SonexBuilders.net

I am working on installing my wheel pants. Now I need to take the wheels off to drill and tap holes in the brake body. But how to do that? There aren't andy good hard points to jack up the plane:

http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_l ... 2059&row=1

The engine is installed. I don't have the bottom skins installed, and so I don't want put all that weight on the lower angle across the bottom of the firewall.

Does anyone have any ideas for where and how to jack up the plane? I don't own anything other than the jack in the back of my car.

Mike Smith

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daleandee wrote:

mike.smith wrote:Does anyone have any ideas for where and how to jack up the plane? I don't own anything other than the jack in the back of my car.

Hi Mike,

I really like this idea. I haven't tried it yet but I'll need to soon as I need to put on wheel pants ...

http://www.spoonworld.com/flying/sonex/ ... 5_Log8.htm

Seems he uses the sawhorse by lifting the tail as high as possible and setting the horse underneath. When the tail is set down with the ballast on it the wheels come up off the floor; both at the same time. I have a motorcycle lift jack that I thought to use but this seems easy and quick.

Yea, but the tail would have to get up so high I'm afraid I'd dump the plane on its nose. That engine is HEAVY out there on the pointy end! I'll have to think about that. I don't think I'd want to do it without a couple of big guys to hold onto the engine mount to keep it off its nose. Anyone have any additional thoughts?

Mike

This doesn't work for once the airplane is at the airport but to get my wheels off I lifted mine from the top. The garage I am working out of has a 2nd floor with 2x8 joists. I just drilled some holes in the center of the joist, added some eye bolts, and lifted it by the holes in the lower engine mount boxes with two 10,000 lb ratcheting straps. This works for me but I wouldn't suggest trying it unless you know what kind of weight your ceiling / second floor can support.

One thing that I saw on Ian's plane during the northeast gathering was that on the axles he had welded on two short tubes pointing in towards each other. It created a nice place to jack against.

Keith
#554

A couple of years ago several of us flew to breakfast and while there one plane had a tire problem. Two guys got under a wing and lifted the plane on their backs. You have a couple of big friends?

radfordc wrote:A couple of years ago several of us flew to breakfast and while there one plane had a tire problem. Two guys got under a wing and lifted the plane on their backs. You have a couple of big friends?

No wings! They are still on a wing stand. :-)

Mike

mike.smith wrote:
No wings! They are still on a wing stand. :-)

Mike

That makes it even lighter to lift! Can you put a 2x6 under the front of the fuselage and jack there?

Just run a 2x4 across the bottom of the plane long enough to go past both sides. Put it in front of the main spar in order to keep the CG aft. Put a jack under the 2x4 even with the lower longeron. If you have 2 you can jack up both sides at once. A small bottle jack works great. I put mine on cinder blocks to get it high enough.

Getting the wheels off the ground ended up being a non-event (which is great!). I could indeed lift the tail until my wife could get a shortened sawhorse underneath, and then lowered the tail and held it with weights. There is such a long moment arm, holding the tail was as light as holding a box of donuts :-)

http://www.mykitlog.com/users/display_l ... 2304&row=2

So thanks for the simple suggestion!

Mike

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