New Builder Hints

[chaskuss]

Originally Posted by Ironflight

You can't undrill a hole...unless you're working in fiberglass!!

then....

Dry Micro is your BEST friend!

Paul

Paul,
That isn't ALWAYS true. All the 1/16" and thicker angle on our RV kits is made from 6061-T6. This is a weldable alloy (unlike 2024-T3) I wanted to kill myself when I countersunk the WRONG side of a line of holes on one of my sub longerons a few years ago. Then I remembered that 6061 could be welded. I work in a warehouse bay (no room in the condo). My landlord is a top notch machinist and welder. He fixed my screw up in 2 minutes. A few minutes more with the belt sander and ScotchBrite disc, and all was well again. Talk about dodging a bullet!
Charlie Kuss

[philn]

1. Always pick up your air hose when not being used. Otherwise, you might get sick of tripping over it and grab it and flick it out of the way. Only you might forget that it had a dirty great big brass air connector on the end of it, and it flicked a lot farther than you could ever believe... and smack your missus (who was kindly helping you de-burr) right across her eye brow.
2. Never, never, never yell at your missus to stop bleeding all over your shiny new airplane.
3. Pay much closer attention to the quality of the dog food you feed your mut. You might have to share it with him.

Phil North
RV-7 Wings
ZK-REB reserved
Te Awamutu, New Zealand

[TShort]

Originally Posted by philn

smack your missus (who was kindly helping you de-burr) right across her eye brow.

Whew - close one!
I thought you were going to say it hit and dented one of your wing or fuselage skins!!

Thomas

[John Courte]

1. Never assume you know the next step in the construction sequence.

2. If you disregard step 1, pay close attention to the difficulty of what you are attempting. If it doesn't seem right, or it's way more difficult than it should be, stop. And if you can stop before you drill or cut anything, do so. Then check the plans, the instructions, correlate the instructions to the plans, then check the work.

3. Keep in mind at all times that cutting tools and drills have no 'undo' button.

[az_gila]

Originally Posted by philn

2. Never, never, never yell at your missus to stop bleeding all over your shiny new airplane.

Phil North
RV-7 Wings
ZK-REB reserved
Te Awamutu, New Zealand

No, yelling is not needed... this is one of the advantages of metal planes... the blood cleans off easily with solvents.

Now if you were building a wooden plane.... then the rule is "don't bleed on the work"....

Gil in Tucson - who built a 42 ft span wooden sailplane...

[AntiGravity]

Originally Posted by philn

1. Always pick up your air hose when not being used. Otherwise, you might get sick of tripping over it and grab it and flick it out of the way. Only you might forget that it had a dirty great big brass air connector on the end of it, and it flicked a lot farther than you could ever believe... and smack your missus (who was kindly helping you de-burr) right across her eye brow.
2. Never, never, never yell at your missus to stop bleeding all over your shiny new airplane.
3. Pay much closer attention to the quality of the dog food you feed your mut. You might have to share it with him.

Phil, you kept that quiet! I wondered why I hadn't seen her around the last couple of times I came over :-) I've yelled at Jackie a couple of times; I'm trying not to do it 'cos I hate having to beg to get her to come back and finish whatever we were doing at the time! Few more days will see this right wing closed up I reckon...

Cheers,

[brian]

When back riveting, don't get so wrapped up in all the process of loading rivets, taping them in place, getting out the back rivet set, setting up the gun, etc that you forget to place the SECOND piece to be riveted onto the taped-in-place-rivets before setting the rivets. I've done this more than once.

[Mike S]

Originally Posted by az_gila

Gil in Tucson - who built a 42 ft span wooden sailplane...

(BJ 1B)Duster by any chance??

Mike

[svanarts]

An RV is not made of metal as is popularly thought, it is actually made of blood, sweat, and curses.

[jsherblon]

When you do forget to place the second piece - your rivets will be the best ever.