reincarnate

I've accumulated a reasonable number of airplanes (14) in the last few years, sizes from .40 to 50cc gas and am running out of ideas to store them in my shop. Have them hanging from the walls and ceiling and sitting on the floor. Show me some pics or ideas of how you do yours, from wing and fuse racks to assembled hangers. I'm looking for creative ideas to free up some space and take up as little of my shop as possible. Hopefully this can benefit a few people. Thanks in advance.

PLANE JIM

My Feedback: (109)

I have the same problem-my flying buddies tell me the major reason this happens:
1. Your flying has not improved that much Jim so you are not flying enough, in other words I would not have a collection if I keep stuffing them in the ground.

BasinBum

My Feedback: (2)

14 planes? How many do you ever fly? Storing them is the worst thing you can do with RC planes. A few years down the road and you'll wonder why you ever kept them when the batteries are shot, the electronics are out dated, the motors are gunked up and hangar rash has taken it's toll. Either fly them or sell them.

reincarnate

I fly all of them. I am fortunate enough to have a large property, and can fly everything but my largest planes at home, and usually do 3-5 nights a week. Big ones go to the field every weekend. There isn't a plane in my hanger that doesn't get flown at least once a month. Please don't try to manage my hobby for me. All of my lipos are charged to 75% and refrigerated when not being used, all my nimh get charged before every trip out and cycled regularly, and if you don't understand engine maintenance enough to prevent gumming from sitting, you probably need to buy new engines every spring after one of our long winters.

Besides only 9 of them are currently flying. The rest are either works in progress or retired for a while. Why can't a guy just his question answered around here without people judging everyone?

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

My question would be how are you storing them now?

I have a few ideas but you may already be using them..

The simple one is the basic dowel rack..
The guy who got me into RC had one for the plane and one for the wings..

The wing rack is just 2 1x4's mounted vertically on the wall about 2' apart with 1/2" dowels every 6"-12"
Foam pipe insulation on the dowels protects the wings.

A similar setup with one 1x4 mounted horizontally on the wall with dowels every 12"-24" to hang the planes by the tail.

His 8' Yardstick hung off the ceiling on a Bicycle lift with nylon straps to hang it off the lift hooks.

In my garage today I have 2 small dowel type wing racks that hold 4 wings each and 4 sets of Ladder hooks to hang the planes by the tail.
I can keep about 4 .40 sized planes on a 5' section of wall and still keep the 44" rolling tool cabinet in the same space (planes hanging above the tool cab)

All the modeling related tools are in an old 5 drawer 27" rolling tool cabinet the gets parked wherever I need it.

BasinBum

My Feedback: (2)

"I fly all of them" and "besides only 9 of them are currently flying. The rest are either works in progress or retired for a while." so which one is it?

"Why can't a guy just his question answered around here without people judging everyone?" Because of contradictory statements like that one and the fact that we are not mind readers.


"Please don't try to manage my hobby for me." Hey, you're the one who posted asking for advice about managing your hobby. If you don't like what someone has to say just move on to the next response but don't get upset because someone replies to your post in a way that doesn't meet your expectations.

As to your question....a wing rack is the most effiecient way I have seen to store wings. If you have the wall space hanging from the tail is a good way to store the fuse. If you have high ceilings overhead works well for fuses. It just depends on your situation what will work best. Since you are so fortunate to have that much land why not build a seperate storage area for your fleet?

After many years in this hobby and knowing many other pilots I still say most folks are better off concentrating on a few planes and thinning the heard.

reincarnate

Never mind. Forget the post. I should have figured I'd get nothing but garbage here. Thought maybe someone could simply contribute ideas without being a know-it-all. Unfortunately thats all that seem to frequent these forums anymore. I'm doing like many others and getting my answers elsewhere.

BasinBum

My Feedback: (2)

That makes sense, just because you think I'm a jerk the whole forum sucks? Don't let the door hit ya.

jship

My Feedback: (4)

This is the best I can do for You.

GPutt33

My Feedback: (2)

reincarnate - this is what i've done so far. Everything that's around the 120 size I've got hanging from dowels I put in a 2x4 and then set up where you see them in the picture. for the smaller 40 to 60 size I just made some brackets out of our PVC friend and screwed them to a 2x4 running down the middle of the garage. Hung those with electrical conduit brackets. Wing rack is the same way, dowels into 2 2x4's and bolted to the wall. As you can see I'm trying to protect everything with foam used for pipe insulation. The pictures are about 2 years apart in being taken so there are a few differences. I also just through a shot in of how I have organized my props so there easy to get to.

Hope to see some more pictures of how folks are doing the same thing.

Oh, and no smart remarks about the shop being cleaned This just happened to be in between projects and is one of those photo ops you take just to prove you can see the build table once and awhile

sscherin

My Feedback: (1)

OK Gputt you win the cool hanger setup award..
It almost makes me wish the builders didn't sheet rock my garage.

Here's my setup

cutaway

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knapsack_problem

Red Scholefield

My Feedback: (9)

Here are some shots of my storage solutions.

reincarnate

Glad I checked back. I was curious to see how others have solved their storage problems. Thanks guys! Hopefully more will show.

Tango Juliet

And how might some of you address this problem if you were living in an apartment and couldn't attach things to the walls or ceiling?

Red Scholefield

My Feedback: (9)

I would get out of the apartment to a double wide, anything that I could call my own.

cutaway

Free standing PVC racks?

reincarnate

Thats an idea I was trying to formulate. My shop is large, roughly 600 sq ft w/10 ft ceilings, but inevitably something fixed to the wall is in the way. I was trying to design a rack out of wood instead of pvc, that was a roll away (for the 40-60 size). Lower section would be a doweled wing rack with the upper a fuse rack, with casters from an old cart underneath. Could be modified to PVC (pricey though). If interested, I'll scan the sketch.

Tango Juliet

Definitely the ideal would be to have a house, but on the Gulf Coast, with Hurricanes and Insurance woes, an apartment is better for me, and a trailer of any shape is out of the question (Can you say "FEMA"[:@]). I'm single and on the lower end of the income scale[&o]. I would be interested in a free standing unit. Even one with peg board attached to it.

Red Scholefield

My Feedback: (9)

Negotiate with the apartment owner. Put up what you need with the agreement that you will fill any holes left and repaint that surface of the wall/celling.

Tango Juliet

I will be hanging pictures and probably some shelves, but I don't want to make too many holes; these apartments are only about 7 years old. The less obtrusive I can be, the better, although I have considered asking if I can remove the carpet in the spare room and stash it in the closet so I don't risk ruining it. It's either that, or put some kind of protective floor covering down that I can vacuum without it pulling up.

reincarnate

Rough sketch of what I was thinking. Might work good for your situation, and should cost less than $20 if you forget about the casters.

Capt Lou

I have 7 planes with my eighth kit on the bench. You can never have enough planes in the hangar. Storeage space is my problem too. I have addressed this by making ceiling hanging racks out of PVC plumbing pipe that I hang in my garage. I have one rack that has a 1" PVC down the middle with three sections running perpendicular and off this center piece. It allows me to hang 6 wings. I use PVC T joint, right angle, and four section connectors to assemble this rack. I do the same for the fuses, one rack can hold 4-6 fuses. I also made a rolling stand out of 1.25" PVC pipes that gives me a ground level working stand. To protect the wings and fuses from ding marks, I put foam pipe insulation aound the PVC pipe to act as a cushion. Also, I use pipe insulation that is 1/4" bigger than the pipe and glues itself where the seams meet. This added 1/4" allows the insulation to act like a roller so that you can slide the wing or fuse off the pipe. Another usage for the PVC pipe is to make stands that you can put in your car/truck to transport your plane to the field. I make these stand for my tail draggers and it keeps them upright and well organized in the back of my SUV. I have bought a lot of PVC from Home Depot! Sorry, I don't have pictures to show you.

cutaway

Don't mount them permanently. Keyhole the back of the PVC and use a panhead screw tightened down just enough to snugly engage the key -- look at how some of the pallet rack in Home Depot fit together with the knob and keyhole if this description isn't good enough.

Once a particular rail is snapped into its panheads and keys, one sheetrock screw at the top will keep it tight in the keyholes, but the whole thing can easily be relocated by taking out the locking sheetrock screw(s) and lifting it off the wall.

If price is no object, then uni-strut and its associated fittings can hang anything anywhere.

GaGeeBees

My Feedback: (23)

Jerk? I chose an anatomical adjective myself. Very nice response to someone asking a simple question on a worthwhile topic. Whether one has a few planes or - in the judgement of those with unsolicited opinions - too many, storing them when not in use is an issue of interest to many, myself included. While I don't keep count, I've got a fair number of planes and am always interested in ideas for efficient storage. Thanks to those who submitted some useful information.