B/B Paint Stand Repro Is Completed!

[Dick Pacini]

I have completed my BB repro paint stand and am very pleased with it.  Thank you everyone who helped fill in some of the details.  It is a clone of Mr Barker's unit and every bit as rugged.

I have the facilities to manufacture this paint stand and am seriously considering it.  A lot would depend on serious interest.  Here are some of the considerations:

I have the CF Slattery/Byron Barker price lists from 4 years ago.  At that time, the paint stand was listed at $90 plus shipping and handling.

CF Slattery was a metal working company and they probably bought material in large quantities.  Back when I owned a machine shop, it was routine to have deliveries of 1,000 pound bundles of steel because we did high volume work, used a lot of material and got the best prices by buying large quantities.

For this project, I bought 3 lengths of square tubing, each four feet long, plus a foot of 3/4 square, one foot of 1 inch round tubing and one foot of 3/4 solid round.  Needless to say, the material costs and shipping charges were pushing that $90 threshold.  A couple of bucks was spent for hardware and the welder charged $20.

I have looked at this project with a sharp eye and have already made some changes to the next one I make.  Material is on order for that one.  My goal is to eliminate some of the welding, eliminate the solid square mounting spurs and replace them with square tubing.  I am not sure if this is feasible because the parts may not fit together.  I also will eliminate the welded nuts.

The other challenge is the ability to knock the unit down into smaller pieces, which would simplify storage and shipping issues.  A requirement will be that the rigidity of the assembled unit will not be compromised.  My goal is to allow assembly without any tools, although a turn of a wrench shouldn't be a problem.

Some minor issues will be addressed.  Mike Griffin (great guy and very helpful) told me that his BB stand needs shimming to keep it flat on the floor because it rocks slightly.  The only way that would happen is if the tubing was slightly bent.  Today when I picked my parts up from the welder, I confirmed that the area where the mounting spurs are welded to the base tube, there is some distortion where the welding heat was concentrated.  Kind of like that little warp your wing picks up during assembly.  This is easy to correct by adding small feet to the ends of the base tubes.

The pix show the nitty gritty of the stand and its first use is to hold the Coyote fuselage for sanding and filling prior to paint.

I am very excited about this project.  I will pursue it if there is sufficient interest.  If I can get 10 to 12 seriously interested parties, I will be able to buy material at a better price and hopefully, offer them for about what Byron would get today.

BTW, I looked into making a stand out of threaded pipe and fittings from Home Depot.  Material was over $70, so I decided to stick with the BB design since it had a good reputation.

I will split the pix into two posts.

[Dick Pacini]

More Pix

[Paul Wescott]

Dick, instead of all the fancy and expensive metal, how about this.  Why not make the important part, the piece at the top, as a stand-alone unit.  Design it so that users can screw it to a 2x4.  Users can make the base shown in your pics out of 3 pieces of 2x4, or one short one and attach it to a bench.  The price will probably be a lot lower, and you will also save on shipping, but the functionality would be the same.

$90 (or more) is out of my price range for something that will be used once for each model I build.

Paul W.

[Dick Pacini]

Dick, instead of all the fancy and expensive metal, how about this.  Why not make the important part, the piece at the top, as a stand-alone unit.  Design it so that users can screw it to a 2x4.  Users can make the base shown in your pics out of 3 pieces of 2x4, or one short one and attach it to a bench.  The price will probably be a lot lower, and you will also save on shipping, but the functionality would be the same.

$90 (or more) is out of my price range for something that will be used once for each model I build.

Paul W.

All good points, Paul.  Al Rabe has a similar device that he screws to a bench and it has served him well.

I built my stand to be a clone of Byron Barker's paint stand which has been mentioned several times on this forum as being a "How did I get along without it before?"  I had intended to buy one myself and even had correspondence and a price list from Byron.  Unfortunately, he passed away.

I have no idea how many paint stands Byron sold.  I have been told some in the field are 10 years old and are still in use.  A few posters on this forum suggested someone take up the task of making them again.  I chose to make my own and thought I could do this for others.

Out of around 200 readers of this thread, I have been contacted by only one person that said he would buy one if I would make it.  I had hoped for better response.

My goal is not to make a killing, but to be able to manufacture a useful item at an attractive price to fellow modelers.    I have material on order for a second unit that will have simpler fabrication.  I will post pix of that one when completed.  Perhaps more interest will be generated.

[proparc]

The reason for the low response is that a lot of guys make their's out of PVC or ABS pipe from Home Depot. Same thing with plane field stands. PVC is the thing.

[john e. holliday]

In Stunt News there is a picture of a paint mount that is super simple and easy to use.   Made of 2 X 4's and dowel rod plus 1/8 ply.  Will try to get pictures of the stand I got from the late Jim Tichy(spelling) at VSC one year.

[RC Storick]

I have one of Byron's stands and I love it. I think that he use to take them to the NATS and sell a few to save on shipping. Yours look exactly like the original. Good job and good luck in your new venture.

I think times are tuff right now as I have made 30 LG and sold 2. SO we shall see what happens at Brodaks.

[Mike Griffin]

Hi Dick

Great job on this.  I have forgotten how many years I have had one of Byron's stands and it was well worth the money I paid for it.  It is a lifetime investment.  I agree with Robert on this about times being tough right now.  Just recently I obtained permission fro Bob Gialdini to kit his NATS winning STINGRAY and only had one person say they would buy one so I dropped the project.  However, something like this can be made as wanted and as time goes by, I am sure you will sell some.

Thank you for contributing to our hobby which seems to be shrinking with participants as time goes forward.

Again, great job.

Mike

[Bob Reeves]

I think times are tuff right now as I have made 30 LG and sold 2. SO we shall see what happens at Brodaks.

Part of it may be we are at the end of the building season and beginning of flying season, may sell better this fall. The other issue may be the numbers of us getting old quick and slowing way down on everything including building new airplanes.

[Ward Van Duzer]

First of all gents, this is not a once an airplane deal. Yes, it is a PAINT stand. And a SANDING stand, and a COVERING stand, and a FITTING stand, and a HINGING stand, etc. Years before I bought my BB stand I built a contraption of two pcs of 1 foot 2 X 4, 2 - 1" pipe clamps, and a broom handle for my shop. We do realize the the full size BB stand only works in the garage, or a large(!) shop.  Make yours a two part tool and clamp the top half (the plane holder part) in your vice in the shop. Cut back on the steel and we can all whack on some 2 X 4's to fill in the blanks. Save costs, save shipping.

Be creative,,,save buck$.


Ward

[55chevr]

Dick ... you did a nice job on the stand.   I made a similar unit earlier this year and the materials weren't cheap.   $90 isn't out of line.   The problem is that BB made a bunch of these and the market is saturated.  Plus the few that don't already own one are modelers/fabricators and can make their own or a similar piece.   

[Dick Pacini]

Dick ... you did a nice job on the stand.   I made a similar unit earlier this year and the materials weren't cheap.   $90 isn't out of line.   The problem is that BB made a bunch of these and the market is saturated.  Plus the few that don't already own one are modelers/fabricators and can make their own or a similar piece.   

Thank you for the compliment.  I will start the second, improved stand, this coming week.  I am really trying to get the cost down.  I don't mind trading a few dollars if I can fill a need and keep myself occupied with my machinery.  I love making stuff.  I wonder how many Byron actually produced and sold.

As an afterthought, a few weeks ago I opened a can of dope for the first time since 1975.  I got a couple of coats on the Coyote fuselage before I realized I had stunk up the whole house.  My wife was not happy.  I switched to Polycrylic to cut down the odor.  However, I wanted to be able to use dope.  The only way I could do it without polluting the house air was to be able to do it outside.  That meant I needed a stand.  I followed Byron Barker's design and it was successful.  From there I progressed to wanting to make more.

[Paul Wescott]

Dick, make up a brochure, a PDF file that can be emailed, including pics of all the uses mentioned, sanding, covering, painting, etc, then post it again and ask all of us to send it to our RC friends.  The CL market is small as a whole and the portion who don't have a BB stand, and can afford to buy one, smaller still.  Maybe the enormous RC market will still has enough builders to generate enough interest (or pre-orders) for at least one production run, so that the few CL'rs who want one can hop on the bandwagon.  It might be worth a shot.

I hope that all made sense.  It's late here and I just got home from 2 days of 2014 Bob Palmer Memorial Stunt Contest plus added Combat Events at Whittier Narrows.  So I'm not sure that what I was thinking made sense when put down in writing...

Paul Wescott