Waiex S/N W0044 Project

 
Finally, on December 28, the garage is empty enough to start pulling the workshop out of the trailer. The workbench is the original Waiex shipping pallet, with legs and bracing attached. The wing stand came out just as it started to rain. The blue rachet straps, which used to hold the wings against the storage racks in the old shop were pressed into service as a mule harness to move the workbench, as I was home alone and had to be the mule.

 
Over the next two days, I reassembled the table, then moved the boxes at the back of the shop onto the table and towed the table back so it cleared the wing stand. This shop is much longer than the old one, but no wider. I wedged the legs of the engine lift under one end of the table and rigged my mule harness on the other end.

 
31st. I moved the boxes holding most of the heavier parts and the tail control surfaces onto sawhorses to clear off the table. During a lull in the rain, I unloaded the engine and small-parts bin and stowed them at the sides of the shop. The space next to the wings will be for the tool stand: bandsaw and sander, with a little space to get the bikes in and out. With the angle and channel racks left behind in the old shop, I made a new one on top of the wing rack.

 
After towing the now-empty trailer to a storage yard to make room for more parking, I decided to get some actual build time in. Here I am deburring the wing walk, which will be clecoed to the wing as the best place to store it while building the fuselage. Finished loading up the workshop just in time: the grandchildren and their parents are moving in with us this weekend for a few months, and I found a couple of consulting tasks in my email when I took a break--so much for retirement making the building process faster! Saturday marks four years and one month since starting to cut metal, and I am right now one aileron short of a set of wings.