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!
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| Construction of two EAA 1000 workbenches |
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| 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!
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| My aircraft tools still nicely packed in their boxes |
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| 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!!
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| A good start to the shop... with VAF already up on the TV! |
