Rib-Straightening Tool

Today I had some school work to take care of so I didn't get much done on my project. I know that I need to get my Master's degree finished up in the next couple years, so I am going to make sure I dedicate enough time to that. I did, however, take some time to build a rib-straightening tool. I'd seen this on Van's Air Force and after trying to straighten a few ribs by hand, I decided it would be worth my time to build one of these now. The flanges of the ribs come out of the manufacturing process being a bit off from the 90 degree angle to the web which they have to be. So it's up to the builder to bend these flanges to the 90 degree angle. This tool makes doing that very quick, easy and accurate. I used some hard wood and cut an 11 degree angle in the wood, as suggested by some other builders on the Van's Air Force forums. This allows me to straighten the flange while still allowing for some spring-back that happens in the metal.

Side view of the rib-straightening tool

Another view of the tool

I was pretty happy with how the tool came out, though there are a couple improvements I plan to make to it at some point in the future. I misdrilled one of the holes for the bolt that attaches the steel to the handle, so the handle is offset a bit. No biggy for now... I used it to straighten all of my empennage ribs after I finished it and they came out great.

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 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!

Tool Kit Choice

Rather than attempt to search for each individual tool I will need for the construction of my -7, I've decided to order most of my tools as a part of a kit. There are three or four companies that sell tool kits meant specifically for RV builders. The companies take the list of tools Van's recommends, plus personal experience in a few cases, and put together what they think would be the best kit. I've looked quite extensively at a few of these tool kits and I've decided to go with the Isham kit (sold at www.planetools.com) with a few additions and subtractions. This kit isn't the cheapest I found, but it does look like it is good quality and has most of the tools I would like to have when building. Some of the other kits didn't look to be as comprehensive as the Isham kit. In addition to that, the Isham kit comes with the DRDT-2 dimpler and a pneumatic squeezer, which will make life nice once I start building. I'll show how these tools are used at a later date, but they are basically two of the most utilized tools while building the RV-7. Some of the other companies sold different versions of the dimpler or didn't include the pneumatic squeezer.

When I ordered my tools, I subtracted the DRDT-2 dimpler from my order as I found a used one the other day. I had emailed Scott, another builder in Lincoln, California, I found online a while back, just to introduce myself. I'm glad I emailed him when I did, because he let me know he was finished with his dimpler and looking to sell it. We made a deal and I'm planning to pick it up when I get home. That saved me a good little chunk of money! I'm looking forward to meeting Scott, seeing his RV-8 project and learning some about building from him. A couple of the other subtractions I made from the Isham kit were the dimple dies and squeezer sets. (Dimple dies are used to create small divots in parts of the airplane so a rivet will sit flush with the surrounding metal. I will divot a lot during this project... like, a lot. Squeezer sets are used in the pneumatic squeezer to squeeze rivets.) I didn't make this decision because I'd heard anything bad about Isham's dies or sets; rather it was made because I had read such great reviews on Cleaveland Aircraft Tool Company's dies. Multiple builders have said these dies provide the best dimples of any set you can find, and I want my airplane to look as good as the best ones out there. So I spent a little extra money and ordered the die and squeezer sets from Cleaveland. I also bought one of Cleaveland's edge rolling tools.

I may have been able to save a few bucks by searching online for individual tools, but the convenience of placing just two orders and having the majority of the tools I will need was too enticing. I'm willing to pay a few extra bucks for that. I'm also new to metal working so having someone else help me choose which tools I'll need is a big bonus. I placed my order yesterday, so I expect it to arrive about the same time I return from my deployment. I'm giddier than a pre-teen girl at a Justin Bieber concert to get my hands on these tools!