EAA Sport Aviation - January 2012

MAKING LARGE
OBJECTS MOVABLE

by Rick Girard, EAA 597933

I NEVER HAVE ENOUGH SPACE in my hangar. It seems like something always has to be moved to make room for the latest project, and I often don’t have help when I need it.

Lately, I’ve been working on an airplane that needs a lot of repairs, and I’ve needed to move things around a lot. Two of the tasks involved the empennage and the wings, repairing and re-covering a horizontal stabilizer, restoring the holes in the spar carry-through, and new tail wires, to name a few. The aircraft is an experimental light-sport, and neither the tail nor the wings are particularly heavy, but they are unwieldy. I turned to a favorite second tier aircraft supplier, Harbor Freight Tools, for mover’s dollies. These are flat pallets with full swiveling casters at all four corners that come in small and large sizes. Each is rated for a 1,000-pound load, and even better, both are regular items in the company’s sale fliers.

My first project was a tail boom dolly. In addition to the small mover’s dolly, I used four pieces of 3/4-inch plywood: two sized 12-by- 24 inches and two 15-by- 18 inches. Two 12-inch pieces of 2-by- 2 lumber and a piece of carpet about 12-by- 30 inches complete the materials list. The only instructions specific to this project are to remove the carpet covering the dolly’s two rungs, and to use the 2-by-2s to reinforce the attachment of the two uprights. Otherwise, the picture should suffice to show how it’s put together.

The second project, a wing rack, uses two of the large dollies. In addition, I used two 10-foot 2-by-4s (adjust for your length of wings), three 8-foot 2-by-4s, and some scrap carpet for padding (or other material that will prevent scrapes or punctures; I used 1/8- inch polyethylene foam sheeting that I found at the Yard Store).

All wood joints were made using Elmer’s Carpenter’s Glue and decking screws. Pre-drill and countersink all holes so screw heads can’t snag and damage your wings. Smooth all edges and cover all surfaces that will touch the wings with carpet or padding.

First, remove the staples and peel back the carpet on the dolly’s rungs. Don’t remove it completely; it can be reused. The frame of the wing dolly is made by attaching a dolly to each end of a 10-foot 2-by- 4 oriented vertically.

Cut two uprights from the 8-foot 2-by-4s to 72 inches and retain the drops for braces. Make four 8-inch braces for the uprights with 45-degree angles cut across the 2-inch side of the 2-by- 4. Attach two of the 8-inch braces to each side of the uprights, making sure the bottoms of all three are coplanar. Attach the upright assemblies in the center of the outboard crosspiece of each dolly. Make two 24-inch braces for the uprights from the remaining 2-by- 4. Cut the ends at 45 degrees across the 4-inch side.

Attach these braces from the inboard edge of each upright to the inboard crosspiece of each dolly.

With the structure done, all that’s left is to attach the padding to make sure that nothing can harm the wings as they are going on or coming off.

Once loaded up, I can move the dolly and wings into the wing bay of my hangar, and I’m ready to go to work on the fuselage. All the lumber, the three mover’s dollies, and the hardware came to less than $50. A small price to pay for single-handed mobility.

To see EAA’s collection of Hints for Homebuilders videos visit www.SportAviation.org.

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