I've been a grease monkey all my life, and got my Powerplants rating in 1979, helped totally rebuild a pair of 152 wings, and did various and sundry other airframes related duties. Now the time has come to get my Airframes rating in earnest, and I'm doing to do it in a big way! My IA has offered to sign me off before! Rebuilding N7909Z (with his guidance) will make me current, more confident, and hopefully, more competent!
N7909Z will eventually emerge from my hangar fully restored and modified as a tailwheel 150, and I am even considering the 150hp mod! There will be much sheet metal work to do, and I can't even find my Cleco pliers! I need everything, from various sized Cleco fasteners, to pliers, to guns and bucking bars. I'm gathering as much information as possible on the best sources of tooling and supplies. I don't mind investing in quality tools, as it has always paid good dividends, but my old standby Craftsman has little to offer the Airframes Technician.
Where's the best place to look for a comprehensive "kit" of quality sheet metal tools? I see them from time to time on eBay, but they usually include too many items I don't yet find useful. What items should I include or exclude? 2X or 3X guns? What brand? Will an automotive gun do? I have two, they use the same shank size, and appear identical in operation (they even have teasing triggers)! Sheet metal shrinkers, expanders, brakes, and shears? What sizes are most useful? I would consider buying your used tools in good condition (Sorry about the "want ad", but you get the idea)! My IA has made suggestions, but I'm compiling a list from the best sources, and that includes you guys!
Absolutely forget the automotive air hammers, been there, tried that, don't work. The Chicago Pneumatic rivet gun design patents have long ago expired and now the design is being cloned by several companies. The tool repair guys at work have seen them all, and say that a genuine CP rivet gun still is better quality than one made by Brown or one of the other companies. (not to say they are bad, just under the heavy use they get at work, the CP is the best)
Do a search on Ebay for pneumatic rivet gun and among the hundreds of air over hydraulic rivet pullers you will find several rivet guns, 2x and 3x, Chicago Pneumatic, American Pneumatic, Cleco, and Souix. All good guns. You will also find sets with guns, bucking bars, and rivet sets and other stuff. Watch these for a while and you will get an idea of price, and demand.
http://www.yardstore.com/ (these folks truck came around about a month ago, on an east coast tour, they have alot of used stuff)
Get a 2x and a 3x rivet gun. Forget a 4x, you won't need it, but the 3x is difficult to use on thinner stuff, thats why you need the 2x. (I have a Cleco brand 2x that was new when I got it but about 40 years or more old though. I really like it and they are good feeling guns, a little less bulky than the CP.
Get a set of ten bucking bars, then add to it. Buy all the rivet sets you can, long, short, offset, etc.
We have a local used tool dealer. Now in the third generation of the family. The Grandfather was a Delta DC-3 captain that finished up on 747's. he bought from Douglas, Boeing and Lockheed and others. The Grandson still has a truck and I buy lots from him yet, mostly odd large wrenches I need. He has used rivet sets of all kinds. Clinton Tool. No web site but I think he will be at Sun-N-Fun. I'll ask next week if I can catch him.
Buy lots of spring clecos and if you are going to work heavy structure, also some screw clecos. Get several different brand of cleco pliers to see which one you like best, you end up leaving them laying all around the work area, so you need several.
Also get the nicest, lightest, smoothest, palm drill you can afford. Sioux makes a nice one, so does Ingersoll Rand and Dotco (the absolute best trigger of all)
Get drill bits of the necessary sizes, 30 and 40 mostly (but also 21 and 13), with 32 and 42 for drilling out rivets. I've never used them but there are a couple of real nice tools out there for drilling out rivets, to keep you centered. Probably worth it. Also get LONG drill bits, 12 inch ones. These are invaluable, and you will know you need them when you don't have them and long about 11 pm on a Saturday nite..... You get the pic.
Teach your wife how to drive and buck rivets, (word of caution, always put the least skilled (aka "idiot") on the gun, and not the bucking bar end.
always put the least skilled (aka "idiot") on the gun, and not the bucking bar end.
No offense intended here, just the same way I've always explained to anyone how to drive rivets. The person with the skill and attention to detail goes on the bucking bar.
Also forgot to mention, a good tight space, 90 degree air drill. I have an old beat up Dotco that a friend of mine, who has a friend who works at Boeing, Seattle, got that friend to pick up a 90 and a 45 drill at the Boeing Employee surplus store. They look like they have been thru the war, but work great.
Iv'e probally have everything you need, most of it new.I started to build a RV7, and had a 150 to fly while I built the RV.I had every excuse in the world not to work on the Rv (2 cold 2 hot dont fell like it etc.)Ive had to admit to myself that Id rather fly than build.Anyway 2 weeks ago I purchased a beautiful 150, all restored, and all im giong to do is polish & fly. The list of tools is quite extensive, so call if your interested. I even have a numatic squeeser. My other 150 is also for sale. Greet bird. Proforms better than the new one. Needs paint and not much else. Thanks Ken Heady 845-677-3193 New York
OK, here is a pic of my basic sheetmetal tool set. I'm sure I missed something, and the orange rivet gun and its sets are not really useful (its a 7x gun and .498 sets and I bought it to use to beat pins and stuff out of the tractor, but if I ever get a 727 in the backyard I'm ready).
Dee the attachment. I resized it to something reasonable for you folks with older computers.
Charles, Is that a crack I see in your hanger floor? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> It doesn't look like an expansion joint. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> Bengie
Thats an expansion joint with a metal key in it. I had the joints keyed so they would not shift vertically. The joint is not "clean" on top. I did not want sawed joints, seems they are always having ants running down them, collecting dirt, and the saw always wanders due to the inattention of the low paid labor operating the saw, so we elected to key the slab instead.
I later found out that there is a plastic strip you can install on top of the metal key to mould a groove in the cement, you pull out the plastic and fill the joint with a semi liquid joint filler for a nice neat joint. Oh well, live and learn. As for cracks, there are a few hairline ones forming. It was over two years before the first ones showed up. I consider that real good. Concrete shrinks as it cures, and takes up to (yes, belive it) 50 years to fully cure!!!
While not perfect, I consider myself lucky compared to many slabs I have seen. Its nearly flat with only a couple of "birdbaths" (low areas) and works fine for me.
It doesn't look like an expansion joint. 