Air drill for project

Is an air drill needed for the project. I have some telling me you dont want that hose dragging around beating your airplane up. They say a battery drill is much better. What is the advantage to the air drill? What tools are need for the tail. Im kind of getting started on a budget and i have a guy loaning me some tools. Thanks in advance!

Advantages to the air drill are drill speed and weight. Disadvantage is an air source is needed.

I have used both and currently have two air drills set up with #40 and #30 drills. Works for me!!

Good Luck!!

Gerry Peterson

I don't find a huge advantage for the air drill on pre-punched skins and bulkheads but on thicker material you'll get cleaner holes with the high speeds. Ditch the air drill when drilling weldments or stainless; I like a more controllable variable-speed electric for those tasks if I can't use a drill press. If you're worried about the cost of an extra drill, you can wait a bit to buy the air drill; I successfully built my -6A wings and tail without one. But I was sure glad when I finally got one.

The advantage of the high speed, not possible with an electric, is that with small holes in soft material you get closer to the optimum speed and feed combination. Most people push too hard on the bit compared to the correct feedrate, and the increased speed helps that too. Also the weight of most cordless drills make the pushing problem worse as you can't feel the cutting action like you can on the light weight. Using a reamer for matched hole prepunched areas reduces the need for the high speed. The reamer has twice the cutting flutes as a drill bit (doubling feed/speed ratio) and the geometry of the tool provided better centering on the hole, reducing tearout in the softer material.

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smoothy58 said:

Advantages to the air drill are drill speed and weight.

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And the air drill gets cooler as you use it. Electric drills get hotter.

Air drills are for soft materials only. Hard materials need low speed and high force. Air drills have no power at low speeds.

brandon67e said:

Is an air drill needed for the project. I have some telling me you dont want that hose dragging around beating your airplane up. They say a battery drill is much better. What is the advantage to the air drill? What tools are need for the tail. Im kind of getting started on a budget and i have a guy loaning me some tools. Thanks in advance!

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I have a pedestal drill, a battery drill, an electric drill, and several air drills (including a very compact right-angle drill). I use them all at various times depending on the situation and the material I'm drilling.

But mostly I use the air drills (90% of the time) for the following reasons:

a) Very light weight (much more comfortable for long periods of continuous drilling).
b) Very compact (will get into areas inaccessible with self powered drills).
c) Not affected by all the aluminium swarf (electric motors hate swarf).
d) Runs at higher RPM which is advantageous for drilling sheet aluminium.
e) Extremely reliable (not much to go wrong).

Air drills are stock equipment for all aviation maintenance professionals.

I recommend you lash out and buy some appropriate tools for the project before you start building. In the final analysis the cost of purchasing a decent starter tool kit as supplied by say Avery Tools (which will contain an air drill) will end up being a small fraction of the cost of completing the project.

Nothing makes for poor workmanship like having inappropriate tools to satisfactorily complete the task at hand.

Captain Avgas said:

........Nothing makes for poor workmanship like having inappropriate tools to satisfactorily complete the task at hand.

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X2, you can always resell it when you're all done to recoup some of your investment.....but you probably won't.

Yes

The simple answer is yes you need an air drill.
Best used in conjunction with a battery powered drill.

Both will require a large stock of #40 and #30 bits...

I'd also say go for a small light weight 1/4 inch one, since you will use other drills for bigger work a mentioned above.

I wouldn't give up my little 1/4" air drill for anything. It's small (fits in the palm of my hand), lightweight, and does the job at high speeds, as others have mentioned. Cleaveland Tools sells an inexpensive lightweight hose kit, for the last 10 feet of your hose assembly. It's so nice, you don't even feel like you're dragging a hose around. I can't imagine building an airplane without either of these items.

BSwayze said:

Cleaveland Tools sells an inexpensive lightweight hose kit, for the last 10 feet of your hose assembly. It's so nice, you don't even feel like you're dragging a hose around.

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Also on the end of this lightweight hose put on one of the swivels.




Paul Danclovic
Jamestown NC
RV-8A N181SB

Yes for Cleaveland Aircraft Tools Air Hose

BSwayze said:

...Cleaveland Tools sells an inexpensive lightweight hose kit, for the last 10 feet of your hose assembly. It's so nice, you don't even feel like you're dragging a hose around. I can't imagine building an airplane without either of these items.

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Yes...YES...I love my Cleaveland air hose, so much that I have two of them, one for each side of my shop. They are made in the USA plus you can order them in lengths other than the standard 10 feet. The fittings are not standard so you have to be committed to using this hose or else install an extra outlet in your piping. No Bigee.

This hose is SO MUCH BETTER than those stupid yellow coiled hoses you get at Home Depot or Lowe's.

The Cleaveland hose plus my Sioux air drill (I have two) makes for pleasant drilling.

Cordless Yay Air Drill Nay

I would argue that a (pistol grip type) air drill is not necessary. On my day job at McDonnell-Douglas, I HAD to use an air drill for aircraft production work so you could say I am extremely familiar with its use. Even though I have an air drill in my personal tool box, I built both my RV's using a cordless drill almost exclusively. The only exception to that rule was when a right angle drill motor was necessary to reach difficult to access areas. Among its notable advantages, a cordless drill is far quieter and waaay easier on your compressor too. Here is an inexpensive example I bought several years ago, built the -8 with it and amazingly it still continues to function to this day:

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/showthread.php?t=8503&highlight=cordless+Sam's

I like having the small palm air drill. I too bought the cleaveland air hose and their quick change chuck. The quick change chuck is very nice. It may not be as precise as a standard chuck but you can change bits in about 5 seconds. Some people use two drills to not need to swap bits, but this solution works well for me. I didn't buy there full quick change kit just the adapters for #40, #30, and my original chuck. I'll buy some more adapters next time I buy some other tools from them. These are great time savers.

I purchased a lower cost Taylor drill and to be truthful I'm not sure I made the right decision trying to save those $$$. The drill works well but the trigger is stiff for the initial portion of the trigger press so it is sometimes hard to start holes. I'm considering buying a replacement drill at some point, probably a Sioux 1412 which is around $200. If you can try out the drill first and keep in mind the drill starting issue I mentioned.

Thanks for the Kudos guys!!! Now that I am authorized to post links again I will throw some out there.

The hose kit can be found here: http://www.cleavelandtoolstore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=ACKIT

It takes about a pound off of your tool compared to the heavy coupler and standard air hose. I prefer to have a hose run to the bottom of my worktable and have a manifold with several lightweight hoses coming off of it. I like to have a drill, blowgun, and either rivet gun or squeezer plugged in all at the same time. We kitted this option here:
http://www.cleavelandtoolstore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=ACDLXKIT

The Sioux drill previously mentioned can be found here:
http://www.cleavelandtoolstore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=ADS12

I know that you can save a few bucks ordering elsewhere but please consider that we are a 4 man show here, interested in serving the home builder. This is the only market we are in, the only one we want to be in. We are as fair as we can with prices, provide top quality tools, and provide unlimited free builder support. But we don't buy 100's at a time and can't sell them for the same price as those that do. With that said, I used to tell people that this drill (Sioux 1412) was the best drill I have ever held in my hand. That is no longer true for two reasons. First Sioux now has the same body style drill in a 6000 rpm version found here:
http://www.cleavelandtoolstore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=ADS16

Super nice to have nearly twice the speed.
Second is the Nova version. They have blatently copied Sioux and done a very good job at it. The Nova drill feels just as nice as the Sioux for a lot less money. Personally buying American is the right thing to do, but at $80 off the Nova is hard to pass up, the version we sell is 4000rpm. We only sell what we would use, and we have seen no reason to choose the lower RPM version. The Nova drill is found here:
http://www.cleavelandtoolstore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=ADP310

I bought the Sioux mini palm air drill when I started my kit 7 years ago and wouldn't be without it. The lightweight hoses are a must in my opinion. I also have a small Dewalt lightweight cordless drill driver that is wonderful as well.

I use both, there are many places the cordless will not fit... but then again, there are also some places my small air drill will not fit. So, you'll need a 90 degree angle drill too.

Yip

Get the air drill. A sioux drill. It's a tool. It works great and here's the best part, it looks great in your tool box. In fact, sometimes I just leave it on the work bench.