I finished organizing the tools today. The drill press arrived so I assembled that. I'm pretty much ready to go! I decided to purchase and build the tool box project from Vans since it had been a while since I'd worked with sheet metal. Here is the results. It went together without a hitch.
I Pulled into the driveway today after work at a client site and there were 3 packages waiting on the porch for me. The band saw, 1" belt, 5" disc sander from Harbor Freight and two cans of self-etching primer from Aircraft Spruce. I spent several hours after dinner unboxing and setting up the power tools etc. I had gone by Home Depot on the way home to buy a filter and lubricator for my compressor and ran into a great deal on a 26 gal. compressor made by Cambell Hausefiled for Husky. It was a floor model that included pnuematic wrench, hammer, sprayer (I was thinking primer when I saw the sprayer), impact wrench and more. I couldn't pass it up for $199 with full warranty. The workshop is really taking shape. Now all I need is a plane to go with it. The Empennage will be here on Thursday. In the mean time I'm reading up on all the tools and techniques for riveting skins etc.
The Avery (RV) toolkit arrived today. Woo Hoo! I spent about an hour (after mowing the grass and dinner) going through everything and checking the packing list to make sure everything was there. The Sioux 1/4" reversable drill was back ordered. No ETA on the drill but the Rivet gun is here. Also recieved an email from Van's notifying me the Empennage was shipped today and is scheduled for delivery on Thursday. And I just happen to be off this Thurs. and Fri. imagine that..... :o)
Well, the workshop is finally cleaned up and organized. Pics show the final product. I think it looks pretty good and is very functional. The Avery tool kit arrives this Tuesday, the Empennage probably Friday or Saturday. I'm pretty pumped. I need to order some primer and setup a filter system for the compressor. I already had a small compressor. It should buck the rivets okay but I expect it will die or I'll get tired of waiting on it before the project is over.
I Ordered my Avery tools today. I decided to upgrade the 1/4" Sioux drill to the reversable model. Not sure at this point it was all that necessary but for an extra $30 I thought it was worth it. You never know when backing out might be something you want to do when working with stock. I also purchased a band saw (ebay again!). I Got the saw I wanted too 12" Central Machinery (NIB). I also ordered 1" bench mounted belt sander combo 5" disc sander... oh yes and a Central machinery 12 speed drill press from Harbor Frieght.com. Consequently I decided to add on to the workbench to make room for power tools. Stuff should start arriving as early as Monday. Wee!
Finished building the second assembly table and added 1 inch facing as a trim to the edges of both. Next, I mounted a 4ft x 4ft peg board and began organizing hand tools. Did still more sweeping and cleaning of work surfaces and sorting old stuff to throw away. Its tedious but the shop will be ready for full out production when I'm done without a lot of stuff to move around, get in the way and time up extra time.
Today I cut all the material down in the cut list for the two assembly tables and began screwing them together. I opted to go with two 2ft X 5ft tables. Using this configuration I can rearrange the tables differently during the RV-7 construction to make one 4ft X 5ft table (by clamping them together) or one 2ft X 10ft table or just have two separate tables if need be. I decided to put L-Bracket stiffeners on the leg table joints just to give them additional strength. I also think I'm going to add ball bearing 360 deg. casters to make them easy to move around. Two of the casters on each of the four work table legs will have a brake I can operate with my toe. This way I can secure them into place and prevent them from "drifting" if I lean against them during construction. Details, details, details... but it will save lots of time and effort once I get into the actual RV-7 construction.
More shop prep today. I spent most of the day pulling electrical wire and wiring 4 way ganged boxes. Of course I didn't have the right staples to secure the 12/2 romex so I had to make an extra trip to Lowes. I hate it when that happens. But I got the boxes in and the circuit tied into the main box. I now have a dedicated 20 amp service to the workshop to run the compressor, ban saw, grinder blah blah I will be using during the construction. Oh yes, I almost forgot. The "Preview Plans" for my RV-7 arrived from Van's today. I spent most of the evening (after a shower) in front of the big screen watching "Braveheart" on DVD, reading and skimming through the diagrams. Wee!
Still doing lots of "kleen" ing and organizing on the workshop. I made a trip to the dump today with a pickup load full of throw aways. Next I rearranged two metal cabinets and the "fridge" to one side of the shop and moved the workbench to the opposite side. After lunch I was off to Lowes where I bought material to construct two EAA standard work tables. One will function as a workbench extension however while the other will be an assembly table. I'll probably have to construct one more for those times when I need to clamp them together to make a single 4ft X 5ft work surface in the center of the shop (like to build the fuselage). I also bought three 4 ganged electrical boxes to put power outlets around the perimeter of the workshop area. I already had some Romex 12/2. This will make setting up power tools quicker and easier because I won't have to be constantly unrolling and rerolling an extension chord when I need to do something.
Still working on workshop prep. Lots of cleaning up and throwing out to make room. My workshop is the average 24ft X 24ft so I will need every inch of it once components start arriving. While shop prep is generally not considered part of the actual RV kit construction, for me it is definately a part of the project and costs associated there to. Its all about time and money baby!