9/11/2003
The Avery RV toolkit arrived, but no sign of some of the most important (and earliest used) tools: part of the rivet squeezer, and #30 drill bits! I can't even start without those. They are backordered. But with the air compressor still at least a week from delivery and vacation coming up, I guess I am resigned to not really "starting" construction till after vacation. Lots of crazy tools in the kit, only a few of them are labelled. I had to extrapolate what some of them were based on their price tag. I *think* I have a rough idea how to use everything after a lot of fiddling... I drilled and dimpled some test aluminum to see how things work. Suprisingly the rivets fit in to those dimples just perfectly. I have no way to actually squish the rivet though...
Also got a torque wrench, some clamps, and a finer-toothed bandsaw blade from Sears. Hard to find a small, metal-cutting bandsaw blade...hope this 15 tpi wood blade can handle aluminum. One of the first tasks is to cut some rather thick aluminum angle into the HS attach points. Did I mention I have no experience working with metal? :) A video from Van's arrived showing RV-9A emp construction. I watched the first bit...pretty cool. I think I could have figured it out without the video but this made things more clear and me more confident. And still lots of other things that need attention:
- order for wing/fuse ... quickbuild or not? There's a long lead time either way so I need to get moving.
- PRIMING...sounds innocent, but it is the mother of controversial topics in the RV community. How to prevent corrosion? Does corrosion even matter? Will I die before the airplane corrodes or will the fumes from the anti-corrosives kill me first? There are about a million products out there and I need to choose soon.
- Pneumatic rivet squeezer, everyone says to buy one..."experienced" one from ebay or new one for $700 +?
- Van's order for trailing edge sealant, unique to the RV-9.
- Need to hook up with an EAA tech advisor...before I do too much damage!