More Practice

I finished the small practice piece last night, and it turned out much better than the one I made in the SportAir workshop.  It easy to see why so many people like the pneumatic squeezer - once it's set up, it is very easy to set rivets consistently.

I don't quite have the procedure down for adjusting the pressure on the rivet gun to produce good results yet.  The pressure was too high when I was back riveting, and I ended up having to feather the trigger very lightly to avoid completely smashing the shop heads.  Fortunately, the flush rivets all turned out pretty well.  I'll work on that more this weekend.

Practice

Yesterday I organized my workshop a little more, and worked on one of my practice kits from Vans.  The new tools from PlaneTools (Isham) are working well, although I still have much to test. When my tools were shipped, a few components were left out of my order, but a call to Isham resulted in the additional tools being shipped out right away - their customer service has been really great.  I gave the pneumatic squeezer a shot, and it created really nice dimples.  I'm going to use it to drive some rivets this evening.

I ordered my rivet gun (3x) and a back rivet plate from Cleaveland Aircraft Tool, as I liked the style of rivet gun they offered a bit better, and Isham did not carry a back rivet plate.  The Cleaveland website is one of the best among the major tool houses, and they are very good about providing information about your order.  As soon as my order was shipped (the same day it was placed), I received an email with order and tracking information, which was really nice to see.  I will definitely be ordering from these two companies in the future. 

    

Inventory

I finished the inventory this evening, and everything is present.  I also organized the workshop a bit more, preparing for my future tools delivery.  I'm going to build one EAA table - a project I'm anxious to start.  That will give me two good sized work surfaces, and a reasonable amount of storage on the shelf under the EAA table.   One table will be used to prepare parts (it will have the vise, bench grinder, and other tools), and the second will be used for component assembly.  I'll see how functional this arrangement is when I start working on the rear spar of the horizontal stab.  I may construct a jig for the empennage if space permits, although I know several builders who did not use one at all on the tail surfaces, and theirs turned out well due to the pre-punched components Vans now ships.  I've heard the jig does make riveting the assembly together a bit easier though.

I've been studying the empennage section of the preview plans a fair amount, and I believe I have a good understanding of the first steps I will need to make.  It takes a little practice to understand how everything is labeled on the plans, but I'm starting to feel comfortable with the process I'll be following.

Small empennage box contents

Vans does a great job of organizing everything