Buying Aluminum to Practice Riveting

[Stockmanreef]

Well, I inventoried my wing kit and there is not one piece of metal in the crates to practice riveting. I do have a Van's tool box, but that is it.

I thought at you sort of need some skins with dimples in them to set the depth of counter sunk holes.

Any good place to get small sheets of various gauge Alclad sheets. What kind of local shop would carry this stuff? I guess I could get it on line, but then I will have to get larger sheets.

I guess I can just cut up the tool box and use it, but I think that it is thicker gauge than the skins.

Thanks
Ken

[JanRV6UK]

This company will sell you small sizes to practice on

http://www.airpartsinc.com/

Good luck with your project

[comfortcat]

Where are you located?

ANYONE building an RV has a box of scrap from mistakes (I mean learning events) that I'm sure they will share with you.

Where are ya?

Dkb

[gasman]

Check at your airport A&P shop. They usually have a pile of bent skins out back.

[KCBerner]

Aircraftspruce.com

You can also get good enough aluminum for practicing riveting etc from Home Depot or Lowes. I wouldn't use any of it on the airplane though because who knows what the alloy is. good enough for practice though.

[N804RV]

For $35, you can buy Van's RV Training kit:



http://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/...aining-project

[Ironflight]

You should have gotten a "trim bundle" with your tail kit, which is a stack of 4"x12" (approx) pieces of various gauges of aluminum. I have sued the trim bundles for small parts and extra pieces - but mostly for practice and setup purposes. If you don't have any of that left, I would bet you could call Van's and negotiate for some. Failing that, ACS is a great place for 2'x2' pieces of aluminum at really good prices - handy to have on hand anyway.

[Steve Barnes]

Hey Ken, I have lots of scrap aluminum from previous projects. I would be happy to fill one of those USPS boxes full of scraps to practice on. Need rivets too? Just send me a check for the postage when you receive the box.

Steve "The Builders Coach" (707)972-3582

[wirejock]

Originally Posted by N804RV

For $35, you can buy Van's RV Training kit:



http://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/...aining-project

I would build one of these too. It touches a lot of techniques needed in the build. It
looks like you have a few offers for practice metal but just in case, look in the local phone book for a metal yard. Most big cities have at least one. They usually sell aluminum cheaper than the aircraft section at Home Depot or Lowes. They are good source for stuff needed for jigs and such. Angle aluminum and steel are useful down the road.

[David Paule]

Van's can sell you custom sizes of aluminum sheet.

What I found useful was to make a channel, with flanges that were about 5/8" and a web that was about 2.5", and rivet "skins" to that which were about 2" wide. Just three strips of aluminum, bent on a handy little home brake. I drilled it at about every 3/4" for rivets, and had great fun riveting and then drilling them out.

Mine was about 18" long but you can make it whatever length you've got a brake for.

Dave