emilsanto

My Feedback: (39)

i have always used ceiltile on top of a glass sliding door to build/pin to
i also heard of people using drywall on the table to pin to. has anyone tried this.

Thanks

VIRGINIA MODEL BUILDERS

My Feedback: (159)

Dry wall is an excellent choice especially since I build giant scale. It gives you a 96" building surface and if you need longer drywall comes in 4x 10 as well.

daveopam

My Feedback: (9)

I use a hollow core door. Then lay a piece of glass on it when cutting covering. Never tried the sheet rock. I did try ceiling one time and found it to soft for my taste.


david

VincentJ

I use sheetrock and have had very good success. Bear in mind that the sheet rock will conform to your building table sothe table surfaceneeds to be flat. The nice things about using sheetrockare its low cost, it will hold push pins well andat the end of each build you can scrap it and get another!

huck1199

I use a 1/8" rubber mat on ceiling tiles on hollow core door. The rubber mat protects the surface of the tiles from dammage and holds pins much better.

WacoNut

+1
I also have a large piece of tempered glass I will use when I get to the finsihing and detailing phase of a build. Makes for a nice smooth clean working surface and you can just scrape it with a razor scraper when finsihed and wipe with windex and it is as good as new.
Anthony

box car

I use a 24x96x1/8 steel plate, cost $70

emilsanto

My Feedback: (39)

i use a old sliding glas door for my building surface. i guess i will try drywall to build/pin to.
seems like a good idea

eddieC

My Feedback: (2)

All good ideas, I like box car's best. It'll never break! 

ARUP

Blue foam on hollow core door.

Charlie P.

16" x 48" end grain balsa block board for small assemblies and a dead-flat 4' x 8' linoleum covered doubled 1" ply topped oak table for the larger projects.

I don't remember the company I bought the balsa board from.  They used to advertize in the back of Radio Control Modeler Magazine

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Soft pine, 3/4 inch thick about 24 inches wide by about 7 foot long. I add to it to make it wider when needed. I run the edge through the plainer and the new wood then use a biscut joiner and glue to widen. When the glue sets I run it through the over head sander to make sure it is level. I use several cross members screwed to the bottom to make sure it stays level and remove all the cut marks.
I may have to replace it because every few years I run it through the sander and it's no longer 3/4 inch thick. Either replace it or use shorter screws for the bottom braces?
I have had it for over 25 years and it's still a perfect building board!

yel914

I use a magnetic building board system. It's the last building board I'll ever need!

bikerbc

I have two My wing building table is a 36" by 96" Granit Counter top covered with Dona Cona It is dead flat and level.... My regular building table is a solid core 36" door with the same donna conna stuff on top for pinning to It is Pretty flat and level too but not as precision as the wing table....I have another fold up table that I can move around for painting on and stuff like that...I also have a little roll around table that holds my glues and pins and crap....I could use another table and about 20 more feet on my shop...

bikerbc

Grey Beard what kind of pins do you use? I like the idea of using pine but I dont think my regular ' T ' pin's would do the job with out bending...

Termites Dream

My Feedback: (11)

Drywall on top of a hollow core door. The drywall is firm and takes T pins really well.

OldScaleGuy

My Feedback: (2)

I have 2 also. One is a Perfect Plank. A group of us went together several years ago and bought some 1 7/8 X 18 X 96, they were about $50 in those days. http://www.perfectplank.com/index.html I also have one that is a 3/4" X 24 X 48 flat board of some sort i bought at Home Depot with a piece of ceiling tile. I use these pins, thinner than the regular T pins and very sharp. http://www.hobby-lobby.com/pins.htm?...ueryId=3894222

Wilson4824

What!!! no one using the Adjust-o-Jig!!! I use a door.. then set my jig on it
The great thing about the jig is for wings you set the dihereal right in it.
Also it turns 360" so you work on the bottom of the wing with out taking it off the jig.

Then when I build the fuse, I set my jig for the fuse... keeps formers good and squre!

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Perhaps you could give us some more information on this adjust-o-jig?? Never heard of it that I recall but with my memory that isn't surprising. Who sells it, how big of a wing will it work with. Perhaps a photo. I have a couple of big wings getting built on my next three planes and a good jig would be nice! Yours sounds better then the jigs I have looked at.
Gene

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

Adjusto-Jigs were sold many years ago and haven't been available for probably 20 years. I have one myself and use it often. It is 6 ft long and will build a 6 ft or smaller wing all at once. You can set the dihedral in the middle for whatever you want. The wing rotates so you can work on the top or bottom at the same time, just rotate the wing however you want. If you have a larger wing just build one wing panel at a time. An option was a fuselage kit which enabled one to build fuselages on the jig as well. The jig was designed in the day when everyone flew .60 and smaller glow planes but it is easily adaptable to larger wings although I'm not sure about building giant scale wings on it.

The hardest part about using the jig was drilling the alignment holes in all of the ribs. The jig included a simple tool to insure all of the holes were drilled in the right spot for almost any wing design. Once you got the holes drilled and the jig spacers set, putting the wing together was a snap. The jig held every rib, former, leading edge, trailing edge and spar in place for you to glue. Installing the sheeting was just as easy. Especially useful if you were building more than one identical wing, the second wing would take 1/2 the time as the first wing.

You see them on the auction sites from time to time and go for $100 to $150 depending on condition and number of extra bits that are included.

If you are a builder you know that building a nice straight symmetrical wing is difficult without a little help like rib tabs and a perfectly straight table, or a jig.

Some can build straight wings on their lap but I'm not one of them!

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

I use my Adjusto-Jig, magnetic building system and a balsa building board with my flat table. Which one I use depends on the plane or structure to be built.

TexasAirBoss

My Feedback: (22)

I use 2' X 4' ceiling tiles. But I hear that it is getting difficult to find the smooth ones and its difficult to purchase only 1 or 2. Right now, I am on my last tile. But they last for years.

Speedy-Gonzales

My Feedback: (202)

36" x 80" hollow core door with a sheet of HOMASOTE on top. Homasote is a sound deadening material that is quite dense and has great holding ability for the use of any type pins. 80" is fine for me because I don't know of many models these days that uses a one piece wing and you usually build one piece wings in two halves and then join them together. This can be done quite easily on a 80"
table.

Homasote is hard to find but I bought my last sheet at "Do-It-Best" hardware. It ain't cheep either. ( about $30 / sheet )

grh_70

I recently built my first wing on a well used Ajust-O-Jig bought at a garage sale which I rebuilt.
The project was a Falcon 56 III with 56" span and 9" constant chord. Attached are a few photos
illustrating how the jig works.

GeneH

grh_70

Jig photos