Whats the best building surface? I know the obvious is a large flat one, but I'm working with limited space. The kit gets here tomorrow and I was cleaning my room so I could start building right away. the only problem is, that there is no perfectly flat surface that I can use to start building on. Do I just need to find some good cardboard? I was rooting around in the garage and spied a hollow core door in the rafters.... Would that be a good surface? Now I jsut need a good arguement for why I should be allowed to poke holes in the door... lol or I could just take one off the hinges and see what my mom says then.

Hollow core door is very good choice. Also, ceiling tiles are cheap.

I don't know if it's the BEST surface, but I too have successfully built a kit on a 2x4 ceiling tile. The bummer is I don't know if you can buy just one, I always see them sold by the carton. So make sure the one you take out of your basement ceiling is discreet.

Lowe's or Home Depot sell's them by themselves for around 3 dollars. (ceiling tiles) You can also acquire them cheaper if they have a small corner missing.

Yes, you can buy ceiling tiles individually, Lowe's, Home Depot, or just about any hardware/lumber store should have them. But the problem with using a ceiling tile is that it takes the shape of the surface that the tile sits on. If you put it on a surface that is warped, then you will build that warp into your plane. A hollow core door is an excellent surface to build on because they are usually flat and free from warps, but if you're worried about putting holes in the hollow core door you can combine the two. Put the door on some saw horses (or some other surface to support the door) and then put down ceiling tile on top of that. The tiles will then be warp free and you can push pins into the tile.

I think I'll scrounge one from the garage. I think the parents will let me have one out of the garage. It should be here today... Its gonna be like Christmas!

take the ceiling tile and put it over the door. that way you can put pins into it and rest the door ontop of 2 chairs or somthing to make a little table heck you could even put it on your bed and build it in bed wouldent that make some fun adiction stories... i can see it now

you know your addicted to rc when you build planes from your bed and you have 3 types of CA on your nightstand where your alamr clock once sat... not because you didnt like the alarm clock there... but rather because it was not needed any longer as you never sleep.

IF the door is not to be re-used in the house you could do like I did. I bought a pair of folding legs at Home Depot and put them under the door, makes a great table in general. It can even be used for picnics of family dinners if you need space. Then take a ceiling tile and flop it down on top of that for whenever you need a pinnable (is that a real word?) surface. Nice thing about the tiles is that if you damage one, like I did last week, it is a cheap throw away. Since mine was a HOBBY ONLY table I attached some supports on the end and then ran a beam across the top. I then suspended a 4 ft double tube fluorescent lamp fixture from that. great lighting for those late nights, no shadows. I've been real happy with this arrangement.

i went to the local lumber place and got a used hollow core door for 5$! i think i did good, the only problem was there was a hole in it for a window, but i got lucky it fit my radio just right!

After years of building on doors and foam and whatnot, I am tempted to buy a balsa building board. Good idea, bad idea?

I bought a balsa building board, from great planes I think, and it warped. It came with instructions on how to add water the one side to warp it back strait but it seems to be a hassle and I've only used it once because of this. Mine warped in no time. The best thing I've used is a hollow core door..

In other words, save my money...

Hollow core door and ceiling tile. best bet for the money.

I took it one step further. I bought a door blank, one without the doorknob hole drilled, then bought some 1/4 inch thick cork and covered the whole thing with cork. I never tried the ceiling tile because the cork worked out just great. The cat likes it too.. [>:]

I put the whole thing on heavy duty 'plastic' saw horses. The ones I bought have a nice little shelf in the a-frame that are support as well as shelves. I added a power strip and have a nice portable work bench for building.

I think the best thing about the board is the fact that its movable. I've got one and have had great success avoiding the warping by just following the simple storage instructions (I think a lot of this has to do with where you live and how much moisture is in the air). When I'm done with construction for the time being, I simply set the board (and currently pinned plane parts) on its side move the it out of the way. This way I don't loose the use of the desk for other building tasks. This may work with a ceiling tile, but I'm not sure the tile will hold its shape after a week or so of not being supported by a flat surface.

Food for thought.

My door wasn't drilled for the knob either but if it was you could use it to drop the cord for your power strip through. My power strip is suspended from my lighting support. Another thing I did was put a 1x4 along the back edge. Helps to resist sagging and keeps most things from falling off back edge.(pins,parts,tools,etc) I have another removable board I can place on the front edge whenever I need a vertical surface to work against. Gonna eventually build a large surface in garage for larger projects but that is probably a fall project unless I can rig up some A/C out there

Here's what I use/have. I started off with the hollow core door ($5 at Lowe's) and a couple of ceiling tiles ($2.25 each at Lowe's). I put the door on the top of a 6' folding table, and then I put the ceiling tile on top of that. I used that for a couple of planes. After that I took the ceiling tile off and just pushed the pins directly into the door. Good for a couple of more planes. Now I've given up on that and I've gone to a magnetic building system. Just like the cheap building board from Great Planes stay away from the magnetic system from Great Planes. There is nothing wrong with their system besides being too expensive. If you're interested in doing a magnetic board then check out Caffeenman's website [link]http://airfieldmodels.com/information_source/how_to_articles_for_model_builders/tools/magnetic_building_board/index.htm[/link]

I had to build my magnetic building system a little bit at a time, but trust me, it's worth every penny. After you build with it you will wonder how you ever got along without it.

Hope this helps.

The door seems like the favorite but I used the following:

One side of a ping pong table (1/2 only) - I suppose if you had room, you could use the entire ping pong table. Then cut 4 x8 sheet of 1/4in sheet rock and lay that on top. Put it on two adjustable saw horses and there ya go. You can pin it, it stays flat, etc..

Works pretty nice.

Viper

Just remember to tape the cut edges of the sheet rock or you will be walking around with white vertical strips on your pants. Iv'e used this system for years and it worked for me. I used to get broken chunks of sheet rock free, then cut to size, build on one side, turn it over and cover on the other. For most sport building there isn't normally a need for an expensive board .

I went to "STAPLES" and purchased 2 boards that are foam core with cardboard on both sides that is a little thicker than a cereal box. They are 2' X 3' and work great

My first bench top (not counting the floor or card tables when I was a kid) was a hollow core door. It warped like a potato chip after a year or two. My next bench top was a solid core door which held its shape very well.

In my opinion your bench top and your building surface should be two separate components. My current bench top is a piece of 1/2" x 4' x 8' tempered glass. I love it but it was VERY expensive. There is a lot to like about it.

As far as a building surface goes, I used ceiling tile or dry wall for years and could build very straight models on them. You just have to weight or glue the tile to your bench top so that it won't curl up or warp. I used spray glue in a light coat so that it would come off easily when it needed to be replaced.

What I didn't like about those two surfaces was that they chipped easily which meant they looked ugly and there was always drywall or ceiling tile bits that needed to be cleaned up frequently. It's not a big deal and these are both very good, inexpensive and expendable surfaces.

As RCKen mentioned, I'm now building with magnets and I think it is positively the best system for building unless you have a factory building the same models over and over which would make dedicated jigs the best choice.

One thing I'm starting to notice is that the magnets lose their strength after a while. Older magnets don't stick as well as they used to. Another thing RCKen mentioned is that it takes a while to acquire all the magnets you'll want to have.

I just ordered 500 more magnets and think I have enough now. It's taken me about 4 years to get to this point. I also have about 60 fixtures from 1-1/2" to 9-1/2" tall.

Whenever I get an order for fixtures or need a new size for myself I also make some more of the ones that I don't have enough of. I normally start out making about a half dozen of a size. Sometimes that's enough and sometimes I find I need more.

Anyway, I probably have about $400-$500 in my system now. It was money very well spent. But I think I will have to replace magnets about every 5 years or so because they break easily and become less powerful.

I called around to find out how much having the fixtures laser cut would cost. All the quotes I received were in the neighborhood of $40-$50 for a set of 22. Everyone I spoke to also told me that they can't cut them from 1/4" aircraft ply because it would burn too badly and possibly catch fire. By the time I put my work into finishing them, add magnets and hardware there was no profit at all so I still hand cut mine.

I saw a thread here at RCU not too long ago where somebody mentioned he found a place that would laser cut the fixtures for about $15.00. That would be worth doing because it would save you a lot of time.

By the way, if you decide to pin things to a board, go to a sewing shop and buy a variety of sizes of pins. If you just get one or two sizes of T-pins you'll find that they are too large in some cases. Having very small pins is nice for thinner pieces or when pinning near and edge so that the wood doesn't split.

drywall, cheap flat and works great and if you are like me always spilling something or cutting it up when you get in a hurry just toss it and for 4 bucks you can get another sheet and have a nice new board. drywall is also found in up to 12 foot lengths for those giant wing spans.

Dosent Drywall flex though. You would have to have a really solid,flat, true surface under it.

yes you would have to have a surface under it. i have a workbench in which the top is made from plywood and i just lay the drywall on top of it. i know there are people who preach left and right about your surface must be absolutly level and perfact....trust me my workbench is far from level and building several models now useing nothing but drywall on top has netted me some very nice models. i think the only time the perfact streight and level bench comes into play is if you building musium quality other then that any problems that may incure from not haveing your workbench perfactly level are minumus and you wont even notice them from flying or looking. anyway thats enough rambing...basicly find a table, workbench, whatever to build on even if its just some one inch ply cut down and layed across saw horses and then put a hunk of drywall on top. works great and is cheap to replace when your a clutz like me and spill 1/2 oz ca all over it.....um not that i would have done anything like this...its just an example of what could happen....ya ya thats the story.

Hi,

I too use dry wall or sheet rock or gyprock or what ever trade name it has. I have an old steel desk and with the dry wall sheet placed on it I can pin through it or use magnets. When ot gets old and stained it is very cheap to replace.

Cheers,

Colin