Workshop

Day 1: 1 Aug 2004
The plans finally arrived. I don’t know what I expected, but I guess I thought they would come rolled up in a cardboard tube of some sort. Everything is there - blueprints (so-called, I guess, because they’re blue), construction manual, and a few other printed items of interest. Now all I have to do is build the plane!
2 Aug 2004
This is what my garage looks like. I am going to be using half of a double garage, and erecting a dividing partition down the middle to shield Glenda’s car, and the rest of the house from as much noise and mess as possible. But since I own only (1) a Phillips screwdriver (2) a bent plug spanner and (3) a rusty shifting spanner, I have spent quite a lot of money on tools other people would usually have.
At the end of the evening, things are looking a little better. Some of the new power tools have been assembled (if I can decipher the almost-English of the abbreviated assembly instructions, I’m going to find the KR plans/manual a breeze, that’s for sure. Who writes these assembly instructions, anyway? Dyslexic retards?
7 Aug 2004
Spent the intervening days scratching my head over assembly instructions for various Asian-manufactured power tools. Finally got it all worked out though. Only casualty thus far has been the splitter on the Ryobi bench saw which refuses to align itself with the blade. I think I might just return it under their 30 day no questions asked policy and try another type... Today I’m also measuring up the garage for the dividing partition and the workbench. If I can’t build these with the tools I now have, then I don’t stand a chance building the KR. Wish me luck!
14 Aug 2004 (Sat)
The dividing partition is up, Glenda’s side is clean, tidy and uncluttered. The workshop side is populated by the new tools, but dominated by the 16x4 ft workbench.
It is a pretty tight squeeze (20’ x 9’6”) which isn’t a lot of width, but it’s all I have. Don’t know how/where I’m going to build the wings... I fetched the Western Hemlock yesterday (six 4”x2”x20’ slabs of wood). I’ve been working on a cut list, so that I waste as little as possible. Gosh, it’s not easy. I made the fatal error of telling the wood merchants that the wood was for a light aircraft. They almost didn’t want to sell it to me - and flatly withdrew their offer to cut the pieces to size. Fortunately I work at a local high school, and the guys in the wood shop are quite interested in my project (and in the fact that a complete computer nerd is going to attempt it to begin with!). They have offered to do the cutting and sizing on their industrial machines. Whew! We begin this first stage of the project on Tuesday (local time).