A few notes here about shop preparation. Before I actually built the empenagge, I spent 8 months building and outfitting a 20' x 30' room inside the hangar as a the main construction shop. I already have a lot of wood working equipment to accomodate and I decided to redo all my tool panels before I got into full construction of the wings. The room is heated and air conditioned; a neccessity in Alabama. Hangar temperatures go from over 100 degrees in the summer down to near freezing in the winter. I figured it was imperative to have a comfortable year round shop environment if I was going to complete the project in a reasonable time. The shop has double doors that open into the main hangar. These will be sufficient for most things, but I'm affraid a little too narrow for getting the fuselage with gear attached through. We'll have to deal with this a little later. The back part of the shop has some work to do yet. It has a hole in the wall to mount a fan for exhausting paint fumes. I will be doing all my priming and perhaps finish painting in this area. The shop is plumbed for shop air inside the walls with 7 quick disconnects in the walls. I used 3/4" copper tubing for this to avoid scale from steel pipes. I avoided PVC for this because I've read it fatigues over time and can end up exploding without notice. Three blead of drops were put into the walls to bleed off any condensation that might accumulate in the pipes over time. The shop also has plenty of light; 20 dual fluorescent lights with electonic ballests wired in 3 banks. Exhaust ports are built into the ceiling in the back part of the shop for removing fumes as well.
