored on each foot, but here's a pic of our build bench for the LSA. There is a whole bunch of tubing on the other side of the bench too: