Experimenter

May 2013

Experimenter is a magazine created by EAA for people who build airplanes. We will report on amateur-built aircraft as well as ultralights and other light aircraft.

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H in t s F or H o m e b uil d e r s Build a Better Workbench To build a better plane By Cy Galley With whatever you build, you need to check your work often. You need to check before you start chopping up expensive materials. Finding good procedures and information is much easier with great Internet access. But there are other time-tested ways to get good information. One is the EAA Technical Counselor program. Our chapter supplements our technical counselors by letting everyone look at a project. It's rather simple; we pick a project and a date and invite all the chapter members to go to a member's home for a look-see, plus donuts and coffee. even plated so they don't rust. You need a single onepiece table as a foundation if you are building a Lancair IV, Falco, or a Monocoupe with its one-piece wing. This can be easily accommodated by using steel studding, which is available in 24-foot lengths in the 2 by 6 inch size. They are easily spliced for even longer lengths. Steel studs are commonly used to frame fireproof partitions. They are easily cut with aviation shears or a hacksaw and are fastened with drywall screws with no knots, lumps, or twists. Screw on a plywood top, and one has a lightweight workbench that is straight, rigid, and flat. We call it, what else, a "project review." The owner generally cleans his shop with everything put away and dusted. He also gets several prying eyes to check over his work and several suggestions to make it better, and perhaps someone will catch items that have been overlooked. Plus his shop is clean. So what do those who come for the review get besides coffee, donuts, or maybe homemade cookies? The accompanying photo illustrates what I found at a recent project review—a good way to make a flat, straight, warp-proof workbench. A good workbench is an important foundation for building a straight wing, fuselage, aileron, or flap. One could use wood, but it might change and warp with the weather. On the other hand, steel studs won't and are Hints for Homebuilders Videos Installing Circuit Breakers Dick and Bob Koehler show how to install circuit breakers for your panel. Dick and Bob are both Technical Counselors, A&P; aircraft mechanics with Inspection Authorization (IA), and SportAir Workshop instructors. Low Budget Hydroforming Brian Carpenter of Rainbow Aviation shows us an alternate method for forming small sheet metal pieces that will be repeated numerous times, such as nose ribs for your metal wing. View more of the 300-plus Hints for Homebuilders videos at www.EAA.org/hints. 26 Vol.2 N o.5 / M ay 2013

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