Baggage Compartment Storage Bins
To add additional storage in the baggage area, I had ordered the Sky Designs baggage compartment storage bins. These look to be well made, and don't appear to need a lot of effort to install.
I started work on the storage bins by first match drilling and trimming the hinges that will attach the lids to the bins.
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| Hinge halves marked for end trimming and for the rivet lines |
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| After lining up the marked rivet lines centered in the pre-drilled rivet holes of the lid, I match drilled #40 the holes into the hinges |
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| Match drilling the #30 holes from the bins into the hinges |
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| Storage bin parts clecoed together. Everything fit together well, and only the left storage bin lid will need some minor trimming/deburring at the latching end to fit flush in the opening when closed |
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| Lids open smoothly with zero binding |
I then cut the hinge pins to length and bent the ends as outlined in the instructions. I also separated and deburred the storage bin corner angles. The angle rivet holes required final drilling to the bins as they were not final sized, so I took care of that as well.
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| Bending the hinge pin in the vice. The bend was then finalized to 90 degrees with a pair of Knipex pliers |
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| Hinges and corner angles drilled, deburred and ready for priming |
I deburred and dimpled the boxes and lids, and then put everything aside until I get to installing the storage bins in the baggage area.
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| Box flanges dimpled, and both boxes and lids deburred and ready for priming |
While working on the baggage floors several weeks later, I took the storage bins and doublers and clecoed them to the baggage floor ribs. All holes lined up perfectly and the storage bin sits nicely centered in the space between ribs just off the bottom fuselage skin.
As I start to plan under floor conduit routing, this helps me visualize how much space is available next to the bins for a 3/4" conduit. Conduit will fit down either side of the bin, but there is limited access through the lightening hole in the F-1006 bulkhead as the bin sits only a couple of inches away.
Having verified placement of the bins in the baggage area, I clecoed each double to a baggage floor skin and match drilled all #30 holes from the doublers into the skins that did not already exist.
The next step after match drilling would be to cut a hole in the baggage floors for each storage bin and dimensions of this cutout are given in the instructions provided by Sky Designs. Rather than measuring and drawing the cut line by hand, I 3D printed a couple of templates using measurements from the instructions, and these cleco to the skin to make it quick and easy to draw the cutout.
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| Storage bin doubler clecoed to baggage floor |
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| Template for marking each end of the storage bin cutout. The left and right ends of each cutout mirror each other, so this template can be flipped to mark out both ends |
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| Template for marking the latching part of the storage bin cutout |
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| Marking templates clecoed in place for easily drawing the cutout on the skin with no additional measuring |
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| Template markings joined by straight lines to fully define the cutout location |
Time Taken: 4.5 hours
Dates: October 22 2025 - October 23 2025, December 18 2025
Baggage Compartment Storage Bins Total Time: 4.5 hours
RV-10 Build Total Time: 1255.6 hours
Priming Total Time: 143.6 hours (not included in build time totals)