The Avery and Brown swivel deburring tools worked great for everything, skins included, and the extensions enabled us to access the inside flange of all the ribs and spars.

The real heroes of the day, however, were the Brown Tool C-Rex squeezer yoke and bench mounting bracket, which we used with the fabulous Cleaveland Main Squeeze hand squeezer.

Having the squeezer mounted solidly to the bench made short work of the dimpling process, and with one person handling the part and one person operating the squeezer, I doubt a pneumatic unit could have done the job faster. Good stuff.

Tomorrow, final edge finishing and Scotch-Brite surface prep, then — gulp — priming!!

Several weeks ago, we finally found a decent used compressor on Craigslist, a shiny Craftsman 30-gallon oil-less 120V portable, complete with a regulator and 50 feet of hose. Everything you’ve read about oil-less compressors is true: this thing is excruciatingly loud, deafening, almost maddening. There is simply no way I could tolerate standing next to this thing in the shop. That’s why we keep it in the garage, and feed the air hose through the wall and down into the basement shop, where you hardly notice the sound at all. A very impressive solution on Dad’s part. On the plus side, however, 30 gallons is just about the right tank size to keep the pump motor from running constantly, and only a long bout of drilling or riveting will cause it to start again. The tank fills to about 120psi from empty in under ten minutes.

Dad and I picked up an air line filter and a few 1/4″ fittings from Home Depot, and we were ready to fire up the Sioux air tools. The drill and rivet gun roared to life. For a while we tried using them with an inline oiler, but this tended to get messy and over-oil the tools, especially the drill, which started spitting atomized oil from its air outlet port. I still haven’t decided whether or not to keep this in the system or just put a drop or two in the tools each day.

Once the air system was plumbed and operating, we began work on Van’s RV Training Project practice kit. I’d already built one of these things at the SportAir Workshop I attended in early May, but I thought it would worthwhile to work on another one with my own tools, both to refresh my memory and to get Dad up to speed on the basics.

The big hit during construction of the practice kit was the Cleaveland C-frame dimpler. We used this for both dimpling and backriveting whenever possible. The C-frame backriveting technique is simply foolproof, and we really felt like we knew what we were doing from the very beginning.

We did run into a few snags while working out the kinks of the practice kit, but overall I felt our skills had improved and the finished product, while maybe not completely airworthy, was definitely a step in the right direction. On to the empennage!

I’d first like to mention the outstanding customer service I received from Michael Brown at Brown Tool, following the shipping mix-up with my Sioux rivet gun. Michael happened to see my thread on the VAF forums, and without any action from me, he had rectified the situation by sending me the correct 3X gun and a paid UPS shipping label to return the 2X gun. I got a great deal on these Sioux tools, and great service on top of it all. Thanks, Michael; you’ll be hearing from me again soon.

The Cleaveland order was another great surprise. Many of you have heard that Cleaveland Aircraft Tool in Boone, Iowa, manufactures and distributes high-quality tools for the RV-builder community. This is not strictly true. Cleaveland makes ART. The attention to detail on their Main Squeeze hand rivet squeezer and C-Frame dimpler make these tools just as nice to admire as they are to use. I’m definitely pleased with my purchase.

Finally, I’d just like to highlight a couple of cool features from the recent airplane factory acquisition:

1. The Cleavland C-Frame has a unique collar that will accept any .401 diameter rivet set, as opposed to the smaller 3/16″ hole and dimple die that you’d find on a standard C-Frame. This allows more flexibility in how you can use the C-Frame, including the use of the backriveting technique demonstrated by EAA Tech Counselor Wally Anderson.
2. The Cleaveland Lightweight Air Hose Kit comes with three miniature connector fittings, which are much lighter and quicker to use than the standard 1/4″ fittings. Unfortunately they’re not interchangeable, but the action is so smooth, I think it’s worth it.

Overall, I’m happy about the new gear and excited to get going. Most of the high-dollar tool purchases are out of the way now (…yeah, riiiight…), so it’s just drill bits and clecos to go. It won’t be long now!

EAA Hints for Homebuilders: Riveting with a C-Frame

EAA SportAir instructor Wally Anderson demonstrates a backriveting technique using a C-Frame Bench Riveting Tool and a 12″ backrivet set, both from Cleaveland Aircraft Tool in Boone, Iowa. This technique seems virtually foolproof, and the results are sharp and consistent. I think I’ve just decided which C-Frame to buy.

Late last week, while stranded in the maintenance hangar at work, I was talking shop with the mechanics about my upcoming RV project, and several of them recommended Brown Tool as an excellent supplier with good prices on quality tools. They even gave me an old coffee-stained catalog to take home. I perused the VAF forums for the builder community’s take on Brown, and as luck would have it, they were offering a half-off sale on refurbished Sioux Mini Palm Drills and Rivet Guns.

Since I was already considering starting with used tools anyway, I jumped on the opportunity, figuring that these suckers would go fast, and ordered a refurbished Sioux 1412 drill and a Sioux 3X 270A rivet gun. They arrived via FedEx in five days (including a weekend), and were protected nicely, as you can see from the photos.

Other than a few nicks and scratches, the tools look great, and they are SOLID. If the red material in the photos looks like a plastic housing, let me assure you that it isn’t. The rivet gun weighs a ton, and is obviously ready to take some abuse. Overall, I’d say Sioux builds a quality product.

So here’s the problem: As you might have noticed, I mentioned that I ordered a 3X Rivet Gun (Model 270A), but as you can see from the photos, I actually received a 2X Rivet Gun (Model 270A-2). The enclosed invoice even lists the 3X gun, so it was clearly just a simple packing error on Brown’s part. I can, of course, send the 2X gun back, but the refurbished 3X guns are now sold out.

Can I build this thing with a 2X gun alone, or do I need a 3X as well? Van’s recommends getting both a 2X and a 3X gun, but says a 3X gun alone will suffice. I was only planning on getting the 3X gun, but now I’m waffling. Should I keep the Sioux 2X and pick up a cheap 3X for the big rivets later on down the road? Hmmm … I’ll ask the VAF guys and see what they think.

EAA Hints for Homebuilders: Sheet Metal Tools

Here’s a quick introduction to aircraft sheet metal tools, from the EAA’s “Hints for Homebuilders” series of instructional videos, featuring EAA Technical Counselor and SportAir Workshop superhero Jack Dueck.

EAA SportAir Workshop, Oshkosh

I’ve just completed Day One of the EAA’s Van’s RV Aircraft Assembly SportAir Workshop, held at EAA’s immaculate headquarters in Oshkosh, WI. So far, it’s been a fantastic experience, with plenty of one-on-one help available, since class size is limited to sixteen.

The morning began at 8:00am with a classroom discussion covering the building process, tools, workspace, materials and processes, peppered with lots of specific questions from the peanut gallery.

Since there just isn’t enough time in one weekend to address everything involved in building a kitplane, the focus quickly shifted to the specifics of the project du jour–a miniature wing section (provided by Van’s)–and the required skills to slam it all together before time runs out on Sunday.

After a quick break for lunch, we moved into the well-appointed shop across the hall, and began learning our new skills. Before starting the wing section, we practiced by joining two small sections of aluminum skin together, and then riveting them to a piece of angle. No prep work had been done, so we had to measure, lay out and properly space the rivets, drill, deburr, dimple, countersink, cleco, and then squeeze, buck and backrivet the stuff together.

It was great to finally get the feel for the specialty tools like the air drill (awesome), the cleco pliers, the C-frame dimpler, the deburring tools, the 2X rivet gun and sets (backriveting ROCKS), and the rivet squeezer (buy a pneumatic one!). All in all, it was a nice, no-pressure way of getting a feel for all the basics.

We then took these new skills and began to apply them to the wing section, which required a more careful reading of schematics, as well as the new skill of trimming with the aluminum shears. We got about 1/3 of the way through this mini-project when time ran out for the day, at which point my body was definitely ready to be horizontal.