Building Table/Board
 

I was interested to see what everyone used to build on. It seems a lot of people use ceiling tiles to pin to. After watching Dave Platt's videos I needed to have a glass building table. It is perfectly flat and any excess glue is just scraped up after it dries. Attach pics if you have them.

Bob

Building Table/Board
 

For built up structures I put the GP magnetic building board on the glass. It works great.

Building Table/Board
 

I have three tables used for different purposes. I have a round glass table, a plywood stand up bench, and a sit down desk top covered in leather. I don't have any good pics at the moment, but will get em when I can. Here's one I posted in another section here at RCU, and it does give a slight idea of what I use. Unfortunately, the picture isn't very good.



http://mail.chartermi.net/~maat/workshop.JPG

Building Table/Board
 

Your glass table looks great. If you were to use pins for holding purposes, I would suggest a sheet of half inch sheet rock, or dry wall, if you prefer. That stuff is cheap, perfectly flat and takes pins great. When you get one side messed up, just flip it over and you've got a new surface. Can't beat it.

Building Table/Board
 

Nice setup, Sideshow, looks great.

Building Table/Board
 

It wasn't expensive either. I found the glass at a shop sitting in the corner covered with an inch of dust. I was for a table that never got picked up. Its tempered so they couldn't cut it and they let me have it for $50, probably just beer money. Look around and you can probably find something similiar. I highly recommend it.

Bob

Foam board
 

Jason foam board works real nice......it is inexpensive and does the job.
I would love to have the glass top...it looks great Hummmmmmmmmmm dining room table.......Naw
Mine is covered with inexpensive cabinet top 4'X8'....When I need to start pinning I break out the 1/2 inch styrofoam blue.
Home Depot $2.89 sheet.
Havent worn one out yet...stay on computer too much :D
5

Nothing beats Glass!
 

I built for years on a old Chevy pick-up rear window, that was being tossed when the owner got a "slider" put in...nothing beats free!

Now that I am building bigger (and better!), I spent an entire day taking a window out of a local business. Again, free, but very labor intensive if you don't know what you are doing... :D

I now have two sheets of 3/8" tempered, about 4 1/2' X 6 1/2'...One will be used for my new table when I get it done - the other will go to anyone that wants it.

The nice thing about glass, in my opinion, is I can lay out my spars, spot glue them on top per plans (under the glass), and they are perfectly straight. Nice, straight wings that way. And fuses are just as easy...

"Glass - it's not just for holding beer anymore..."

A clean workshop?
 

I have been told that a clean workshop is a sign of a sick mind?

8-)

:rolleyes:

The last time my building area looked that clean was the first day I got it.

Cuban8

Clean workshop
 

8,
You are a really sick person to have your shop that clean:D
5

table
 

i build on one half of a sliding glass door. it was free and plentiful around here. stick plans on bottom side and build on top never touching plans! glue to the glass and pop it loose with razor blade when done. cleanup is super fast.---henry

Glass Top Building Table
 

I am just finishing up a Fazer that I built on an old glass top table, placed on my building board. Everything came out straight and twist and warp free.
For those of you that put your plans on the other side of the piece of glass, don't you get parallax errors because of the thickness of the glass. The glass I build on is about 3/8" thick, and I think this would be a problem.
I liked the idea of using a magnetic building board on top of the glass. I made my parts either with a piece of wax paper over the glass and plans, or glue over the glass, and remove with a razor blade.
My building table is a hollow core door on an adjustable frame made of 2 x 4 lumber with leg adjusters for flatness. Great set-up.

Greg

Building Table/Board
 

Sideshow,

How do you get the pressure on the magnetic building board? I have one and used it on a 4*60. I never could get them to hold the wood down. Granted I use wood glue (allergic to CA), so the glue was always pushing the holders away. Very frustrating:confused: When build a stab I set up the holdowns and glued, cam back the next day and everything was out of alignment.:mad:

Randy

Building Table/Board
 

Here is a picture. Did you glue the steel plates onto each side of the magnets? They need to be straight so that both edges touch the board at the same time. This is what boosts their holding power. The one in the picture that has the black holddown will lift the whole metal board if you pick it straight up. I would think that it would be perfect for aliphatic, since it holds so well, and no holes in your wood. Let me know if you want more pics.

Bob

Building Table/Board
 

That's a good pic.

I went back out and checked mine. You are correct, they do have a lot of holding power. Not all of my pieces have been glued yet. Perhaps that was problem, I used one where the side pieces did not grab the board right.

The reason they are not glued is I found out I was allergic to CA, so I stopped using it. I will have a flying buddy finish CA'ing the rest for me. That was probably the problem.:o

Thanks!
Randy

Building Table/Board
 

I would think that you could use some JB weld or similiar epoxy product. Just make sure the metal pieces are square to each other. Good luck.

Bob

Straightening magnetic building board??
 

I have one of those GP magnetic building boards, but I have never used it. Since the day it arrived from Tower Hobbies, the darn thing has been very noticeably warped -- the two long edges curl downwards, so that the center is off the bench by about an inch. :mad:

I have tried weighting it down for long periods of time, but it just won't stratighten out. Did any of the people who are using them have this problem? How did you fix it?

Thanks for any suggestions,

Juan M. Villaveces

magnet
 

If you have a strong magnet.....make a couple or three swipes across your board...........Do that until your board is flat.......Your board has been charged to attract each end......If that fails...try folding the ends that are curling up to each other....
You have the problem of too many +'s and -'s....you have to equalize..
regards,
5

Building Table/Board
 

Cement it to the bench with contact cement. Or, if you do not want it that permanent on your bench, glue it to a hollow core door. You can generally buy one that might be slightly damaged, but still ok for your use for a rather cheap price at the lumber yard.

Building board
 

The glass building table idea sounds great but I prefer a building board that I can use pins to hold my pieces together. I found that a 4x8 sheet of sound deadening board, 1/2 inch thick, from Home Depot for under $7.00 works great. I cut it to width and length for my plans. Spray the surface with super 77 spray glue. Stick the plans to the board smoothly. Spray the plans with super 77. Use GP Plan protector or wax paper over the plans. It is sturdy and movable with a project pinned and inwork. Pins stay firmly in place. When you are done, peel off the plans and use it again. I have built several kits this way and I love it.

My Planes

Building Board
 

Hey Fellas,
I took Dave Platt's advise and got me a 1/2 in thick glass slab to build on and it wiorks great. I have built for years using the "Pin Down" method and building on glass using lead ingots to weight structures down is a much better method in my opinion. I know that 1/2 in glass is very expensive but I contacted several glass suppliers in my local area and told them I was interested in 1/2 inch glass and that it could be "used" glass and not be perfect. Small scratches and chipped edges do not matter to me. I received a call about three days later from one of the sources that said they had a 1/2 in glass door that a customer orderewd and failed to pick up and that I could have it for $50. It has one hole cut out of it at one edge 2in in diameter (for a knob that went all the way through). I offered them $30 and they said it was mine. It was a $410 piece of glass. I have a buddy that works on helocopters and they were dismantleing one that was in an accedent. The helo had 500 lbs of lead in its nose (several sheets @75 lbs per sheet) He gave me one of the sheets and I cut ingots from it (various sizes) to use to hold down balsa structures. Works like a charm. Put whole structures together dry, weight them down with ingots so they can not move easily, slowely push things around till everything is perfect, and CA it in place. I tape my plans on top of the glass and use plan protector to keep things from gluing to them. Take the weight off, pick structure off the glass, CA the areas you could not get to and you are done. If I did not have this lead sheet, I would have gone out and bought fishing sinkers (various sizes) and done the same thing. Point being, leave your name and phone number with the glass suppliers in your local area and let them contact you when they get something in. They will only take it to the dump if they don't sell it to you. Razorback11

building table
 

Sounds like a true Razorback......Being from Little Rock, I would hope you are from somewhere close....
Good Info...Thanks
5

Building Boards
 

FIVESQUARE
Thi Razorback grew up in Mountain Home, Arkansas. Good to hear from you. Phil

Building Table/Board
 

Sounds like a big pain in the butt working with all those lead weights, i'll stick with a board that you can pin too!!!

This Just In.....
 

Just found another great source for lead - my wifey is an X-ray tech, and she brought home one of the lead aprons, they use for covering patients. Quite heavy, lot's of good stuff in there. Seems that when they get older, they crack, and they can't use them anymore. So they throw them away...if you know someone at a hospital, you might check into it....

I haven't torn into mine yet, but seems like it's big sheets, so I will just be cutting off what I need.

Sticking all those pins in seems like a real pain in the butt, not to mention fingers, think I will stick with the lead weights, and glass.

:D :D