my new LT-40 from fedex, and I must say I'm impressed, not only by the kit, but by tower's very speedy delivering to fedex, and fedex's very speedy delivery to my house, its been a total of 4 business days for standard ground shipping

Now a quick question, what should I do first?? Im gunna read over the manual, get most of the building materials out of their boxes/packages, and start setting up my work table. How big of a table does everyone suggest?? If the table I have isn't big enough (haven't measured it yet) I will wait a little while and buy some sheets of plywood and 2 by 4s to extend the table, but i'd rather not have to do that. Also is having a parts/tool bin on the work table something I will need, or can I do without it till i have some spare time/money to build one. For now thats about all, after I get plans layed out and take inventory of the parts inside the kit im sure i'll have more questions.
Thanks,
Eric

Your workspace is kind of up to you. I have found that it should be level and big enough to hold a ceiling tile with room to place other items around it. I use a regular work bench I got from Lowe's but generally its up to your personal preference.

A solid core wood door from Home Depot works very well as a table. If you can get a door that is damaged or a second those can be good buys. My dad covers his with sheet rock and it seems to work well. I'm going to try just using the door and wax paper and see how it works. Flat is the most important thing.

Well, soon after I posted I finally got everything down here in the basement and opened up the box, sure enough in the beginning of the directions its recommended an 18x48 sheet or something that T pins can be stuck into, my choice was foam insulation board, and it seems to work well... now my question is what to do with the plans. Unfolded they are too big to fit on the board (sheet 2 is the wing sheet, it has both wings on it, plus a few cutaway exploded views, and I only need to build one wing at a time). So should I fold the plans and try to make them as flat as possible (which seems to not give me a very level working area) or should I cut out the wing I am working on and lay just that down??

You can cut it out if it works best. I used to do that. Now I've gotten protective of my plans so I try not to cut them up. I save the plans and instruction books. Who knows what you may want to rebuild? Or build again when the kit may no longer be available. It seems that kits are getting more scarce and I enjoy building.

Here are a couple of pictures of my building board (I hope the pictures upload ok). I used a 2' x 4' piece of particle board with laminate on each side. I bought it at Home Depot. Then I glued a 1/2" thick piece of foam insulation board to it with some liquid nails. The particle board with the laminate is nice and flat with is important to build a straight plane.

I think im just going to cut them, thats the only practical way to make them fit on both the table and the board, I will keep them though for future repairs.

This is becoming a pain, and Im slowly realizing Im not prepared at all for the build, instead of a ruler I am using a tape measure, and its really hard to measure a flat surface against a curved one, and I'm unable to find a single flat ruler in my houser. I also ended up using some of my insulation board to build myself a few small shelves just because I needed a place to put things while I searched for the wood Im still not sure if I have, are there any places I can print out a sizing chart that has like 1/2, 3/4's and sizes like that on it so I can measure the wood against it??

Owww, I just found out the hard way that you need to watch for CA leaking out the sides of pieces you are gluing together, it sticks to skin as good as it sticks to wood :roll:

That's why I like using a hollow core door, it's big enough that you don't have to cut up your plans.

But anyway, here are a few suggestions for you...

Pieces get lost easily. here's how I aviod this.

Get some zip-lock bags. Any time you open a plastic bag full of parts, empty the resy of the parts from that bag into the zip-lock. That way those little buggers can't escape (they do it all the time!)

Next, get in the habit of laying the top of the box next to the bottom, and any time you are searching for something, remove wood from one box, and place it in the other. That way, if you ever have trouble finding a piece, you know it's in one of the two box halves, and not hiding under something on you work bench.

Another thing to do is go around to garage sales and look for containers galore. You'll be glad you did.

You can get a ruler anywhere! Building is fun, just put the glue on and build that baby! You probably want a smaller plastic 45 degree square to if you don't have one. If you need weight to hold parts down I saw one poster recomend heavy duty zip locks with sand. That might be the ticket for my next plane. Clothes pins are great if you have to laminate! That rhymes to.. You can also rubber band parts to together to if neccesary. Go easy on that CA, sounds like you might be using to much if it's shooting out all over the place. Just make sure there is enough to wick in. Thin CA does not gap fill. Back to my door plan for a table. I'm going to screw a 2x4 to my wall then mount my table on that. Should keep the wobbles out of it!

I know you can get a ruler anywhere, the problem is at the moment I have exactly $0.00 to my name (well, i have a box of pennies, but no...). I figured it out anyway, there is a place in the book that shows the sizes, so I can compare it to that, compare it to the plan and know that its the right one.
The CA didn't exactly squirt out the sides, it either got pushed out and leaked out the side or I accidentally put a little bit on the side, either way I ended up doing the same thing tonight trying to get the wings right, and I almost glued an extra piece of balsa that I was using to line a few other pieces up. For the most part I've found I can put a piece of duct tape on the board and just lock the part down with T-pins, the duct tape does a good job of keeping the pins from going up too much. I'm also using medium CA, thats what the instructions recommend, and from what i've seen it can kinda fill real small gaps.

MasterSmasher: No garage sales around here, the past two days the high has been about 30, nobody has garage sales this time of year lol. Will find containers though, for now my pretty quick and crappily made styrofoam shelf is working all right.

Sounds good! I always glue my fingers! LOL! No rush to build you know. I was a little over zealous in my last post. Building gets me excited! If you need a ruler I would just wait and get one. Might be able to borrow one to from someone you know. I'll be building my third kit starting in a week or so and I can't wait to get started!

Hi all, To save the original plans, make a quick trip to kinkos for a duplicate set. Then you can cut up and spill glue to your harts content!


Works for me any way!

Yeah, for some reason the glue seems to find a way onto my fingers no matter what I do, actually glued my fingers together last night, think I tore a little bit of skin off pulling them apart lol. There is absolutely no rush for me to build, Im actually trying to slow down now because I don't have the radio or engine yet, and need to wait to get a job and save up money till I can buy them so I don't want it done too quick where I will have to just flat out stop buiding and wait for more money. I'm quite amazed at how fast the wings are coming together though, a lot simpler than I thought it would be, cut piece 1 glue to piece 2 and piece 3 and pin down piece 4 lol

DON'T CUT THE PLAN!!! go to kinkos and get it copyied!!!then cut the copy...that way you can build another...who knows you might want to scratch one some time...

john

Get some CA debonder, acetone or finger nail polish remover. All of these disolve the CA. Get used to having your fingers stuck to the plane, or to each other. Happens all the time to me. It's part of the fun [&:]

Kerry

Too late, already been cut... they seem to be more than sufficiently covered with waxed paper so as long as something doesn't happen to them I can take the cut pieces and get copies made...


and kerrydel: thats going to be my next purchase is some CA debonder, has been recommended by quite a few people I know, and its good to know I'm not the only one that has problems... guess im just too attached to my plane (wow, I should be a comedian lol )

I'm rebuilding a scratch built plane that a fellow club member crashed. He recomended the use of epoxy so i listened. So far its coming along well and i gotta save up for more wood. You dont ever wanna 5 minute epoxy your fingers LOL! O and i'm building on a 8 foot by 4 foot train table. Still has the tracks on it lol.

I know all about epoxy, my dad taught me that when I was little, he'd take some epoxy and show how it sticks to anything and everything... scared me away from epoxy for awhile

Don't waste your money on Debonder at the Hobby Shop! Get a pint of acetone at the hardware store.
Dennis-