Aluminum tubing tools

For reference. I have the following tools for bending and flaring my aluminum lines;

• Imperial 470-Fh Triple Head 180deg Tubing Bender (From Aircraft Spruce). I've but some gorilla tape on the underside of the lip as the tool likes to mar the aluminum there. I use air tool oil to help lube the tube before bending.
  

• Rolo-Flair manual rotary flairing tool. (From Aircraft Spruce). This is a big bulky unit. It works great but its big. I use a drop or two of air tool oil on the flare face and then use some 400 grit sandpaper on the outside of the flare edge.
  
  
  

•  1/4" handheld tubing straightener (From Amazon.ca)
  
  
  

 

Here's a fun little tool

Went over to Mike's for a BBQ after work. When showing me some of the cool parts for the Stewart S-51 (works of art by the way!!) A cool little tool caught my eye.

What is it. Well...I picked it up and noticed right away that the 'hole' was about the same size as my mushroom head rivet set, but I couldn't figure out how or where it was used/placed.

Well with a big grin Mike showed my what it is used for.


It's used to keep the rivet gun in place when bucking solo.

What a cool little tool!!! Now I want one!!!!

Another Shipment of Tools and Goodies

I had ordered a few supplies from Aircraft Spruce in anticipation of doing the fuel tanks. Polywipes...At the recommendation of an aircraft mechanic friend, he swore by these. They are like baby wipes but with polygone gel on them. He said they are great for working with proseal as they make cleanup a snap! He says you can grab a wipe with proseal all over your gloves and clean them off, clean tools and keep going.


I also ordered 30 3/32" and 20 1/8" stubby clecos. I just love em for those tight spaces!!!

New tools arrived

Finally after waiting nearly two months my order from Avery Tools had arrived. Back in Nov 8th I placed a fairly big order since Avery Tools was going out of business. I ordered a tandem alligator squeezer, a pneumatic cleco gun, a larger selection of flat rivet dies in various thicknesses, SafeAir pitot mast and skyview plumbing kit. I was super excited that it was finally here.   

The cleco gun is nice, first impressions is that it will come in extremely handy for work on the skins. I gave the new squeezer a try. It has tons of power and a bit better trigger than my C frame squeezer. I can see that it will not be as easy to adjust the dies for setting rivets, and it will be a tad tricky to make sure that it sets rivets straight, but it sure is cool!

Building tools

A handy tip that I learned from one of the guys at the EAA meeting is to build some guides for both drilling operations and rivet removal operations. A little drill guide using a piece of round bar with either a #30, or #40 hole is a handy tool that ensures that when drilling a hole with a hand held drill, the drill bit is perpendicular to the piece. If you can have a tab welded to the side it will allow you to have a place to use a clamp on it.

A similar guide is great for using under a piece when you need to use a punch to remove a rivet.  The trick is to have a hole in the tool that is just slightly larger than the shop rivet head. If you ever need to punch the rivet out, the tool used would support the aluminum around the rivet and is helps you avoid bending the aluminum while driving out a particularly stubborn rivet.

I had ordered a few round bar pieces last week. All were 2" long and I got some 1" diameter and some 1-1/2" diameter. In retrospect....the 2" length is just too long.

I think I will re-order some pieces that 1" long and get some 1" dia, and 1-1/4" diameter. and use those as my drill guides. (Update....This is an excellent size 1" diameter and 1" long. Drill some on center, and some off to one side. The ones drilled off to the side come in handy for those tight areas)

I decided to use my 2" x 1-1/2"dia piece to make a guide for punching out AD4-X rivets. Driving these rivets out of the thick spar doublers has been a cause of much frustration for me. Hopefully this tool will safe grief for me in the future. I started out by marking center on a piece. I then set up the drill press and made a pilot hole with a small 1/16" bit.

 I then enlarged the hole with a 15/64" bit. Turns out that this hole size will allow removal of both a AD4-X and AD5-X rivet.

A handy little tool

I have to say a great tool that has become so handy is my Steadtler circle template (Found in the drafting section @ Staples). Its an old school template from the days of manual drafting. I find it really great to use on the project on things like minimum edge distances, layout, center lines, etc.

Today I work with wood, so tommorow I work with Aluminium

I was busy with work  today so not much happened with the practice projects. I did run over to home depot and picked up materials so I could make a priming table and also made the table for the DRDT-2 dimpler. I modified the design a bit from the original plan. I made the table one piece that sat in the dimpler and is level with the frame holder. My dimple dies measure 3/8" high so I will just place my protective foam on the table and I will have the perfect height.

The priming frame is made up of 2"x3"s measuring 6'x3'. I then used my pneumatic stapler and stretched chicken wire over the frame. The idea is that I can prime most parts sitting on this frame and when I'm done I can put the frame up out of the way.

The DRDT-2!

The DRDT-2 dimpler has arrived. Trip helped me set it up and I messed up the #6 screw dies. I bent the retention spring on the die shaft and cant get it bent back. Darn!

Still learning

Learning lessons today. Spent some time on the practice project. All in all it turned out well. But not as good as it needs to be. I counter-sunk the number #30 holes in the aluminium angle. They were perfect if I used the 426AD4-4 rivets, but when I put the 0.040 dimpled skin over top the angle... Skin does not sit flush on the angle because the angle countersink was not deep enough. Makes perfect sense now that I think about it, but I realized it after I riveted. I also played with the air settings on the gun and found that lower settings work so much better that the higher settings I was using. I also discovered why the flush rivets do not sit quite so flush with the skin. My swivel flush set has a rubber ring around it which sits proud of the skin. Unless I press really hard with the gun, there is a possibility that the rivet is driven with its head slightly proud of the skin. I also noticed that I scratched the head of my flush set so now each flush rivet is being marred. After reading up on the forums, I see that you can polish the flush rivet set (one the rubber is removed). Did that and it turned out very nice!

Tools Arrive & Toolbox construction begins - 7.0hrs

The tools came to the door!!! Yeah! Took inventory and laid everything out. Planetools.com has a very nice kit and I was really pleased with every piece. Everything came out of the plastic and had a good wipe to get the tool oil off.  I didn't waste any time. I started the toolbox project and everything was falling nicely into place. The clecos when on, the holes where lining up. The plans were a bit difficult to follow and I choose to assemble the pieces in a bit different order. By the end, I had a perfect tool box! I was feeling really confident. Then I began to rivet.....this is where everything went south. I tried the pneumatic squeezer first, things went much better when i found that i could tease the trigger and close the gap to make sure that the squeezer was on the rivets square. But then I pulled out the rivet gun....and made a real mess of the toolbox. I found it difficult to hold the gun against the work, while holding the bucking bar. then when I pull the trigger everything seemed to jump all over the place. I had to drill out about 5 or 6 rivets, a lot of rivets were not nice and square. I can see that I am going to need a lot of practice with the gun.

Getting set up in the basement

Set up the basement with the table, the backplate and the practice kits. Still waiting for the tools to arrive before I can start.

Just a quiet day

Picked up a drill press today at home depot. Also picked up carpet underlay for the work table. it should be the same thickness as the back rivet plate. Looked into the invoice that was sent with my Emp kit in hopes that I can submit it to MD-RA. Nope....The invoice states RV-8. Going to have to wait till I get the right kit.

Yeah!!!..Wait forget it

When I got home from work I cleaned and polished the back rivet plate. I'm very pleased how nice it turned out.  I was careful to grind down the corners so that it did not gouge the aluminum when it is pulled over top.

                                                                                                                                                                          I went for lunch and then took trip over to home depot to pick up some sandpaper and a 220V extension cord. When I got home I had a big surprise. The Empennage kit arrive from Vans!! But the joy was short lived. When I opened the box and looked at the inventory sheet...They had sent me an RV8 kit and not the RV7 kit :( After a quick phone call Vans told me they would ship out the right kit and contact FedEx to pick up the RV8 kit.

More tools and primer investigation

I submitted a questions to the Vans AirForce Forum on a back rivet plate. I asked about cold steel vs stainless steel. I also asked how to keep the cold steel from rusting. Everyone came back with a recommendation for cold steel, and most said a light coating of WD-40 prevents rust.  So I ordered 3/8" x 6" x 24" cold rolled steel bar from Metal Supermarkets and picked it up on my way home from work. Had an interesting phone conversation with the owner of Anderson Anodizing in St. Albert. I called him looking to see what the charges might be to have the aluminum alodined for me (I have serious concerns of my abilities to alodine the parts at home....both during the winter time, and in safe handling/disposal of the Alodine) His recommendations to me was that he did not feel that the alodine was necessary. His concerns were more for the proper cleaning of the aluminum so as to allow good adhesion of the primer. He agreed that the 2 part epoxy was a great choice and that it would help prevent corrosion.  After reading Vans recommendations on priming  coupled with my recent conversations. I have decided that MY best option for priming the interior is a very careful prep and clean of aluminum parts followed by two thin coats of epoxy primer (the overall weight of 2 part epoxy being a concern too). I'm glad that I have finally come to a consensus on the primer....It has been haunting me for the last week!            

Test Priming

Stopped by Southtown Auto/Napa and Canadian Tire today to pick up some test priming materials. Southtown was a good source of 3M scotchbrite and ProFrom professional paint supplies. I picked up a bunch of scotchbrite reloc pads and a reloc holder. I picked up a roll of aluminum from Canadian Tire as well as a can of Dupli-color Self Etching primer.

I begin with cutting up the aluminum into roughly 6" pieces. My first test was to see how the scotchbrite pads worked on the aluminum.  I used a 3" reloc scotchbrite wheel on the test aluminum, and it seemed to really scuff the aluminum with deep scratches. I immediately sensed that this is not the answer to prepping the aluminum. I then used some maroon scotchbrite hand pads to scuff the aluminum. Much better results. The surface preparation is more smooth and gentle. 

I cleaned one piece with MEK and one with the Proform Wax and Grease remover. I noticed that the MEK seems to evaporate quickly, while the degreaser/cleaner stays more wet. (Using an individual microfiber cloth for each, I wiped all excess liquid off and set them outside to dry for 20min (~23deg C and sunny). The Dupli-Color self etching primer was applied in two coats, the second being applied 10min after the first coat (as per the directions). The result is that after 45min dry time, both are easy to scratch with a fingernail (top right corner). After 3 hours the primer is becoming more hard, both are becoming difficult to scratch. It took a few tries and lots of pressure with the thumbnail to scratch the primer (top left corner).

More Tools!

I noticed that Canadian tire has some tools on sale this week. I picked up a digital caliper for $14.00 and a 5" vice for $44. Great deals! Looked on the internet at paint schemes. A bit early to be looking at that, it's just fun though. Reading some more builders logs on the Empennage construction. Getting a sense of the construction order. Metal prep work, drill debur, etc.  Clean, Prime, Dimple.  Been researching more on primers....wow, my head is spinning. There is no end to figure out a decent priming job. Some guys swear by rattle can primers. Aircraft spruce and Canadian Tire both sell the same Dupli-color self etching primer. Epoxy primers seem good, but reading Endura Paints process on cleaning the aluminum prior to application is nearly a full days process! I think I may be wise to conduct my own priming tests. I see Canadian Tire sells rolls of sheet aluminum, I guess  I have a project to work on before my tools and kit arrives.

Also been trying to find a 3M cut and polish wheel for a pneumatic die-grinder as well as a 6" wheel for the bench grinder....The search is on! (P.S. The problem with reading all the forums on building the RV is that most of the products are only available in the US, or available from Aircraft.ca with huge shipping charges!!!)

Tools to look at buying: A pneumatic cleco gun, a 3M cut and polish wheel for a die grinder, and #40 and #30 drill bit reamers.

Buying more tools!

Have set up the garage more. Went to home depot and IKEA. I bought a small table on rollers and also bought a bench grinder and sanding station. I have been reading up on methods of sanding. To my surprise folks seem to be using a course grit sandpaper (60-80) but the FAA Acceptable methods indicates 150 or finer. More reading suggests that Aluminum Oxide sandpaper is acceptable. However silicon carbide abrasives are not good to use as the silicon can contaminate the aluminum. Black sandpaper contains carbon, which can accelerate corrosion. Steel wool on aluminum is not acceptable either.

Ordered the Empennage!

Well, today is the day. I ordered the RV-7A Empennage with electric trim and some practice projects and some tools (Boelube, 3m tape and scotchbrite wheel, 2 practice kits, Aluminum Tool box).  Getting excited!

Been researching deburring methods. Seems critical that all aluminum edges are properly deburred. The rule of thumb is that no metal edges should cut fingers. There is debate on the forums about deburring lightning holes.

Found a great chart

SCOTCHBRITE GRIT CHART

7445 - White pad, called Light Duty Cleansing - (1000)
7448 - Light Grey, called Ultra Fine Hand - (600-800)
6448 - Green, called Light Duty Hand Pad - (600)
7447 - Maroon pad, called General Purpose Hand - (320-400)
6444 - Brown pad, called Extra Duty Hand - (280-320)
7446 - Dark Grey pad, called Blending Pad (180-220)
7440 - Tan pad, called Heavy Duty Hand Pad - (120-150)

Ordering the Tool Package

Ordered the RV Tool kit from Planetools.com with most of the upgrades. Sioux drill, tungsten bucking bar, pneumatic squeezer, extra yokes. Now I'm just waiting. I will have to put in my order for the empennage and practice kits soon.

Tools Research

Spent the entire evening researching tools. Everything I have read is that the Sioux Air tools, Pneumatic rivet squeezers, the DRDT-2 dimpler are all must have's. I've looked into the RV Tool Kits from Aircraft Spruce, Brown's Aviation, Cleveland Tool and Planetools.com So far Planetools.com seems to have the best components. I have emailed Planetools.com and his shipping quote is very good.