110 Cookson Lane | Whitefield, ME 04353 | 207-232-7600 | tim@lackeysailing.com
I needed some new shop staging. In early 2004, I built a set of simple staging comprised of several large sawhorses with dimensional lumber planks, largely using lumber recycled from a structure I'd built in 1999 (and disassembled in 2001). So in essence, my venerable staging dated to 1999--and the wood was showing it, with plenty of cracks, dry rot, and other pending failures. I'd been intending to replace it for quite some time, but as each boat project in the shop came to an end, it always seemed more important to keep moving on the next one, so I managed to eke a few more years out of the old staging, one boat at a time. Even so, I was making do for years, as the old staging was meant for one specific project and had never been designed for constant and versatile use.
No more. The time had come, and while fresh, sturdy supports and planks would be nice, I was also looking forward to making some improvements to the original design. The old supports (horses) were too wide, and frequently not tall enough, and the planks, made from 10' lengths of doubled 2x10 dimensional lumber, were far too heavy, and the length often worked out poorly given the contours of the boats, jackstand locations, etc. Various protrusions on the old horses (cross braces, plank supports) tended to catch electric cords, air hoses, and spray gun hoses, always at the most inopportune time.
My criteria for the new staging were as follows:
1. As inexpensive as possible
2. Ease of construction
3. Sturdy and safe
4. Minimize places that cords and so forth could become snagged
5. Minimize bulk when deployed (and stored, though it's rare that the staging is not in use at all)
6. Shorter and lighter planks
7. More supports for added versatility and better conformation to boats' shapes
8. Versatility and ease of setting up/breaking down
I'd no plans to reinvent the wheel. The basic design of what I'd been using was fine, and plenty simple. I just needed to massage the construction a bit. To begin, I decided on an overall height of about 5', which would be high enough to accommodate most of my needs, but not so tall as to be awkward. Using a standard stepladder as a guide, I marked off a "storyboard", or template of one of the staging legs, showing the heights of the steps, so I could design the new staging to match up with these heights for universal versatility. The legs would be angled at 15° for stability, which happened to be the angle of the stepladders as well.
Most of the day would be spent making repetitive cuts for the various pieces needed to build twelve supports, or horses.
To begin, I cut twelve pieces of 2x8 lumber 24" long for the tops of the horses, then beveled the edges to 15°. Then, using my leg template, I cut 48 leg pieces from 2x4 lumber, with each end at a 15° angle. Afterwards, I assembled four legs onto one of the top pieces, starting a prototype from which I could determine the dimensions and angles of all the remaining pieces as need be.
With the basics in place, I worked on the remaining pieces required for twelve complete horses, one type at a time. There were plank supports (ladder rungs), three per side/six per horse, or 72 total; and there were cross braces to hold the basic A-frame steady (four per horse in two different sizes, or 24 of each size.)
Once I determined the dimensions of a new piece, I set up to repeat the milling processes for as many as I needed. For example, the ladder rungs required 15° angles top and bottom, so that the top would be horizontal (the bottoms probably didn't need to be angled, but it looked better and avoided a tight angle where things might get caught).
To minimize sharp corners, I knocked off the exposed edges of the ladder rungs at a 45° angle, and installed them on the inside of the support legs, rather than the outside. similarly, I kept the two sets of cross braces (one at the top, just beneath the top plank, and another directly beneath the second step) on the insides of the legs to keep them out of the way as much as possible. In this way, I cut all the needed pieces, and assembled a single prototype in the process.
With the milling complete, I spent what remained of the day assembling three additional horses. By the last one, after learning along the way, I'd figured out how best to assemble the horses, streamlining the process and making it easier. I'd continue the process tomorrow, and hopefully build the remaining 8 horses and also the staging planks.
Total Time on This Job Today: 7.25 hours
