Apr 23, 2021     Light Box and OP-51 completed       Category: Practice Kit

With the empennage parts sitting around all organized, I finished up my two additional practice kits - the Lightbox and OP-51 (this is the one that comes with your Empennage kit). Pro-tip: Be sure to pick up another practice kit and don't only rely on OP-51 as your only learning piece. While OP-51 does show a lot of different skills, the toolbox and/or lightbox help too. If you're between the toolbox and lightbox, get the toolbox - not only is it cheaper, but it requires more skills and variety than the lightbox - but hey, the lightbox looks WAY cooler - so just get both.

On to the empennage and counting build hours!

  Apr 09, 2021     Completed Toolkit       Category: Practice Kit

Well, it probably took me a total of 4-6 hours of actually working on this little, tiny, seemingly innocuous toolbox - and man am I glad I had this practice kit to hone some skills on vs. learning the very hard way on the empennage first. Among the learnings (this may be helpful for the new builders out there, and hilarious for the experienced ones):
1. Squeezing Rivets is a dream compared to bucking rivets for the first time, especially with a pneumatic squeezer.
2. If you get a rivet set stuck in the ram of your pneumatic squeeze...do not attempt to pull it out with a needlenose pliers - just take the darn yoke off, remove the ram, throw it in a vise, and then pull on the set. (not following this is a great way to potentially squeeze your thumb in the needlenose pliers while you're pulling on the set, the ram is moving, etc. etc...guess how I know).
3. When bucking rivets, remember to not put your finger on a dumb place of the bucking bar (read: between the skin and the bucking bar on the tight corner rivets)...unless, of course, you're looking for a good way to get a small blood blister when you pinch your hand.
4. Figure out a good method of cleaning up all the aluminum shavings from match drilling (shop vac or otherwise) - those shaving like to scratch skins, and embed in socks.
5. Smileys happen - to reduce smileys- practice, practice, and practice somemore. I have a somewhat dented toolbox from staring at the bucking bar and not splitting my gaze between the two.
6. Apply reverse tension when using a pneumatic cleco remover to prevent the cleco from lightly scratching the surface of the skin.
7. Respect your pneumatic tools capabilities (happy to report no error here on my part), disconnect things when servicing them; no need to risk a rivet gun actuating, or your squeezer actuating when you aren't expecting it to do so.
8. Have lots of little bins and compartments around for rivets, clecos, etc.

There's probably 100 other little details I learned, but we'll call that a good summary for now. Our local EAA chapter (Chapter 33) technical counselor graciously offered to come out and check out my shop, kit, and use of tools - so I'm looking forward to his visit to identify any areas I can improve on, and make sure I'm starting things off right.

  Mar 06, 2021     Inventory and Organize Practice Kits Category: Practice Kit

I have a number of practice kits - the freebie cell phone holder from Cleaveland Tools, and then the toolbox and light-up sign from Vans. Finally unpacked them all, inventoried everything (good news, it's all here) and started printing up some organization boxes for the mess of rivets this comes with.

  Mar 05, 2021     Cell Phone Kit       Category: Practice Kit

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.