Paint Stand Question

[Dick Pacini]

I am almost finished with my copy of Byron Barker's paint stand.  I have all the dimensions except the aluminum plate that holds the model.  I believe it is 1/4" thick.  Can someone give me the length and width?

Thanks.

[Bob Reeves]

This may not help as my paint stand is my own design.. I have about 4 different pieces I made for different types of airplanes. The dimensions were what ever fit the motor mounts for the type of fuselage I was working on at the time. Between the 4, I have always been able to find one that would work for anything new.

My suggestion, make it fit what you are working on and go from there.

[john e. holliday]

If you are using the plate in place of the engine, why 1/4 inch?   I use dowel rod that fits my stand and 1/8 ply(5 ply) for holding the plane.   It held my P-39 with no problems.    I notch the dowel for the ply to have a flat surface to bolt to. 

[Dick Pacini]

I believe the original BB stands had 1/4" aluminum mounting plates.

[Sean McEntee]

Would y'all mind posting pictures of your rigs?  I'll be needing to build one here soon.  Need some ideas

[Mike Griffin]

Dick I sent you an e mail

Mike

[Larry Fruits]

 My BB stands came with 3/16 aluminum plate. I made additional plates from 1/8 aluminum and 1/16 steel. Size them to fit plane and engine.

 Larry

[Bob Reeves]

Would y'all mind posting pictures of your rigs?  I'll be needing to build one here soon.  Need some ideas

Not sure this will do you much good as my setup is pretty unique due to the hardware I salvaged. I did find a couple photos that may show what I did.
First photo was when I was painting the Skylark. It shows the Camera Tripod I was using with an insert of the mount I made. The heart of the mount is a fitting off a studio flash the is normally used to mount the flash to a stand. It is a cast chunk of aluminum with a 1/2 inch hole and thumb screw to tighten it on the stand. I made a plate out of 1/8 inch aluminum that bolts to the flash mount then bolts to the motor mounts in the airplane. I had a bunch of the flash mounts from modifying flashes for my ride photo systems.

2nd and 3rd photos were when I painted 3 FJ-4-15's all at the same time. I made mounts for all 3 using the Flash mounts and somewhere along the way I switched over from the tripod to the A frame shown. Joe Gilbert gave me the A frame, believe it was a jig he used when he was building his home built full scale. Worked great as a paint stand.

I also have mounts bolted to one of my benches, one vertical and one horizontal. I can leave the flash mount in the airplane and move it to the bench to mask, sand or install control surfaces and position it any way that makes whatever I'm doing easiest. 4th photo shows my Latency mounted on the bench when I was covering the fuselage with carbon.

[Paul Wood]

Would y'all mind posting pictures of your rigs?  I'll be needing to build one here soon.  Need some ideas

Sean,

This is what I've used for years on both C/L and giant scale R/C.  Not fancy, takes about 30 minutes to build.  Obviously the options for something of this sort are endless, but I hope this will show that the paint stand doesn't have to be over engineered.  I have different nose mounts for different types of airplanes.  This is the smallest and works well for light airplanes only!  Hope this helps.

Paul

[Ward Van Duzer]

Just measured my plates from BB. 2" X 2" X 3/16". I've used 1/8" alum. on my homemade holders no Problem.. Looked at my 1/16" and they were kind of bent!
These were for 35 to 60 sized ships.

W.

[Tim Wescott]

If 1/8" plywood works, then 1/8" aluminum should be plenty, unless maybe it's dead soft.

I use a piece of 3/8" x 1" steel tube welded to a 1/8" steel plate, because that's what was lying in the scrap by my welding bench when I needed a paint stand.  I hold it to a saw horse with a vice grip.  It is most definitely low-tech and ugly -- but it gets the job done!

[55chevr]

from this photo I looks like 1/4" aluminum plate.

[Phil Krankowski]

from this photo I looks like 1/4" aluminum plate.

It also looks interchangeable, like the rod is drilled and tapped to accept bolts to hold the plate on.  Make up the rod, then use whatever is handy to make the plate to match your engine.  

The engine lug thickness of the desired engine in aluminum or steel should be plenty of material.  Go the next common size thicker if there is any question.

Phil