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Best way to organize fuselage parts

UnPossible

Well Known Member
Hey - My fuselage kit arrived yesterday, and I took the day off work today to inventory the parts, and put away all the hardware.

While it was pretty easy to organize the parts for the empennage (v stab, h stab, rudder, etc.) , I am struggling to think of a good way to organize the 100's of fuselage parts so that I can find what I am after fairly quickly 3-6 months from now.

Sort by size? Sort numerically? Or is there some better way that I haven't thought of? What have you tried, and what has worked best?

Thanks,
Jason
 
I stored my parts on shelves by their "sub-kit number" or by size, for those parts listed individually. Then I labeled the shelves by sub-kit number. When I needed a new part off the shelf, I'd find it first on the packing slip where it'd tell me sub-kit number. Then go to that shelf and find the part. I'm sure there are better ways, but this worked for me.
 
Not to start a priming discussion but I have started priming all my parts as the first step. After days of deburing & scotchbriting and priming. (I think "Scotchbriting" is a verb in our community). I really get to know all the parts and then stack them by flat sheets on the bottom, long parts on top of that brackets, stiffeners in boxes, etc. I also group all the welded\painted parts by themselves in a box. All the standard hardware gets put into my hardware area\bins. weird unknown hardware stays in the brown bag so i can reference back to the packing list for identification.

For me, knowing the parts helps me find them very quickly. Big items like canopies, wing tips get put someplace far away and out of the way.
 
After starting the empennage, I bought the rest of the kits at once. I spent a little money (compared to the kits) and bought a lot of small-drawer organizers for the hardware (I think I'm up to 8 right now) plus 6 restaurant-style wire shelves on wheels. I already had an assortment of shop shelves from Home Depot but I like the moveable shelves for putting parts on and keeping near the work. When I built my IO-360 at Superior, most of the parts were on a rack like that, which was really convenient, so I stole their idea.

Major skins were stored vertically behind some shelves to protect them and long parts were given horizontal storage along a wall (the wing spar box was handy for that). Fiberglass and plexi parts were given top-shelf storage while the cowlings and cabin top went to a corner of the hangar. The rest of the parts were stored on shelving pretty much as they came out of the packaging (all ribs together, for instance). Since I was working on wings, tail cone, and fuselage simultaneously, I used the rolling shelves for the parts I'd need access to soonest.

I don't think there's a wrong way to organize as long as your system makes sense to you. And sorting through all the parts was, at least for me, a lot of fun.
 
Hey - My fuselage kit arrived yesterday, and I took the day off work today to inventory the parts, and put away all the hardware.

While it was pretty easy to organize the parts for the empennage (v stab, h stab, rudder, etc.) , I am struggling to think of a good way to organize the 100's of fuselage parts so that I can find what I am after fairly quickly 3-6 months from now.

Sort by size? Sort numerically? Or is there some better way that I haven't thought of? What have you tried, and what has worked best?

Thanks,
Jason
Rivet them together into the shape of a fuselage.
.
.
.
I'll get my hat

See, this is why this forum needs a "like" button!

Reminds me of the old quip about only touching each item in your in-box once being the most efficient way to work. This is my standard response when wife asks how I can find anything because my shop looks to her to be so disorganized.
 
I kept all the big parts safely in the crate and small subkits go on the shelf organized by subkit number. The big parts are easy to find and the subkit parts are easy to look up on the inventory sheet. Rarely takes me more than a minute to find anything...

Hardware is organized in drawers/bins by the actual name (i.e. AN3-5A) and not by bag #. The time spent doing hardware organization has saved me the most time.
 
I kept the sub-kits together (1,2,3,4,5,etc.) and just organized the parts bags into my storage box compartments, like I've done previously with all my other kits. Now, I'm pretty much out of fuselage bits and I'm waiting on my finishing kit to arrive this month. Yay! Unfortunately, it means I am working in fiberglass now (ugh)..
 
This rolling 74 Bin Mobile Double-Sided Floor Rack from Harbor Freight is great for storing small parts etc., and a great shop addition. On sale at HF for 130 dollars. Organize all your parts and hardware before doing anything else. You will save yourself time and frustration with a well organized shop
 
See, this is why this forum needs a "like" button!

Reminds me of the old quip about only touching each item in your in-box once being the most efficient way to work. This is my standard response when wife asks how I can find anything because my shop looks to her to be so disorganized.

It needs a humor Button as well. :) The Tesla Motors Club site has some good examples of it. I did laugh pretty hard when I read that! "Rivet it into parts that look like a fuselage!" Very funny indeed.
 
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