Hello all, first post here. I have been doing a lot of reading on this forum. Lots of good info, thanks to all who post here. I used to fly RC back in the 70's. I dropped out of the hobby when I started flying general aviation airplanes. Now that part of my life will soon end when I sell my present airplane.

So, I am going to get back into RC flying again. I have a workshop next to the house. It is uninsulated and I wonder what problems I may have building in this shop. I live in East Texas and in July-August it gets pretty hot with temps near or over 100 degrees. The heat does not bother me. But, what will it do keeping the build and supplies in the hot shop? Right now, the little balsa stock I have I keep weighed down with pieces of railroad track that I have. I have wing ribs cut and will start assembling soon.

Today I was cleaning the hangar up a bit. I noticed a cabinet I had built that has a door with 2 shelves and 4 drawers. The top is 24x67". I am going to move this to my home shop and use it for RC. My building board will be a base of 3/4 Melamine. This left over piece is 48x71". Should I cut it for a 24x71" building board or maybe 30x 71". Which would be best?

Anyway, thanks for any info you can provide.

My only comment is 3/4 melamine is not very stiff and will not stay flat. ou need to stiffen it somehow.

I used h/d kitchen work top supported every 3 feet. 12 feet long. To actually build on I had some fibre board which I could push pins into.

As I was sensitised to epoxy and cyano I had an extractor fan with a flexible hose extension which I could use to positively ventilate any fumes from the area I was working on.

I don't work in such a hot environment but a solid working surface that I like is a solid core door blank suspended by cheap saw horses from Home depot to strengthen the door even further and to raise it a bit would be to take 2x4's and screw and glue them on edge to the front and rear areas of the door it serves like a I beam and insures the door won't sag in the heat.

as a aside here is a cheap and effective air conditioning system https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxSLbpAwibg he also has some versions that are slightly different in construction but really efficient for a fraction of what a air conditioner costs.
he also has a swamp cooler set up also working in a 100o hot box just doesn't sound like any fun at all

Here in Thailand, it is always hot and the only precaution I take is to store my CYA glue in the refrigerator. If not, the bottle is solid in 1-2 days as the humidity and heat reach the liquid and start it curing. Everything else is stored in my shop, which reaches a maximum of about 90 degrees F on the hottest days. (Much hotter outside but it is brick and protected from the sun so the temperature is moderated inside.) Epoxies, paints, and even MonoKote seem to not be affected too much by the heat. If your shop has windows, make sure the sun can't hit any plastics or stored liquids.

One thing you might do is check the power consumption of window or small air conditioning units. Our bedroom has a 15,000 BTU AC that keeps it frigid, and it only draws 1000 watts. With our local utility prices, that only amounts to about 12 cents an hour if it runs all the time, but normally it is only on about 20% of the time, so about 3 cents an hour. I don't think a small window AC running in your shop when you are working there would set you back much, and it would do a lot to make you comfortable.

Regarding the building board, I do plan to make a frame to support it level then place it on cabinet top. Another layer on top would be a good pin material. I have some foam I will try and if no good will go with sheetrock. My shop is 30x40x12 with outside concrete slabs front and back. AC for the shop is not doable unless I partition off a smaller area. I like the idea of the ice bucket cooler. Cool air blowing on you would be good. I did make and have a 12 volt cooler that I made for the plane. I will have to check it in the shop. The bucket style may be better.

Working in the heat is not too much of a problem for me. I have adjusted to it. I am outside working for most of my day. How heat affects model building and supplies is my concern. I did not give thought to paints, glues and other needed material. Thanks for the tip. I do have a small refrigerator that I wii use. I also have a small microwave that I use to recondition old tape I have in the shop. I will have to check things as a progress into this hobby.

Thanks for the replies.

As for the chemicals and paints, I think I should warn you about the solvent type contact cements. I just touched the lid on a one liter can on a one very hot day, and it popped the top off and sprayed glue into my eyes. The lid hit the ceiling very hard and made a dent in it. I thought I would be blind it stung so much. The can was bulged a bit at the store. Just something to keep in mind for some of the thinners and glues.

I would possibly try to find a big dresser unit to put the build table on for storage space under your working area. Also possibly an exhaust fan would work nicely to pull air thru the shop.

You probably know this, but don't leave your batteries or any kind of electronics out there. The heat is a small issue, but the big one is the heat changes and the humidity for circuit boards.

I would definitely be more concerned with storage and what it is doing to various things in the shop than with whether you can work in there or not. What kind of roof does it have? Maybe something like that elastomeric roof coating if the roof is metal and some insulation to help keep the temp down along with Foodstick's exhaust fan..... maybe one of those with the thermostat on it so it would kick on?

Well there sure is lots to consider. More to follow as I get back into the hobby. My shop is just a shingled wood framed farm shop used for equipment repair, welding and woodworking. Most tools on are wheels so easy to move around. A bit cluttered right now. Building a 20x20 shed for some relief.

My plan now is to cut my board 30x71, framed for level and use Sheetrock. This will be placed on my old cabinet which is also on wheels. Paints, glue and similar supplies I will store in AC'd storeroom in house. I will see how it goes building in the shop. Plan B will be move the build into the garage which will be much cooler. Hope to have this done this weekend. Thanks to all.

Have you read up on some of the methods for getting your building board flat? If you just mount a board to a cabinet it won't be. You'll need a good straightedge and the time to work with your surface to get it truly flat in all directions.

Here's a method for making a straightedge so you don't have to buy a precision one from a machine tool shop.
http://investigationsblog.wordpress....-straightedge/

jester thanks for that link. Very interesting. In my previous post the "framed for level" should have read framed for straight. I have been thinking about a straight building board. Today I purchased the wood for the frame and the Sheetrock. I selected the straightest pieces they had. I will run a string line to check the pieces for straight including the melamine sheet. I stored the melamine as flat as I could. I hope to get this finished this weekend.

I went by the RC airfield today. On Tuesday and Thursday the retires fly. Just my luck, the only one out there was the grounds keeper cutting the grass runway. The last few times I visited, the airfield was locked. I need to find an instructor to see if I can get some stick time.

I've seen plans for building tables on RCU that went from fairly simple to really extra fancy. The one common thread with all though is that the building surface is supported by a grid of 2x4s that you can slip thin wedges between to adjust the building surface to be level. If you build your table so you can get to the support structure from the bottom, it will let you fix any changes that happen over the seasons.

Solid core door on top of kitchen base cabinets with wheels would be ideal. Add a sheet of steel on top and get set up with a magnetic building system. http://www.airfieldmodels.com/inform...oard/index.htm

I have had my eye on our dining room table for a building surface. It is glass, a bit of release wax, and it would work nice, maybe with some cork or styrofoam on for pins. Better than shimming and checking all the time. Don't think I could get away with it. I usually use old steel desks I got from work. A marble table from a garage sale would be ok too.

Ok I am going to see if I can post a picture. I got my old cabinet from the airport and brought it home. This was to be kitchen cabinet but it came out 1/8" out of square so I built another. I kept this one for my hangar. I checked the top and it was almost one string width too high in the center of the long span. The cross span was flat. I shimmed the right side and added three screws to the center. It is now as flat as I can get it. I checked it with a 5' scale, 1"square aluminum tube and finally a 1.75" square steel tube. You cannot slide a sheet of paper under any of these instruments.

So I cut my sheet of melamine 30x77". This sheet weighed a ton, I struggled to get it ready for cutting. I, then, placed the cut sheet on the cabinet top and remeasured. Again, flat as a pancake. My question is can I get away with leaving it as is, just tied down on the perimeter? I had intended to use the 1x lumber to build a frame for the melamine and have it adjustable for flat as jester mentioned. I could build this plane and do the frame later. Or is it best to do it now?

The drawers have come in handy as I am starting to gather building tools. The shelves behind the door will hold some balsa stock. I may cut some foam to protect some from the heat. I have a good supply of old lawn mower blades 1/4" thick. I am cutting them and use them as weights. Should prove to be good. Right now I am using pieces of railroad track that I have.

BTW, somewhere in the back pasture will be a test pilot grass runway. There I will crash uh uh I mean fly my plane.

My original shop was just a small shed, sort of like the Tough Sheds sold all over the country. I wired it then insulated then sheet rocked. When summer hit I added a small window air conditioner and had a small electric heater for the winter. Temps ranged from 20 to 115.
That was in Calif. and if I wasn't in there building then the heat and air weren't on.
Now I'm in Vegas and the new shop is a bit better insulated but when it's a 115 the shop temp is in the high 90s. I keep my main bottle of CA in the freezer but leave a 2 ounce bottle on my bench. None of my glues dry out or harden. The wood doesn't warp. My old building board is just 3/4 pine glued together with cross slats on the bottom to keep it from warping. I did use biscuits when I joined the pieces. It's over 20 years old and still flat.
I turn on the air while I'm out there working but I only set it for 80 degrees.
The main thing is it's almost never humid here. Moisture and heat will jump up and bite you.

I feel for ya brother. I dropped a sheet of that on my foot a couple months ago at Home Depot and thought I was going to pass out. Luckily, it just landed on my toes, not up on the bones of my foot or I know it would have smashed my foot to smithereens.

Bench looks good. Only thing *I* would do different is go with a metal electrical box screwed into the bench. Those plastic ones have too much flex for me when I plug stuff in and out. Nice bench though!

Well gang, I got up this morning thinking about that board and decided to just go ahead and frame it. The frame is screwed in place and it would be simple to make any future adjustments. Final height is 40" but I can reposition the wheels and lower it 3 inches if needed. It is flat as flat can be. Now I can move on to building. Probably more questions to follow later.

Thanks to all for the tips and suggestions.

PatrickCurry I know how that hurts. I have stumbled a few times myself. I try to wear steel toed boots or sneakers when possible. I have been pained for not doing so.

Thought I'd post an update. This roll about cabinet is working out just fine. I am stocking it with tools as I gather them. Some plywood and balsa stock is in the shelves behind the door.

The plane is under construction. I made a pin pusher to help push T pins in desired spots. All seems to be going well. We will see how it turns out. It has been a long time since my last build.

Roll around work tables are nice to have and I move mine out for nice view of the rice fields and mountains when I am working. I was going to cover the top box with a door but in the end just went with plywood with hardwood edging. The inside is supported by 2 x 2 hardwood so I can store long balsa tucked all the way back. The holes in the box make a nice place for parts and tools as well. This is my 73 inch J-3 Cub right after I brought it home from the garage sale purchase getting sized up.

That is a very nice view. I start work inside the shop then move out as the sun shades the back work pad. I overlook my hay fields and the trees surrounding my place. Nice quiet setting. Lots of birds and deer.