expensive mistake

Last night I managed to knock my Sioux air drill off the bench together with the Avery 90 degree drill attachment. Now both the drill and the attachment have considerable runout... I've emailed Snapon and Avery to see if they can be repaired. If not, that drop would cost me over $300

The positive part is that this happened after I drilled the last hole in my horizontal stabilizer. I can at least continue with deburring, dimpling, etc while I get the drill repaired or replaced.

Argh!

Boris
-7 empennage

Ugh, that happened to me too, fortunately only the angle attachment was damaged. It's easy to do.

Hey, if you don't already have one, this might be a good excuse to get a cordless drill. I didn't have one for much of my project, but once I got one, I love it. Nice to use when you only need to drill a few holes, don't want to fire up the compressor, oil the drill, run the hose, etc... Or when your main drill is otherwise unavailable...

borislav said:

Last night I managed to knock my Sioux air drill off the bench together with the Avery 90 degree drill attachment. Now both the drill and the attachment have considerable runout... I've emailed Snapon and Avery to see if they can be repaired. If not, that drop would cost me over $300 Argh! Boris -7 empennage

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Boris,

As has been already mentioned, using a cordless drill will give your compressor a break and do away with an air hose draped over the assembly and/or on the floor just waiting to be stumbled over. In addition, in operation a cordless is MUCH quieter.

I'm sure pneumatic drill manufacturers are loathe to hear such talk but there it is. Perhaps at some point, a traditional manufacturer like Sioux will attempt to leap frog the competition by offering cordless drill technology as an alternative to pneumatic technology. That remains to be seen.

Prior to and during WWII, the major aircraft manufacturers used ELECTRIC drills in the production environment. Stories of overheated drill motors, shocks and shorts abound. Later, far more efficient pneumatic tools were introduced and became the mainstay in industry. But this is 2006. Today, I truly think the utility of a pneumatic drill for much aircraft work is vastly overrated....and this from a guy who practically had one welded to his fist for too many years on the factory floor. After a while, many guys got good at cupping their hand over the exit air at the bottom of the grip and by altering the shape of their palm got practiced making passable and obnoxious "musical tones" including some talented miscreants who were very good generating a simulated early morning shrieking rooster call just to irritate any passing supervisor.

The cordless drill has come a long way. I built my RV using a 14.4V DeWalt 90% of the time. My airdrill rests in the tool drawer largely unused. I sometimes run it to wax nostalgic and instantly remember how noisy it is.

Recently, I stumbled across this incredible deal and this drill also seems to perform quite well. I'm guessing you can't have your Sioux repaired for less cost!

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=8503

I would tend to agree with Rick IF there were any relatively lightweight cordless drills out there. Even the 14.4 volt drills which seem to be the smallest you can get from a good brand are way heavier than my air drill (even with a hose attached). I can't imagine how sore my hand and arm would be drilling all those holes in the wing and fuse. side skins! If anyone has good suggestions on lightweight ones I'm really interested. That said, I use both. Usually my air drill has the #40 bit in it and the cordless has the #30. Good luck.

Paul Eastham said:

Hey, if you don't already have one, this might be a good excuse to get a cordless drill.

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Yes, I do have a cordless drill (I'm very trigger-happy when it comes to buying tools.) It was actually the very first tool I bought, an 18v Ryobi from Home Depot. It's been very useful for building my work benches and wing jig but I'd rather not use it on the plane as it too has considerable runout, right out of the box. Apparently, that's not uncommon with inexpensive cordless drills. Should have returned it but didn't know any better at the time. At least it was cheap (Labor Day sale).

Boris