Projects Hobby Bench / Paint Station with Brand Names Collage & Heli Pad

[tommyboy660]

Hi everyone, I am currently making a imo pretty cool hobby table from a storage rack in my garage. Once its complete ill be able to work on my helis use it as a paint booth and whatever else i desire. I am currently still at the beginning stages of it, i have cut out a piece of 3/4" partical board so the lip of it would overhang and then screwed on a piece of Aluminum angle iron on the front edge to make a complete look on it then bought some adhesive yellow measuring tape from Hobby Lobby & stuck it to the inside edge of the aluminum. Tonight i traced out and taped a 15x15 Helipad that ill be hopefully painting tomorrow white with red "H" in the middle of it just for the fun of it, i also added an NFC tag right in the middle of the helipad that you wont be able to see once ive painted the whole thing. After i get that all painted im going to place some RC Helicopter Brand names around the entire bench that ive made and printed out to make it a kind of collage look once those are all in place i will then cover everything in a thick glossy clear coat of Polyurethane to protect it all but still be able to see all of it and work on top of it. I will keeep adding to this thread as i go and include picture aswell if i can figure out how to. Any input, ideas, or suggestions are welcome.Thanks Tom

This is my bench that ive hung a fluorescent light up and put a fan in front of the window. you can see the little round white dot in the center thats the NFC Tag. for those that are unfamiliar with NFC tags they can be programmed to scan with your NFC Enabled cell phone to make your cell change settings, go to a url, or whatever. So when i go to work on my heli i will be able to place my cell in the middle of the heli pad and set it to make my cell turn on my bluetooth and open my music player to play music if i wanted to while i work, and i could also set it to make my status BUSY so i dont get bothered by people if i wanted to. They are neat look them up. Or for instance if working on my heli i could program the tag to take my phone to RC-Help.com so i could look through the help files on what im working on.

 

[tommyboy660]

So i havent worked on my hobby table project in awhile till the last few days where i was able to finally mask off the areas for a 15x15 heli pad right in the middle of the table just for show cuz i thought it would be fitting to have it on their so i can work on my helis on it and i went with a hospital landing pad color scheme because it fits me in general as i have been undergoing cancer for the second time for the past year so im quite familiar with seeing the Heli pad at the hospital, not by landing on it thank the lord but just by driving past it all the time. I will include some pics of my progress below, I just used Testor model paint to do the job and so far its worked out pretty well, using a shaker can for the white and my airbrush for the red. I plan on also adding a few logos like i've said previously & then covering the entire thing with glossy clear polyurethane for the finish, but right before the urethane I'm going to spray the whole Heli-pad with some of this clear holographic spray made by Spaz-Stik that i got mainly for paintingcanopies but im hoping it will also give an effect to this aswell but who knows cuz I've never used it before. Anyway here are the pics. Enjoy and as always any suggestions, ideas, comments etc are very welcome TOM.

 

[Tony]

Looking good. I may just have to make a desk like that. Talk about expandable storage lol.

 

[tommyboy660]

Haha thanks. Definitely expandable, once this top is done I plan to condense everything else around on all the other shelves so that ill have nice clear space to put my paint booth, helis, compressor, chargers, laptop etc. & to make it alittle more comfortable I found me a nice mesh backed drafting chair that has rubber coated wheels for cement on Ebay for under $100, then as you can see I have a small fan in the window then I bought a big 20" fan for nice circulation in the garage aswell.

I've also been making a custom third hand device out of machining coolant hosing for soldering with ease then I plan on having quite a few hooks above for various reasons like to hang my dremel from so I can work with the flex shaft part of it for intricate engraving, or to hang various painting projects from in front of my portable paint booth, also so I can hang all my other power tools from them like soldering irons & heat gun that way their just hanging their ready to go and I just pull them down to use & the cords are routed up through the hooks out of the way.

Other than that I have quite a few more ideas I may add too but youll just have to wait and see as I go. If you or anyone else has any input, comments, ideas, etc let me know cuz I'd really like to hear them. Im the kind of person that likes to make it alittle bit complicated meaning pack as much as possible into one. Tom

 

[wolfman76]

Man i wish i had a little workspace like that Tom looking good!!! Is the spastix paint you're going to use a flip paint or actual holigraphic paint i think either type the darker the backing color the better i have used 2 or 3 different cans of their flips and man i love them plan on getting a couple of their candy paints next for a special canopy project in the future.. Can't wait to see how it turns out especially over that red keep up the good work man...

 

[tommyboy660]

Thanks. Its actual holographic spray not their flip paint, so im interested to see if it will show up on the white at all. I plan on adding a nice black pin strip around the outer edge of the entire heli-pad to finish it off.

 

[wolfman76]

Yeah i think it will be very visible on the black and red and should still see it on g the white but not as easily though. Either way should look pottery cool under the work light dupli color makes a similar paint i think i have a can of it looks like this i found it at a advanced auto parts store..
Not art home i post a pic in a little bit

 

[tommyboy660]

Oh ok, well do you think I should do the entire helipad including the white with the holo spray or just the red? Right now I just put it on the red only then it might pop out alittle. I guess I could try to do the holographic spray on the black pin striping to then it would give a pop out red regular white & finished off with a fine black holo line to keep it all in, but if I where to do the black then it'll be alot more masking off cuz I'd have to remove most if not all the tape thats on it presently then add the pin stripe tape then put down the masking tape perfectly so I could spray the holo on top, if I where to forgo the masking tape then you'd probably be able to see the over spray of the holo on around the pad which I dont want at all.

I just bought a whole bunch of different air brush paints and accessories off ebay for cheap, I think the holo spray was only about $6 free ship. On another note I buy alot of older expired hobby paints from my lhs cuz they mark it way down then I shake it back up using a back massager with the paint jar inside a prescription pill bottle with saran wrap for alittle padding cuz their glass, but I got an idea that im starting to employ gor all paints new & old & that is to buy a whole bunch of small glass beads about 4mm to put 1 or 2 in each paint jar so they shake up really well, dont use bb's cuz they'll rust. You can buy about 100 for $2 at hobby lobby, just thought I'd through that out for ppl using the small model paints cuz it gets the best usage out of all your paint. Tom

 

[Graham Lawrie]

Looking good Tom wish I had space like that With you on the big C bro.Mrs has breast , and boy do I know the impact on your life Onwards and upwards

 

[tommyboy660]

Oh wow ya it sucks to go thru it all but its nice that their do advanced these days with everything so % wise is so much higher cuz the first time I got it I was 15 in 2005 and it is A.L.L. Leukemia & my docs said if I where to get it only 5 yrs prior I would of only had about a 65% survival rate but when I got it, it was already upto about 95%, went thru it for 3 yrs but this time I got it in january 2012 but opted to ho a different route to improve the % of it not comin back a third time and got a Bone Marrow Transplant in May '12 & it also allowed me to be free from any further Kemo treatments too. This time it went alittle worse than previous god me in the fact that I used to be about 5'11" back in only Nov 2011 & im currently 5'1" & when im able to get corrective surgery for it once im off all my meds and allow my bones to thicken up ill gain just a bit of height back but not all. Sorry everyone I dont want to write an entire book on this post so ill stop here. Anyway tell her good luck with it all & to always keep a positive outlook on everything Cuz there is always light at the end of the tunnel. Tom

 

[wolfman76]

I here ya glad you still fighting you should be good and you are right about cancer treatment being more advanced now i lost my grandfather to leukemia over 20 years ago so it is amazing how much they have advanced... Fight the fight we are here with you both! And here is the stuff i got Tommy oh yeah i would paint over the whole surface should have a great effect over any color just certain color will be more visible...




It is a 7oz can

 

[tommyboy660]

Re: Hobby Bench / Paint Station with Brand Names Collage & Heli Pad

Oh wow ya sorry to hear that. I had an aunt of lung cancer pass & the one that got me really scared was right before my first time I got it like only about 7 months before my sisters boyfriends father had water in his knee so he went to get it drained one day & it kept filling for the next couple days so they did some tests to see what was up with him and they came back and told him that he had only a few months to live & to get his affairs all in order cuz he had cancer that had already spread into his lipnoides, so he planned out his own funeral & saw his twin boys that he hadn't seen in 16 years for the short little time he had left and then he died only a few months before I got diagnosed with Leukemia for my first time so when I got my news I wasn't exactly on the positive outlook of life rather freaking out especially cuz I remember seeing how hard it was for him to go down like that cuz he refused any treatments which I respect cuz he didnt want it to go on slowly taking him rather forgo the pain and live it out the the fullest until the end.

Sorry anyway, I got my helipad all painted up and removed the masking tape now I just went and bought the final touch to apply to it tomorrow and that is the pin stripe from hobby lobby 1/8" wide & it says its glossy metallic black so but I'm not sure what their implying by metallic cuz it just looked glossy black to me but I haven't opened nor used it so I'll see tomorrow which if it does have metallic's in it great that solves the holographic spray prob if not oh well. As you might be able to see after I removed all masking tape I noticed some white over spray on the non painted surface of the wood so I think ill be sanding that off tomorrow too. I just received my custom decal kit made by Testor that I may use for a couple decals before I seal it all in with urethane, but the stock kit only come with like 7 total decals related to aircraft and no support for customization or importing your own images so im going to need to buy the upgrade cd for it to enable those pkus add alot more stock decals. Any suggestions on good decal software to use?

- - - Updated - - -



Sorry I was in mobile site mode before and it didnt have the insert picture button that I could find so here are two pics of the un masked heli pad. Am I just missing the button for uploading photos while on the mobile site or is it their cuz I could swear that I have uploaded while on the mobile site before but maybe not. Thanks Tom

 

[wolfman76]

Looks pretty good man did you spray the holigraphic on it yet?

 

[tommyboy660]

Ya in that pic the holographic is already on all the red parts of the pad but you cant really tell, even when in person you cant really tell that well even if you move around its kind of visible but not ass much as i thought it would be. I put it on pretty liberally too, maybe theirs a difference from brand to brand like i said I'm using a 7oz can aswell of Spaz-Stik, when i look directly into it all i can see the crystal flakes pretty well. I also sprayed my airbrush stand base which is black with it and it shows up really well, so maybe the difference in color its used on makes the difference like you said previously the darker the color the better.

 

[tommyboy660]

So I finally put down some black pin striping 1/8" around the entire outside edge, the entire "H", & the entire inside edge of the red caution lines and it really finished it all off like I was expecting to make it pop out nicely. I also got to cleaning the whole thing off & sanding it all so all of the markings are gone along with the little bit of overspray too then i coated it with the first thick coat of polyurethane on the surface too, I did have the original plan of putting a whole bunch of logos down like a collage underneath the urethane but when i first tried putting them down the ink bled so i had to remove them and leave them out but i was able to include a Rare $2 Star Note printed in Dallas,TX where there was only 512,000 printed total which sounds like alot but reality they usually print in the 10's of millions of bills, i usually sell them by the pack so i thought it be fitting to include it in my table. Below i'll include some more pictures for you all to look at. Plus now what i'm in need of is opinions and ideas of things that i should add to my bench for like tool organization, wire routing etc. etc.

Here it is right after the pin striping and before the urethane

 

[wolfman76]

Looks good my friend the black really sets it off

 

[tommyboy660]

Thanks wolfman76. Wow I'm finally done with the table minus of coarse setting it up with tools etc. anyway. I got about 5 layers of thick Polyurethane on it that is made by Rustoleum and says its supposed to be 33% harder than others but it will still take 7 days to fully cure. I decided to tape off my $2 bill that i put under the urethane and sprayed alot of that holographic spray on it so it should stand out pretty well once dry. I went to Lowe's and bought me a bunch of those "O" hooks that screw into wood that im going to put up above the table along the right side so that i can hook S hooks into them and then either run cords through them or attach spring loaded retractable strings to them for tools so that i can just grab a hanging tool like my soldering iron and use it really quickly then it will auto retract back up to position out of my way or my Dremel etc. then i also plan on screwing a few above the bench so that i can use them for painting purposes to hang objects that im painting or whatever else i can think of using them for.

I'am really wanting to either find or make a nice tool caddy that i can store my tools in out in the open for quick access but i havent been able to find any that i like that have alot of storage for everything i have. im also looking for some sort of a paint caddy that ill be able to store not only my small testor paints in but also some of the larger airbrush bottles in too and that ill be able to clearly see the labels on at the same time so i dont have to pick up each one when im just looking for one color. Any ideas or suggestions on either the tool caddy/rack or paint caddy storage holder? Any input is always much appreciated. I've looked up micromark.com and have found a few cool things along with a few ideas on caddies but still nothing im totally set on. I might have to build a custom one myself to get what i want. Any way here are a few pics including my new drafting chair i got off ebay for only $88 plus $15 for shipping which is an awesome deal if you know how much they are usually. I was really supprised to find out that when its all the way extended upward the seat height is about 4'6" way high even for a drafting chair its almost as if i could make me another hobby bench that is above my existing one and use the chair as an elevator lol.. Thanks Tom

 

[tommyboy660]

Finished and fabulous now onto tomorrow when i will setup the whole table the way i want it to be including the O hooks etc. but here is a few more pics. Thanks Tom

 

[wolfman76]

Excellent my friend seems like you got everything well planned out footer accessibility can't wait to see the finished station