A Step in the Right Direction

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

Crawling up in front of the motors on Aslan is about what you'd expect. It's a bit tight, and even more so when you have to go through with the engines spinning. The forward fuel tank offers a step at the right height but also at a 55 degree angle. I've painted it with non-skid, but a little wet or the the wrong shoe and it ain't pretty. Of course, I'm never going back and forth without an armload of tools.

To provide stable footing I thought I'd install a step on the angled tank back. I made a fixture from aluminum. Actually the one pictured is the third iteration. The job sounded fairly easy--far from it.

The fixture was all nice and straight and square which was good in my shop. The tank is anything but straight and square. After chip'n, nip'n and tuck'n for a couple of hours trying to get the frame somewhat level, I epoxy-screwed it down with shims. Then I Marine-texed the perimeter. The additional piece shown is an anchor since I had to use small, short, screws on the tank top.

About 18 ounces of resin filled up the frame and made it all rock solid. All that was left was to carve up the straight edged top to fit the not so straight tank. I think it turned out pretty nice.

It's great to have a stable place to help climb up front when it's time.

And it's always time.

 

[Cricket]

Nice, btw, that's no ChiCom step....

 

[Eddieclemons]

Beautiful work

 

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

Thanks. The smaller jobs often seem the most difficult to get right, especially when they're right there for everyone to see.

Can't guarantee the country of origin of the various materials or even the assembly tools. And while I am not of Chinese origin, I do like rice.

 

[cenger]

Old school step 100% made in CT. I have a shelf on top of my forward fuel tank which is very handy for storage. Port engine is easy to get around the front of but the Starbord side is difficult due to the fire supression system.

 

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

That works. The storage shelf wouldn’t work for me, but glad it does for you.

 

[jim rosenthal]

That engine room compares favorably with yours, RAC... and, no, I'm not posting photos of mine. Maybe later on.