late4my8

late4my8

Member
Thanks all for the replies on my funding question. Here's the next biggie.

I live in San Francisco, and am not in possession of a 2 car garage. my friends and I own the building we live in, but probably won't expand our small 1 car garage until we are ready to sell the place.

I am lucky enough to have a room in my flat that I use as a workshop mainly for building robots and little elecromechanical gizmos. this room opens up with double sliding doors to our living room. we have more room than we need, so the wife has agreed to make the dining room our new living room, so that my RV project can take over the combined workshop/living room (she's a good one).

From the sounds of things it will be a long time until I'm mating wings to fuse, so will this space be sufficient for the next couple of years (assuming a slow build). I don?t have room dimensions with me, but we actually filmed a DIY reality TV program in it, so you can see photos at:
http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/shows_dfct/episode/0,2499,DIY_21537_44276,00.html
the blue room where we are painting the desk is actually the living room in question.

...and what level of noise can I expect bucking rivets indoors? the compressor? we have tenants living in the unit below, so I imagine that I will not be able to rivet into the wee hours.

I do anticipate, in the coming few years, to be in another place and can make a 2 car garage a prerequisite, but who knows how that will go.

does this sound too risky to you all. The posts from my last thread are just ringing in my ear telling me that it will never seem the perfect time to start... ...so just get the ball rolling.

your thoughts?

thanks again,
john

P.S. any one building an 8 in the bay area or greater Denver area that would be willing to give a tour?
 
late4my8 said:
...and what level of noise can I expect bucking rivets indoors? the compressor? we have tenants living in the unit below, so I imagine that I will not be able to rivet into the wee hours.
Click to expand...

Oil type compressors are more quite than the newer oiless ones. Dimpling is loud unless you get a DRDT2. Riveting with a gun and bucking bar is loud and will get on the neighbors nerves real quick if they are just below you unless you have really good sound proofing. Squeezing is quiet but there are tons of rivets that can't be squeezed.
 
Dude, your neighbor will hate you. There is a reason you wear ear protection when riveting. The sound of the rivetset hitting aluminun would compare to firing a 22 caliber machine gun in your house. I would also think that he sound of the compressor would be carried very nicely by your floor.

One more obvious point: I don't know what your building's layout is but getting a 16 foot long fuselage out of a second story would be a challenge(but I'm sure you've already thought about that).

Oh, one more thing, you will generate a few aluminum chips with an uncanny affinity for carpeting during your constrution. Your wife may not be so cool with that.

All that said, there are several pictures on this site of prople building in their living rooms. Have fun.
 
update

Luckily I have a straight shot to get fuse and wings out of the building when the time comes.

...and hardwood floors.

anyone have thoughts on soundproofing? the last thing I want to have happen is start my kit and have the tenants call the cops whenever I work.

-john
 
1 Car Garage

I built my RV-8A QB entirely in my one car garage apartment! I didn't take it to the airport until I was ready to put on the wings. The rules I found about building in small spaces with neighbors are:

1. Stay organized to keep space open
2. Learn your neighbors schedule and don't c-frame dimple or use the rivet gun when they are home!
3. Change your schedule (if you can) to be home when the neighbors are not

It can be done! I finished in a little over a year and never bothered anyone. But I was very stealthy! Now I have a house and plenty of space but no more building. Murphy's Law!

finish068dc9.jpg


extra001wa1.jpg


flight039gw5.jpg
 
noise

you better have some really friendly and patient neighbors or find somewhere else to dimple and rivet. There is no way to do either of these quietly. The amount of noise generated when dimpling is equivalent to a slow moving jackhammer.
 
The amount of noise generated when dimpling is equivalent to a slow moving jackhammer.
Click to expand...
:confused: We use a "squeezer" for most rivets and dimpling. Silent... until of course the compressor fires up :eek:

I'll agree that bucked rivets are very noisy, but a "quiet" compressor + squeezer is not too bad....
 
bucking vs squeezing

So is there a speed difference? Can you buck faster than you squeeze ? I do assume there are some rivets I cant squeeze, oh yea, I have 0 riveting experience :)

I am considering do my building at night... I dont sleep. This is one aspect I have not considered, hmmm.
 
If noise is a concern (and in your case I think it will be) don't get a C-frame dimpler. Buy a DRDT-2. I'm almost done with my wings and haven't yet found a case where a C-frame is needed. But there are many many many (did I say many) rivets that must be shot / bucked. It is loud. I have an attached 3 car garage and a 1 acre lot and I don't rivet with the gun at night out of consideration for the neigbors.

Good luck!
 
Hi John,



My wife, daughter and I lived in San Francisco for seven years. We loved it! First we lived in Pac Heights, then Laurel Hill, and my raised our daughter for two years in the Inner Richmond. You can definitely build your 8 in a one car garage and build parts in your ?robotic work shop.? I strongly recommend joining EAA chapter 1268 which meets on the second Tuesday of every Month at Sonoma Skypark airport. http://www.sonomaskypark.com/Pages/EAAchapter1268.html Email me, and I will send you the phone number of my buddy Greg who can teach you everything about riveting. I also recommend that you build the first few parts in one of the hangers at Sonoma Skypark. A few members have finished RVs. The people there are really great. There would be a dozen people there that would give you a hand building the first few parts (maybe even more) of the empennage. That way you would not have to purchase any tools until you had a little experience.



Jae Chang is building a RV-10 in San Francisco. You can follow his blog at http://www.jline.com/log/aviation/build/



Good luck. Order the kit today!
 
Go for the one car garage

I built my slow build kit RV-8 in a shop that was 10' wide by 25' long. Wings, fuse, tail. The narrow shop was not really a problem.

Noise when riveting is very loud. I would not recommend it in the apartment. As to squeezing rivets, yes, it's silent, but the only place you can do that is on the edges of panels. In the grand scheme of things, I'd say squeezing constituted 5% of all the riveting...and in a slow build 8, there's a ton of riveting, which is my favorite part.

I'd vote on the garage and plan on insulating the door and other parts for courtesy to the tenants. Compressors are loud.

I'd use the spare room for parts staging/storing. ONce you get past the tail, the kit parts are big, so they need room, and you have to get really creative on how to keep storing and moving all the finished parts without damaging them.

It's all part of the game, which is fun. Go for it. I've been at mine on and off for 6 years (two house moves in there too) and I"m a few days away from heading to the airport.

Art in Asheville
Rv-8 fastback post paint
 
update

thanks everyone for all the great advice.

things are moving forward on my project.

the wife has given me use of the living room that attaches to my shop with double sliding doors, so I now have an envyable workspace. it's narrow, but I've determined that with a little wrangling I'll even be able to hang the wings indoors (fuse will have to go out the window when done).

I'm afraid riveting indoors is just a fact of life. even the basement would not be a help, as it's right below the same tenants (would be just as loud).

I'm going to dimple with the quiet "press-type" dimpler as suggested, and squeeze whenever I can. I get every other friday off, so those will be riveting days as well as one day a weekend. I'll also try to soundproof with foam.

Jonathan, I sent you a regular email. thanks for the info. I'd love to get that contact from you.

thanks,
john
 
John,

Thanks for the heads-up that you emailed me. For some reason your email was in my spam folder. I emailed you Greg's and Roy's (an other memeber) phone numbers.
 
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