Mating the Fuselage with the Cage

I didn’t like the idea of hanging the fuselage from a wooden stand for several reasons.

	A stand would take up too much space
	It would be difficult to work under the fuselage
	Time to construct the wooden frame
	It would be impossible to transfer the fuselage to a rotating stand
	Definitely makes cleaning the floor more difficult
	A stand would not be as strong or as safe

Therefore I constructed a fuselage support system that was mounted to the roof trusses in my 12’x28’ garage extension. This was so simple and the cost was about $18.00. It was built using left over angle iron used to install the overhead garage door. Below is the materials list.

2 vertical sides 30” long

1 horizontal bottom 52” long

2 corner braces 28” long

2 bolts (8” x 3/8”)

2 stainless steel turnbuckles ($8.95)

8 bolts, 12 nuts, and 4 lag screws all 3/8” ($2.00)

Build a frame and hang it from the trusses. Here’s how it’s done:

Bolt the 30” vertical pieces to the roof trusses. Space them about 48” apart, it really doesn’t matter because you adjust the spacing on the lower cross member.
Bolt the 52” length to each vertical piece, across the bottom.
Bolt a 28” length across each lower corner, connecting a side with the bottom.
On the bottom cross member, locate the (width of the cage hanging tabs) holes that the 8” bolts will pass through. Insert and adjust the 8” bolts to the appropriate height and secure with a nut on each side (I used the threaded rods because at the time I wasn’t sure how to make the height adjustable).
Remove one end of each turnbuckle and thread onto the bottom of each 8” bolt).
Hang and level the cage by adjusting the turnbuckles.

Also, I can easily transfer the fuselage to an engine stand that I purchased at Sam’s for $39.00. This makes working on the bottom of the fuselage so nice and was especially helpful when laminating the vertical tail fin together when I raised the tail section and flipped over 180 degrees.

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