Toolbox Practice Kit Finished

Well after letting my primer that I sprayed yesterday set up, I got back to work on the the toolbox practice kit today. The primer came out pretty well. I probably sprayed it on a little too thick but I did a better job of spraying it on than I thought I would. This was another thing I've never had experience with so I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. Not terrible though.

Finished primer on the lid

I got my first chance to use universal head rivets today. There are a couple different types of rivets that Van's RVs use - flush head and universal (or round) head. I've only used the flat head rivets up to this point. The universal head rivets provide a bit of an extra challenge as the rivet-setter has to concentrate a little more on where the rivet gun is placed (hopefully directly on the head of the rivet). I was doing well setting these universal head rivets... until about halfway through the row of the line I was working on. Then... I let the rivet gun slide off the rivet head. NOOOO!!! And then I let it happen a second time! Damn. You can see the damage in the pictures below...

Row of driven universal head rivets

Damage to two rivets/skins in a row (I was riveting every other rivet) 

There's not much I can do about that damage. I sort of just laughed it off. It goes to show how much more experience I need to gain. It did put a bit of a scare in me... I just thought, "Man, what if I'd done that to a skin on my airplane?" That would've been awful. But I'll just keep getting more practice until I feel more comfortable with the rivet gun. After I become a pro riveter, the damage on my toolbox will just serve as a reminder of where I came from. ha!

After a little more work, I had the toolbox all finished up. It turned out OK. Parts of it I thought I did pretty well on and others I realized how much more practice I need.  But that was the who point of doing this practice kit... just to gain experience and learn from my mistakes before I make those mistakes on the actual airplane. I had fun doing this project. Next I'll start in on the second practice kit I ordered... it's a small airplane control surface. Looking forward to getting started on it!

Finished product

Finished product with the primed lid open

Another shot of the damage... damn it. Lesson learned though!

Toolbox Practice Kit

Well, today I couldn't resist starting on one of the practice kits I bought. I decided to put off the inventory of the wing kit for now and begin my first experience working with metal. I opened up the toolbox practice kit's instruction packet and jumped right in.

My first attempt at deburring... not terrible

First use of clecos (awesome!)

My first attempt at dimpling... came out pretty well (I think)

So I had done pretty well up to this point in the project. I was able to figure pretty much everything out.  It felt great to be learning so much about my tools and these processes. Keep in mind, prior to this I've had no experience working with any of these types of tools. So I'm still on a steep learning curve, but it is really exciting to be learning about this stuff... I've spent so much time reading about it but now I'm actually doing it! Anyway, now these three parts were ready to rivet... ohhhh boy. I just decided to go right for it. I tried using my squeezer first, but couldn't quite get it figured out so I went for the rivet gun and my tungsten bucking bar. WOW... it's no joke! There's not a ton of room for error on these little rivets. My rivets came out OK (kind of), but I am definitely going to want more practice with them before I start using them on my airplane. 

Left side rivets... definitely a few bad ones!

Left side exterior

Right side rivets... slightly better than the first batch

Ride side exterior

You can see some of the marring on the skin in the exterior shots. I was disappointed in this and took to Van's Air Force to figure out a way to avoid that. Some improvement in that will just come with practice and learning to better control the rivet gun, but I also found that putting tape over the rivets can help protect the skin, too. I'll try that next time I rivet on the project. I was able to figure out my squeezer and used it on a few of the right-side rivets. The squeezer puts out a nice rivet, but it wasn't quite as easy to figure out as I thought it would be. More practice will smooth out the wrinkles I'm sure. I decided to get some practice at drilling out rivets today, too... not because the rivets needed to be drilled out, but just because I wanted to get the practice. HA! I figured out how to drill out the bad rivets pretty quickly and was able to do it without enlarging any of the holes much at all.

After my first rivets and some dinner, I got around to fitting and drilling my hinges. I was able to figure that out pretty quickly and it seems to have turned out well.

Fitting and match-drilling hinges

Hinges drilled and clecoed in place

Hinges work!

I decided this was a good stopping point for the night. I want to get a little practice spraying primer, so I am going to do that on the lid tomorrow. I've never used a paint gun before, so the learning curve is only bound to get steeper. I'm looking forward to it.

Practice kit set aside for the night

Today was awesome! I've seen so many other people's construction logs, seen these tools in use so many times on those logs, and read up on so many of these techniques. Today I got to finally do it all for myself. It felt surreal and exciting. I have a long way to go before I'm a pro (or even just good), but it was a good start. I look forward to getting with some of the guys in the EAA chapter to get some feedback on my work and find out where I can make improvements. 

Time to get some rest so I can get back after it tomorrow morning!

Kits are here!

My kits arrived today! ABF shipping company's website said they'd be here on Monday, but when I called them on Monday morning to see when they'd arrive, they told me it had to wait until Wednesday. So I've had to practice some patience over the last couple days. But the truck pulled up at about 3pm this afternoon!

The offload was pretty easy... ABF sent a truck with a hydraulic lift so that made it easy. I got them tucked away in the garage pretty quickly.

The boxes finally sitting in my shop!

Two big crates, one long, skinny crate

I didn't waste any time getting started on inventorying the kits. The first crate I opened had two boxes with the empennage parts in them. They looked like they were tightly packed away.

First crate cracked open

I got the cardboard boxes opened up and started on the inventory. Everything went pretty quickly. There were a lot of parts but they were nicely packed and organized which made the inventory simple. The only thing that was disappointing in opening up the empennage boxes was how tough it was to remove the duct tape from the skins. The skins come with a protective film on the aluminum skins which helps keep them from getting scratched. My plan was to leave this film on as long as possible to help protect the skins. Unfortunately though, the duct tape that Van's used is like maximum, industrial, crazy, nuclear strength. When I tried to take it off, it ripped some of the film off too. I was pretty disappointed about this but I know it's really not a huge deal. I'll just have to be careful with the skins so as not to scratch them up.

Extreme strength duct tape on the skins

All the hardware that had to be inventoried... there's a lot of little pieces in there!

Most of the empennage parts inventoried and stowed away

I finished up the inventory of the empennage parts tonight. I still have the wing kit left to inventory. I am not really looking forward to unpacking that whole kit. I am not going to need anything from that crate for quite some time. Van's gives the builder 30 days to do his inventory before they won't pay for any missing parts. All of the parts to the empennage were accounted for, so I don't really expect anything big to be missing from the wing kit. If anything is missing, I'm guessing it's small and inexpensive. I'd hate to have something super expensive be missing though, so I know I really should do the inventory. Anyway, I've saved that for tomorrow.

The wing kit cracked open and waiting for inventory

I also got my two practice kits with these kits today. I'm excited to get started on the toolbox kit! I will see how far I get on the wing kit inventory tomorrow but if I get that done at a decent time, I'll start in on the toolbox.

Today was a good day... It felt surreal to look out into the shop one last time tonight and see the full drawings of an airplane hung above my workbench. This is the beginning of something I've wanted to do for a long time. I can't wait to start pounding rivets!

Shop Finished (For Now)

Over the last few days, I've gotten the shop pretty well finished. There are a few little things that I can already see I am going to want to change and refine some, but at this point I am considering it to start building in. It will soon become a true airplane factory!

A view of the left side of the shop 

A view of the right side of the shop

I'm realizing more and more that I am probably going to have to leave my car out of the garage for a while. It's just too tight in there with my car and motorcycle inside. Not a big deal, and I will keep trying to get things organized to the point I can get everything inside at some point. Overall I am really happy with how the shop has come together. The only thing I think I am going to want in the near future is more shelving. Once my kits get here, I am going to have to unpack the crates, do an inventory and then find a place to store it all. We'll see if I have enough space or not.

Speaking of my kits getting here, ABF shipping company's tracking system says they are supposed to arrive tomorrow!! To say I am excited is an understatement. Even though working on the shop is technically a part of the whole airplane building process, it hasn't really felt like I have started the airplane building process. I know once the kits get here it'll hit me that I really am building an airplane... it still seems a bit crazy to think that! So, tomorrow should be a big day. I'm really looking forward to getting the crates cracked open and getting my hands on the parts that will one day be my airplane. I plan to spend at least the next couple days completing inventory of everything and then get started on the tool box practice kit. Here's to hoping I'll be able to sleep tonight!

First Ride!

Well I can now officially say I've had a ride in an RV-7! I headed out to the airport on Friday morning to meet Richard for a ride in his RV-6A (the -6 is the predecessor to the -7. Van's made a few improvements and replaced the -6 with the -7). Unfortunately, as we completely the pre-takeoff runup, we discovered that Richard's airplane had an issue with one of his magnetos. So we were unable to fly that day. Lucky for me, one of the other guys that owns an RV, Fred, was at the airport that day, so he offered me a ride in his -7! It was incredible.

The first thing about the airplane that I noticed was how short the wings are. I'm used to flying Cessnas which have much longer wings. I wasn't sure how we were going to fly with such small wings! But fly we did. Fred took off and departed the pattern and then let me take the controls. I couldn't believe how easy the plane was to fly. It is super light on the controls. You could easily fly holding the stick with two fingers. And it is FAST. We climbed like a bat out of hell. It's just so much different compared to what I am used to flying. After I flew around for a few minutes, we came back to the pattern and did a low pass over the runway. Fred then took the controls again and landed... I couldn't believe how little of the runway we used to land. It really is an awesome, awesome airplane. The ride definitely solidified my decision to build!

Richard's RV-6A

Fred's RV-7

The cockpit of Fred's RV-7

After milling around and talking to a older gentleman on the field that is building an RV-4, Fred got ready to go formation flying with another guy, Ernie, in his Mooney. Fred asked if I wanted to join him for another flight and I wasn't about to turn that down! I have never flown formation before and it was pretty exciting to be that close to another airplane. It's definitely something I'd like to get into, especially because so many RV guys fly formation together. I just need to get my airplane built first!

Flying in the RV-7 off the wing of Ernie's Mooney

And after the formation flight, another guy I've met in the last few days, Tony, asked if I wanted to go fly to Auburn, California, for a quick lunch. Tony was flying with Ernie during the formation flight. Anyway, I've rented airplanes out of Auburn and it's an awesome little airport with a good restaurant on the field. We made the quick flight up and back in Tony's Grumman Yankee.

I'm really pumped that I've met so many guys at the airport in the last few days. I didn't realize there was an EAA chapter in Lincoln until talking with Scott, who is building an -8 in his garage. He let me know about the chapter and I met a lot of great guys at that first meeting. I know they will be a great source of knowledge and experience as I work my way through my build. 

Overall, an awesome day at the airport and one I won't soon forget!

Shop 90% Done

The past two days have been productive. I got a few more things done around the shop, including getting my air compressor purchased. This is one of the most important tools in the build process, because the riveting and drilling are done with air tools. So I needed something with some good reliability and enough capacity to perform the way I need it to. After doing a whole bunch of research, looking over reviews, and taking a look at my situation, I decided to go with the Husky 30 gallon, oil-lubricated compressor from Home Depot. This one has some good history, some good reviews and runs of off 120v power. I was tempted to get the 60 gallon version of this compressor that runs off of 220v power, but my current place doesn't have 220v power in the garage. I would've had to run that, plus with the chance that I may move again sometime in the not so distant future (just part of life in the military), I didn't want to struggle with that one. So this smaller one will work well for me I think. I've broken the motor in at this point, but I'm waiting on a regulator/filter I ordered to get here before I do the final set up... and decide exactly where I want to put it.

My Husky 30 gallon air compressor... my first air compressor!

I also got another workbench built. I wanted a smaller, more portable one that I could pull out and work on top of and then stow away at the end of the night. It turned out great. I'm really happy with these work benches. They are the EAA Chapter 1000 workbenches and are really solid. I made a few small alterations to the plans, but they follow the same basic design.

So, the shop is at what I would call 90% at this point. Pretty exciting! I plan to run a few more power outlets tomorrow (under the advisement of my best friend Joe), plan out some sort of plans holder, clean everything up some and probably find about 30 other things I want to do. But I don't have much time... I got an email today letting me know that my empennage AND wing kits shipped today! They're supposed to be here Monday! I thought I'd have more time before the wing kit got here, so I've got to rush to figure out where I will store that while I work on my empennage. May have to give up parking in the garage for a while. I didn't really want to do that, but airplane parts take priority! :)

A shot of the shop from just outside the garage

A little closer view of everything

You can see the smaller, more portable workbench here 

I'm excited to work some more on the shop tomorrow... but I am EXTREMELY excited because it sounds like I'll be getting my first RV ride tomorrow! I went to the local Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Chapter's meeting last night and met a lot of people. One of those, a guy named Richard, owns a -6 he keeps here at the local airport. I got a chance to see it and he said he'd take me up on Friday. So, we're planning to go for a ride at 0700. After that, he is planning to do some formation flying with a buddy of his... so I MIGHT get a ride in a -7 as well! Very excited. There will definitely pictures to come...

Shop Lighting

I spent most of the day today completing a few things around the house, but I did get enough time to install a couple new light fixtures in the shop... and what a huge difference they make! I just installed two 4-foot T8 fluorescent fixtures, but they made the shop much brighter than I expected. In the process, I only zapped myself once and tripped one breaker... apparently the lights aren't on the circuit I thought they were. I'm here to tell you all about it though... I'll call it a success!

The two lights closest to the wall are the new ones

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but you can tell some difference
by looking at the pictures I put up yesterday... much brighter!

I hope to get my air compressor purchased tomorrow and start working on getting that all set up... and play with my air tools, of course! If I have enough time, I may work at constructing a third workbench. I plan to make this one a bit smaller and with casters so I can roll it around the shop. I also still need to figure out a plans holder, so I'll see what I can come up with in the next couple days for that.

Shop Prep and Tools Arrive

I returned from my deployment about a week ago. After I got checked back into my base, I went to work on getting my shop ready to go! While I was gone, I really planned everything out in quite a bit of detail. I decided which tools I wanted, kind of how I wanted to set my shop up, what things I wanted in the shop to make building a little more comfortable, etc. That all ended up being a big help in that I've been able to get everything set up relatively quickly. I got two work benches made, set up my new tool chest, bought the majority of the tools I plan to get from Home Depot/Lowe's/Harbor Freight, and even got my Husker Football Viewer/Van's Air Force (VAF) referencer set up (that's my TV... Van's Air Force is a website with forums that have alllllll kinds of information about RVs.). It's coming together nicely!

Construction of two EAA 1000 workbenches

Two workbenches finished

I had another exciting milestone over the past few days... all of my aircraft tools arrived! I was pretty excited to get these boxes opened up and play around with the tools, but I wanted to make sure I was organized first. So I put off breaking into them until the shop was in a reasonably organized state. I finally opened them up today though. I was impressed with the packaging from Isham. It was all packed into one little box. And upon opening that box, I found that each item was in its own plastic bag with a tag to identify exactly which tool it was. Very helpful. The smaller of the two boxes contained the dimple dies and a couple other items I ordered from Cleaveland Aircraft Tool. Their packaging was good too. So I opened everything up, took a quick inventory and got it all put away in the tool chest. It's a lot to keep track of and I'm glad I have the tool chest to help do that! I got one from Home Depot for a great price and I've found it to be of great quality. Very happy with that buy!

My aircraft tools still nicely packed in their boxes

And the tools laid out for inventory

It's been a great few days getting the shop all ready to go. I still have a bit left to do... buy my air compressor, hopefully run a little more power to the shop, likely build one more workbench, install some additional lighting, and maybe install an air condition to cool it off some. It's all coming along very well at this point though. I'm excited to get started on building an airplane... That's what I'm building all of this other stuff for, after all. I got an email from Barb at Van's yesterday and she said my empennage kit and my two practice kits should ship this week! Those kits usually come by FedEx 3-day... so I'm only a few days away from pounding rivets... Can't wait!!

A good start to the shop... with VAF already up on the TV!