No Excuse Now

[cdlwingnut]

With no NCAA tournament, or sports at all. No movies, and bars closing. We have no excuses for not turning wood, metal and composites into airplane parts, and those parts into airplanes. Here's to making some progress on our projects and seeing some happy completion posts.

 

[Tiger Tim]

It’s true, I’ve got lots of free time now.

Before my latest rotation at work began I started on making some antique homebuilt-based furniture and may see what kind of interest there is in making more of it to sell. It gets me out in the workshop chopping away at wooden bits while it’s still too cold to trust epoxy to do its thing.

 

[BJC]

Back when I was working for a living, we had the Avian Flu scare. I was responsible for contingency planning to keep our power generation plants running should the flu become widespread throughout our system. I was appalled at the powers that state governments have, enforceable by police powers, to mandate behavior of individuals and businesses. I hope that we do not get to policed quarantine. It could get real nasty. Best to spend time in the workshop and avoid other people.

BJC

 

[Richard6]

So no income, but time on your hands. So how do you build without spending money?

 

[Topaz]

For me, it's Wednesday. I work from my home office normally. My clients still have deadlines, last-minute changes, and now the disorganization of their staff all working from home. It'd be nice to have time to work on projects, including my airplane, but I'm too busy with regular work today.

So no income, but time on your hands. So how do you build without spending money?

Planning. Plan your workspace. Move things around in the shop or the garage so that you can start building when things return to normal. Spend some time reading the construction manual for your kit from cover-to-cover. Spend some time here or on YouTube learning new things, or how better to use your tools. Create tools-to-buy or "things"-to-buy shopping lists. Do all the honey-do's you've been putting off, so as to bank some goodwill with the spouse for when build-time begins.

There are a bazillion things you can do to "work" on your airplane without ever cutting a piece of material. Perfect time for all of them.

 

[don january]

There is many things that can be done without a dime but I can think of nothing that can be done without time.

 

[Tiger Tim]

In my experience, if you want an excuse to not do something you can always find one. Now I just go for it.

 

[gtae07]

The last three days have been amazingly productive, actually. Some progress on the engine, some chores knocked out, cooked some fancy meals... when you resign yourself to having nowhere else to be it’s amazing what you can get done.
The hard part will be working from home the next couple weekends... too many distractions...

 

[don january]

I think if I didn't have my plane build to work on I would go absolutely "BONKERS" Heck even if I got to take something apart and re-install it. It would be better then staring at the 4 walls.

 

[mcrae0104]

So no income, but time on your hands. So how do you build without spending money?

Design from scratch. Textbooks--though expensive--are cheaper than raw materials.

 

[Chris Matheny]

I guess I picked a bad time to get my neck fused. I'm on a 5# lifting restriction for 4 weeks! I have a lot of layout and changes to prints to do so I'll keep busy somehow. Maybe get some of this wood cut and planed down. Each piece should be under 5# right?

 

[Tiger Tim]

Design from scratch. Textbooks--though expensive--are cheaper than raw materials.

Oooo, I like that idea. I should start crunching numbers on my three dream planes and press ahead on whichever looks the most promising.

 

[Mark Z]

I nailed my tail feathers down.

 

[Yellowhammer]

For me, it's Wednesday. I work from my home office normally. My clients still have deadlines, last-minute changes, and now the disorganization of their staff all working from home. It'd be nice to have time to work on projects, including my airplane, but I'm too busy with regular work today.



Planning. Plan your workspace. Move things around in the shop or the garage so that you can start building when things return to normal. Spend some time reading the construction manual for your kit from cover-to-cover. Spend some time here or on YouTube learning new things, or how better to use your tools. Create tools-to-buy or "things"-to-buy shopping lists. Do all the honey-do's you've been putting off, so as to bank some goodwill with the spouse for when build-time begins.

There are a bazillion things you can do to "work" on your airplane without ever cutting a piece of material. Perfect time for all of them.

You said it all ! I have been hard at work doing the very things you mentioned. The advice about the spouse is key. My wife is very supportive but every good girl has her limits. My wife says I spend too much time in my shop and she is right. However, she knew when I brought my kit home what was about to go down.
However, I never miss an opportunity to include her and my daughter in the build process whenever it is suitable.
I think what makes my wife the happiest is when I fix everything and hit the wish list so great advice.

 

[Yellowhammer]

Back when I was working for a living, we had the Avian Flu scare. I was responsible for contingency planning to keep our power generation plants running should the flu become widespread throughout our system. I was appalled at the powers that state governments have, enforceable by police powers, to mandate behavior of individuals and businesses. I hope that we do not get to policed quarantine. It could get real nasty. Best to spend time in the workshop and avoid other people.

BJC

Looks like down here in the South we are not too far away from Marshal Law. My next door neighbor's wife is a RN and they issued her a special road tag for her to be able to commute to and from the hospital.

 

[Yellowhammer]

It’s true, I’ve got lots of free time now.

Before my latest rotation at work began I started on making some antique homebuilt-based furniture and may see what kind of interest there is in making more of it to sell. It gets me out in the workshop chopping away at wooden bits while it’s still too cold to trust epoxy to do its thing.

Heat it up and the structure. That's how I tackle it! I leave the heat running all night long.

 

[Tiger Tim]

Heat it up and the structure. That's how I tackle it! I leave the heat running all night long.

I agree in principle but the shop has an oil fired furnace and an empty tank out back. Filling it would be easy but I’m currently staring down the barrel of a potential layoff so I’m just running down supplies I have while actively avoiding paying for anything. I don’t like to get hung up in the negatives though, so I’m looking forward to using up the many, many hobby supplies I do have.

 

[PTAirco]

Until I run of dope and paint, it's business as usual for me.

 

[Yellowhammer]

I agree in principle but the shop has an oil fired furnace and an empty tank out back. Filling it would be easy but I’m currently staring down the barrel of a potential layoff so I’m just running down supplies I have while actively avoiding paying for anything. I don’t like to get hung up in the negatives though, so I’m looking forward to using up the many, many hobby supplies I do have.

I completely understand. I use electrical heat. My fuselage is in my garage that is open on two sides. So I will put a tarp or sheets over the fuselage and use smaller electrical heaters on the area being bonded.
I constantly check the temp and out of habit, I will get up during the night to check on it.

 

[mcrae0104]

I nailed my tail feathers down.
View attachment 94543

Cool, what kind of nails did you use?