Zenith Aircraft Builders and Flyers
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Safe Storage of Skins
I drove home today from the April rudder builder's workshop with my 750 Cruzer tail and fuselage kits. Since I'm close, I didn't have it crated, and they loaded the skins onto cardboard sheets and laid flat in the box truck.
Now that I'm home, I need to store these skins until I'm ready to use them. The shelves I thought would work aren't the right size and I can't take up half of my garage floor with skins laid about.
Would it be safe to store these skins (almost) vertically? I sketched out a quick idea of a vertical leaning "shelf" to gently hold the skins, then add ratchet straps to keep them from falling out. Would this be a way to keep the skins safe until I'm ready to use them?
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Permalink Reply by John Burns on
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Certainly, looks reasonable. I used a trick from the Home Built Help videos for some temporary skin storage. I rolled them. It seems crazy but rolled up to about a 2 or 3 foot diameter and held with a cord around the roll they stayed safe and took up less room. It took some help to roll and secure them. Just another thought.
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Permalink Reply by Frank Stutzman on
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Here's an idea. I think there are better solutions, but this is what I had to do to make use of the space I have.
The attached picture shows my two fuselage skins (with their laterals and diagonals attached ) clamped together with a bit 1x2 between them and then hoisted up into the rafters. I was worried about the wind coming though the garage door an blowing them around, but that hasn't been a problem yet. Bigger problem is that I have to be careful I don't bash them with a ladder or something.
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20240418_161122.jpg, 3 MB
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Permalink Reply by Jim and Amelia Isaacs on
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Make it two suggestions for rolling them. Zenith ships individual wing skins rolled in a sturdy box.
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Permalink Reply by Perry Delano on
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I had some long (12´ +) 1/4 inch x 3 cedar floor boards from kayak building. By using some big paper clips from staples and clamping a piece of cedar either side of the skin edge, it was a safe way to move wing and fuse skins w/o getting happy faces in them.
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Permalink Reply by David J. Beaulieu on
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Tape the short edges with painters tape and roll them into about a 2' dia roll (you can go even tighter) wrap a turn or two of tape around the top and bottom rolls. Label the part number with a sharpie on the outside of the roll. I recall being able to "nest" some smaller skin rolls into the larger skin rolls. U-haul has heavy cardboard boxes you can use to put the rolled skins into and then store as desired. Suggest marking the box with part numbers as well. To be even more efficent, you can deburr and/or lightly sand the edges of the skins before you roll them.
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