Finally had the workshop in a good enough state that I could start work on some of the practice kits. It took me well over 4 hours, but I got the cell phone kit all assembled with no major errors. It's safe to say my skills are beyond novice, but hey - that's what practice is all about. Some important things I learned while doing this:
-Squeezer setup: Takes a bit to get used to this (pneumatic squeezer) but it's awesome once you do
-Rivet set: One got stuck in the squeezer ram, thankfully it was just a matter of pulling the ram, chucking it in the vice, and yanking it out with a pliers. Probably took 100lbs of force to get it out, but I'll work on the spring steel retention ring (rough burr), and it should be good to go from there
-The arbor on my grinder wasn't a standard size, some quick design work yielded a 3D printed bushing that fits my 16mm shaft of on the grinder, to the 19mm bore on the 3M wheel.
p.s. Not counting hours yet since this isn't the actual airplane build.