Project 1 : The Rack

First order of business when I got the planes to the basement was to find a home for them. Our basement is already pretty full, and we like how things are (except, of course, for the 20 boxes we haven't unpacked since we moved in).

When I was a kid, my Dad had the same problem; so he designed a rack to vertically store the planes. It was 2 columns of dowel rods suspended about 3' apart from each other, with dowels every few inches down the column. He used several dowel rods, a few lengths of Coax Cable, and some screws to put this rack together. I decided to try and improve on it a bit. I would use clothes line (the coax tended to want to curl) and simple knots with washers on them to hold the dowels up (instead of screws).

Parts List :

7x48" Dowels

We will cut each into 3 pieces, 21x 16" rods

40x Washers

With a big enough hole to fit on the clothes line

4x Eye hooks

To attach the columns to the ceiling

1 Length of clothes line at least 22'.

I bought a 100' length.

When you get the parts home, first thing to do is cut the dowels down to their length, 16" each. (You'll have one left over). Next, grab a drill and bit that are big enough to make holes that your clothes line will fit in. It can be a bit bigger, and this will make threading the line easier.

Mark a dot on the dowels, 1/2" back from each tip without turning the dowel. Drill a hole at each end of the dowels, for the clothes line. Next, attach the eye hooks to the ceiling by simple drilling a hole and screwing them in, appx. 22" width between them. Now, it's time to start threading. You want to thread one column of dowels with clothes line, leaving plenty of extra line at both ends of the line (for tying to the ceiling, expansion, etc.).

Biggest problem remaining : nylon clothes line frays when it's cut. So, take a page from my Boy Scout manual, and "fuse" the end. This is done by taking a lighter, and gently melting the end. If you squeeze (with gloves, or paper over it to protect your finger tips) the tip while it's hot you'll make the end into a needle of sorts, with about 1" of hard plastic at the end. This makes it *much* easier to thread with.

Ok, thread one set of dowels.. that's all 10 dowels, both sides. This will take a bit. Once you're set there.. hang up your column, on the eye hooks where you will mount it. Next, pull each dowel up, and eye ball the clearence you want for each wing and fuselage. I judged approximately 3" per wing, and 12" per Fuselage. Once you get a dowel in place, use a clothes pin to pinch the line below the dowel, holding it in place.

Once you have all of your dowels set, carefully take the column down, and lay it out on the floor. The next step is to assemble the other column, but this time.. do one dowel at a time, matching up it's distance on the line to the ones on the marked column. I did mine from teh bottom up.. so it was dowel, washer, position, tie a knot. Then, pull the dowel down on the washer, snug with the knot. As you attach each dowel, try and make it straight and even with the one next to it, so your rack will be even.

Once you're done with that column you're ready to un-thread the 'spacer' column, and use the finished column to align the second column.

Once both columns are complete, hang them on your eye-hooks with whatever knot you prefer (I used taught-lines so I could adjust each side afterwards.. but Im kind of a knot geek).. and hang your planes!