BACK ½ HOME ½ NEXT

Working on Chapter 19

updated: 09/05/2022

Disclaimer and Contact Info

Whilst I have been waiting for the Cozy plans to arrive, I have started with getting the modifications to my workshop \ garage approved by the local City Council.  The Building application could take about 5 weeks to be approved, with a further 2 weeks wait for the building license, so it could be close to June before I can even start throwing bricks.  We have a winter rainy season in Western Australia starting from approx. May through to September, so things could get interesting, if we get a couple early showers this year and my shipment from the States arrives early.
I intend to extend my double car garage to the boundary fence, giving me an extra 2.5 x 5m area to move my workshop and benches into, freeing up the garage for building.  Here are a couple photographs showing the space I have available at the moment for the extension and for building.  Once the extension is complete I hope to have my workshop a little better organised than it is at the moment.
Workshop Extension 
                Before                                                        After
                       
      04/04/2005 – Now that I have received the plans I will spend the next couple weeks finalising one large materials order from Wicks Aircraft.  The order should take about 2 months to be shipped to the Fremantle Port in Western Australia.  Due to long delivery times from the States I will also order, at the same time, the Main landing gear bow from FeatherLite and arrange to have the Fuel Site gauges from Vance Atkinson, the Electric Nose lift from Jack Wilhelmson, the Electric Pitch Trim from Alex Strong and Electric Speed Brake from Composite Designs delivered to Wicks Aircraft for inclusion in my shipment.  This should save me a few dollars on delivery charges by not ordering them individually later on down the track when required.

I was thinking of replacing the Cleveland brakes for the Matco Brake system, part number W51LTK, other builders have stated that this unit provides better braking than the Cleveland unit, but since reading the plans and Newsletters I have decided to stay with Cleveland, but order the 199-196 upgraded kit, which converts the existing 199-152 brakes from organic linings to metallic.  The piston has also been changed, so that an insulator can be added between the baking plate and the piston to prevent heat transfer.  The Cleveland 199-196 brake kit should take the braking energy from 192,000 ft-lb to 289,000 ft lb and Cleveland has advised that this should make a noticeable difference.

18/04/2005 – Completed final orders over the weekend with the above-mentioned Suppliers, waiting for Wicks to confirm delivery of all 3^rd party components before the shipment is finalised and dispatched.  Should be interesting to see how much this is going to cost and how long it is going to take to get to Perth.
28/04/2005 – I discovered last week whilst going through the Plans and checking the M drawings that my original order from Aircraft Spruce, for the Cozy Plans, had been supplied incorrectly.  The extra M drawings that I had ordered were not included in my delivery.  I did not pick this up when I first opened the box containing the plans and just assumed that the extra drawings were altogether with the other 35 original M drawings.  I can tell you I was pretty pissed off when I discovered this, especially seeing that the plans took nearly 3 weeks to arrive and cost me over US$105 in delivery charges.  Apparently the extra M drawings were sent in a separate box and nowhere on the delivery invoice or postal note did it say that the consignment was made up of 2 boxes?  I had to send a signed statement through to Spruce stating that I never received the 2nd box containing the extra M drawings and had to follow up with an e-mail to Jim Irwin before a replacement set was sent out.

Making The Worktable
Due to limited workspace, I need a worktable that can be moved out of the way when it is not required and I’m not too keen on making a split worktable that can be joined for bigger jobs.  Most builders recommend that you should make the table 3600mm long by 1200mm wide, not sure if this is too big, but I’m sure I will find out soon enough.  I decided to buy a single 19mm thick MDF floorboard this size, fit it into a cross-supported wooden frame and place the frame on top of a set of folding trestles.  Instead of making the trestles I purchased these Folding Aluminium Work Platforms with adjustable legs from Bunnings (AUD$57 ea) 1000mm x 300mm wide, rated at 120kgs ea.  I will clip them to the underside of the tabletop with suitcase type latches and adjust the height as required.

           
Adjustable aluminium legs for Worktable
The locking latch on the leg of the trestle looks interesting; maybe it could be modified into a Canopy Safety Latch, whilst taxing with an open canopy???  Will check what the plans call for.

01/06/2005 – Wicks confirmed today that my shipment was ready to go and was made up of 2 skids each 73’’ x 77’’ x 50’’ weighting 553lbs ea, total of 1106lbs and 1 crate from Featherlite at 113” x 9’’ x 7’’ weighting 63 pounds, which I think is the landing gear bow.  Currently waiting for quotes to come in on Sea Freight to Perth.  I’m expecting to pay all up, delivered door to door, in the region of AUD$4,000.  The Airfreight quote was coming in at about US$5,600, not including local clearing and delivery.

Making The Fibreglass Stand
I decided not to make a wall mounted cupboard with a fold-out table top, like some Cozy builders have done, but instead go with a Stand on wheels, which I could move around the workshop.  The idea was to have the Bid & Uni rolls on the stand together with the Cling wrap, Plastic sheet, Paper towel and cutting tools and when needed the stand could be manoeuvred to the end of my work table, the required cloth rolled off onto the work table and cut.  The stand was made from scrap timber salvaged from old engine import crates at work and it looks like it is going to do the job nicely, especially seeing it cost me nothing except some time to put it together.  I have ordered about 400yds of cloth, which should fill the other 3 slots on the stand.

           
Fibreglass Stand with place for 3 rolls of glass, Cling Wrap, Plastic sheet and paper towel
I managed to pickup an old set of kitchen cupboards for free.  They were being replaced as part of a kitchen renovation and will do nicely for storing the Epoxy and other bits and pieces.

06/09/2005 – The Wicks shipment arrived today along with the first 35kg MGS epoxy kit.  The crates were off loaded from the delivery truck onto the driveway and it took me a couple hours to get them unpacked and everything moved into the house.  The workshop extension is behind schedule and isn’t due to be completed for another couple weeks, so I will be storing all the materials in the front lounge.  I now have all the materials required to start building, with sufficient quantities to complete the aircraft and hopefully enough to cover the odd mistake here and there.

           
Wicks Shipment       Temporary Storage   Christmas in September J  Sorting into Chapters

27/10/2005 – Between travelling to Sydney on business and taking a couple weeks annual leave in Tahiti, the workshop extension has finally been completed.  Besides some minor jobs like making a couple bench tops and shelves, I think I’m now ready to start building and that means moving onto Chapter 4.  I can’t believe that it has taken me more than 8 months to get organised and I haven’t even mixed my first batch epoxy yet.    

 BACK ½ HOME ½ NEXT