The King's Airplane Factory

So, Where do you build an airplane anyway? Why, in the Garage, of course!

October 3, 2003

I was out in the garage today thinking about painting it, and I would have started had it not been for the fact that it's about 45 degrees outside today! That got me thinking, if it's this cold NOW, what's it going to be like in a month when I have the empennage kit? I'll tell you this, it won't be any warmer!

Clearly another solution is indicated. 

I have a very small basement and over half of it is the family room. The part that is remaining is only about 10' x 20'. I'm thinking that it will be enough to build the empennage. My current workbench is already in there (buried under piles of stuff, I could show you a picture but it would be too embarrassing). 

So the NEW plan is to clean that all out and get it ready for the kit. I wonder what it will be like running the air compressor down there? I hope it doesn't bother the family TOO much! The good part about it is that it's right next to the furnace so it'll be warm. I'm going to have to make some sort of an arrangement for the painting however. I guess I could rig up some sort of paint booth and vent it out the basement window with a small window fan. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm listening!

Ahh, what the heck, Here's a picture of the workbench in the basement anyway. Now I can compare before and after pictures when I get it cleaned up.

September 20, 2003

I decided that the shop could use some cabinets to put things like books, fine tools, etc. Stuff that you didn't want to have "laying around".  I had some old scrap wood so I build some cabinets and the kids and I installed them. 

Here's a picture of Tom finishing off the front of one of the cabinets. He did a great job sanding with the orbital sander. 

Here is the wall that the cabinets will hang on.

This is yours truly removing a light fixture. The thing that was really strange about this is that there were absolutely no wires running to this fixture!  

What do you do with cabinets made from junk wood? Paint them, of course! Here is Kathryn doing an excellent job painting. 

We also decided that we needed a step from the door to the garage floor. It was about a one foot drop. Six inches is much better! Here is Tom testing the step before I got on it.

One thing about painting. There is always too much of it to do. Kathryn decided that playing was more fun than working so here's Molly taking over. (And doing an Excellent job!)

Did I mention that there was a lot of painting to do? The kids all booked so the master painter (Liz) and I had to finish.

And then there was one.

Liz had the incredible idea of painting the inside of the cabinets some sort of Almond color. This is the result. The cabinets now look too good to put tools into! Anyway, I'll fabricate some doors later. Not bad for a bunch of old scrap wood!

September 19, 2003

NEW GARAGE DOORS!

The guy from Hamburg Overhead Door came and installed new garage doors. He also took away the old doors (which was good since the garbage man said he wouldn't take them unless I cut them up into 3' sections). Anyway, here's what they look like:

From the front

And here's a picture of Liz vacuuming the spider webs out of my boots. (don't ask)

This is a HUGE step towards building the plane. There was no way I could have built anything with those old rusty doors. The next step is to order the EMPENNAGE!!!!!!

September 13, 2003

Today I removed the old broken-down garage doors to make way for the new ones. I priced some doors today and think it's outrageous what garage door companies charge. I've decided to build the new doors myself. 

Here's the old doors moved out to the street. Hopefully someone will want them.

August 10, 2003

So, here's a look at the garage right now. 

We like to ride bikes, so consequently we have a whole mess of them. More than we have people!

As you can see, the place needs cleaning. If you look close, you'll notice a Sears Air Compressor in between one of my son's bikes and the lawn mower. I'll bet I'll be needing that!

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Last updated: November 18, 2003.