Setting up a building board for a kit. What is used on the table surface to stick pins into while building?

Two things I found that are not real expensive is celotex ceiling tile and drywall . Sometimes you can get a sheet of damaged drywall real cheap..
JD

I like ceiling tiles myself. Whatever you use make sure it will lay flat on the board so that you don't pick up a warp from it.


Mark

I use an interior door from from any home improvement center they are pretty square and are fairly easy to pin thru if you use needle nosepliers. semi hollow core!

I use the back of a 24"x48" ceiling tile, on a solid, sturdy, FLAT desk. Other then that, there's no rocket science or effort to push/pull a pin required. The ceiling tiles lend themselves to being a great building/project surface for many things. When you beat them up enough, throw one away, get another one. They're cheap cheap.

Homasote screwed to an interior door.

Homasote is the best. Available at Menard's.

Thanks, Tom and Paul....I'll look in to it.....Stiil haven't found a better build surface than an interior door...Made in jigs and very true!

Is that Menards farm supply?

Menards is like Lowe's and Home Depot. I think that the stores are mostly in the Midwest.

I purchased my Homasote at Menards, but HD and Lowe's should carry it, too.

Thanks Tom, Im in El Paso now but we had Menards in the Dallas area! Ill look in to it!

I have to add to those using Homosote. Like a grey newspaper pulp.

I put mine on top of a heavy, flat door, and then, even though I did get the Homosote for the benefit of pins, I laid a sheet of glass on top of it. I love building on glass. It is so easy to clean, and protects your plans as I put them under the glass. You will see that many top modeler build on glass, and now I know why. It may be too much for you at this time, but keep it in mind for the future

I fully see the benefits of building on glass, perfectly flat...however i do like pinning for the sake of keeping spars exact without any skew.... plus measurements on each rib is exactly spaced to achieve perfect surface area and wing loading....ive noticed lately alot of kits will give a round about surface area...however some wont handle the wing load according to the span...perfect example the Super sportster 90.- 120 I am building now...as calculations go the wing is about 3/8 too short..so I use the plans as a guide for layout but do not build exactly on them!! most any subtle imperfections on the wing can be taken out when its covered! by the way this is a scratch build all wood hand cut and shaped.....you can follow this thread in the scratch build section....thread name--Scratch build Super Sportster 120...using a Saito 150!

Cool! Nice subject. I built the little .40 sized back in 1986. Being 16 yo at the time, I found that kit to be a challenge. It did fly very good though, once I got it done.

I understand your concern with the pins and glass, but what I found was taping the spars down worked great. You can still pin wood to wood. Say rib to spar etc. But the glass has proven to have so many benefits. If you get glue anywhere on your work surface, you just scrape it away. Then when it is time to cover, you have a perfect clean area for this process.

My buddy built one in '87...A .20 with an OS .25 fs.. had alot of fun with it...im using my friends build table for SS 120....he has a piece of glass we use to cut wood on...its 3/8 we use for gettin tail feathers flat and true and covering of course...we've been building for 25+ years...this will be our first true scratch from just plans and we use them for mostly reference! alot of mods to wing and for landing gear and two servos on both ailerons and elevator pull pull on the rudder..dihedral is 1' 7/8" not the 2.5-3 as it calls for...its has plenty of wing cord to handle it!! I hope...thats the plan anyway!

A few yrs back I went to Home Depot looking for something to make a building board. I found a "butcher block" type of table top (top only) 30"x6 ' x1 1/2 thick that had a small part of a corner chipped off. It was marked down really cheap. Don't remember exactly how much but it was marked way down. Then went a few aisles over and found cork sheeting sold by the foot. I stained one side, and glued the cork sheeting(1 piece-no seam) on the other. It works great for T pins, and I flip it over and the stained side is a really pretty table top That side did not have the corner blemish) that I simply put on another table. Dual purpose, one side is furniture grade pretty, and did not spend much. Have been using it for 10-12 yrs.

I use a solid core door with a piece of drywall on top. I bend a lot of pins but the drywall holds very good and the pins won't push side ways...usually.. I would like to try a piece of steel on top of the door and magnets and fixtures.

I like drywall as once I finish a piece I.e. a wing half or tail feathers I despose and lay a fresh piece on the bench, solid core door is a good table for the sheet rock.

TB

I will give on more vote for the drywall on the hollow door, for small sections I have laid a piece of drywall on the tablesaw.