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!

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!