[Bullseye]

I'm sure most of you already know this, but I thought I would share my newbie experiences making it through step one of the practice kit before you actually start on the practice kit. You can find a copy of this on my build log.

Today, I started on the practice kit. The directions point back to (and the kit actually includes) sections 3 and 5 of the construction manual. I threw my extra copies away, I'm going to just keep the ones from the Preview Plans I have.

The kit tells you to make some useful tools before starting. I found 3: A wooden hand seamer, a stand for your practice kit (basically a place to clamp the front spar so the skins stand up vertically) and an assembly with an 11 inch long piece of angle riveted (with various rivets) to two more pieces of 2.25" x 11" aluminum sheet. I'm not sure if this is a useful tool or just something to rivet before starting the pretend control surface. Hmm... I'll make it nonetheless for the practice. I'm going to pass on the hand seamer, but get started on the other two.

Interesting note, the directions tell you that if you don't have dents, scratches, and mistakes on your practice kit, you aren't doing it right. Apparently, they want me to get out all of the mistakes now before I start on the real airplane. Right...

Here's a picture of everything that comes in the kit.

Everything that comes in the kit:

Closeup of the Hardware:

Closeup of the skins.:

I didn't get very far on the practice kit. I made it through step one, which is to drill the weird angle assembly in 24 places for the appropriate flush and blind rivets of various sizes. Even the practice kit is going to be slow going. I did learn a ton, though.

• Everything is so tiny. I've been staring at picture on all the build sites, thinking things were bigger. The -3-3 rivets are TINY! The skins are a lot thinner than I thought they would be.
• Don't take the blue off the skins if you don't want to scratch the skins. I thought my workbench was clean, but after deburring one of the small sheets, there were small pieces of aluminum everywhere. I slid one of the sheets on the table and scratched the **** out of it.
• My cheap clamps are nice, but not perfect. I'll need to get some higher quality ones. Also, I need to use the duct tape on the clamp face trick. They scratched the **** out of the sheet, too.
• I had to measure, mark, and drill the holes. No big deal, but I just noted that they really have you jump right in. I drilled into a spare piece of MDF I had laying around, but I didn't drill far enough, so the clecos don't have a fantastic grip. Oh well.
• I played around with pressure on the bit while drilling. I learned as a kid that when you have the spiral piece of metal coming off in one piece as you drill, that is the right pressure (which wasn't that much more than the air drill itself). Anyone have any other advice?
• I learned that building is not going to be a piece of cake, but is going to be a lot of fun. That's kind of a fluffy statement, but it's true.

Here's the picture of what I got done last night.

Step one. Drill appropriate holes. Don't make fun of my erroneous markings. The instructions said I have to make mistakes on this practice kit, and not the real airplane, so I made sure there were some errors.

I'll wait until I'm done with the practice kit to post again, but you can watch my log if you'd like to see my progress over the next few days.

If anyone is considering the practice kit before starting, stop thinking about it and get it. At this point, I would consider it a requirement. 24 holes, and I've already learned a ton. Also, the GBI videos have been a ton of help. I would highly recommend those, as well.

 

[pierre smith]

Welcome, Andrew....

...to VAF forums.

Early in our build, to check my set rivets, I took a 3" piece of aluminum and drilled a 9/64" hole on one end and a 3/16" hole in the opposite end. These are used to check to see if you've made the shop head of a 3/32" rivet and a 1/8" rivet correctly. They should be 50% larger than when you started.

We still use it.

Regards,

 

[aviationgeek84]

Hey Andrew,

Looks good! I'm just finishing my practice project now... the tools they have you build are definitely useful... I never did build the seamer, though.

I'm almost ready to roll the leading edges.

 

[Bullseye]

Casey,

Do you know what the first assembly is for? Right now, I'm using it as just a place to get some experience before doing the practice control surface. Does it have any use other than that?

 

[aviationgeek84]

Hi there,

As far as I can tell, it's just an exercise to get you used to measuring, drilling holes, and riveting.

I think the measuring and drilling of holes is a little outdated with the new pre-punched kits, but it depends which RV you are building. Still a good skill to have/practice and perhaps used occasionally even in the pre-punched kits (maybe a more experienced builder could chime in?).

 

[esjacoby77]

Exactly...

Casey,

Do you know what the first assembly is for? Right now, I'm using it as just a place to get some experience before doing the practice control surface. Does it have any use other than that?

The purpose of the first assembly is just to give you some practice measuring and riveting. Even more important, it gives you some practice reading and understanding the instructions/plans. When I completed this project, I quickly learned my lesson about reading the plans, reading the plans again, reading the plan once more, maybe reading them one more time, and then, maybe, actually starting the work. Be careful on those rivet callouts...assume nothing

 

[JakeLewis22]

Hi there,

As far as I can tell, it's just an exercise to get you used to measuring, drilling holes, and riveting.

I think the measuring and drilling of holes is a little outdated with the new pre-punched kits, but it depends which RV you are building. Still a good skill to have/practice and perhaps used occasionally even in the pre-punched kits (maybe a more experienced builder could chime in?).

Not everything is pre-punched. I made the seat backs on my 7 last weekend and none of the holes are pre-punched. The kit does require measuring and drilling in several areas, the fuselage seems to have the majority of them. The FAA's 51% rule requires that the builder does some of the fabrication work. You will end up fabricating several gussets and brackets so those skills will get used.

Good luck, the fun has just begun!

 

[Auburntsts]

Yep, even with the pre-punched kits there are parts that you will have to fab out of raw stock, to include locating and drilling holes based only off dimensions listed in the plans. It's not hard, just always follow the old adage of measure twice (or even 3 or 4) and cut once.

 

[aviationgeek84]

Yep, even with the pre-punched kits there are parts that you will have to fab out of raw stock, to include locating and drilling holes based only off dimensions listed in the plans. It's not hard, just always follow the old adage of measure twice (or even 3 or 4) and cut once.

See - there you have it.

 

[Bullseye]

Finished up.

I finished up, just finishing off the lessons learned for anyone else out there thinking about the practice kit.

Here are the skins riveted to the spar. Notice how I didn't make the jig to hold it to the table.

Another shot of the skins riveted to the spar.

After the skins were riveted to the ribs and the trailing edge wedge, I rolled the leading edge and clecloed it together. I haven't edge formed the top skin yet, hence the ripples.

The finished product.

Overall, I am happy with the results. I don?t think they are airplane worthy (I don?t know if I will ever be happy with the final product), but I feel like I am ready to start on the real kit. All of the riveting came out nice, but some of the other aspects (dimpling, countersinking, edge rolling) are still not up to par.

Biggest lessons so far:

1) Go slow, take your time, read the plans, and be careful.
2) The skins don?t look too bad, but I have a feeling there will be too many scratches to polish the final airplane. I?m planning on paint anyway, so I should be okay.
3) Other things, I want to acquire some of the tank dimple dies for the understructure. Some of the skin to rib seams didn?t sit as nicely as I wanted, and I think the slightly deeper dimples in the ribs will accept the dimple in the skin better.
4) Buy a bigger backriveting plate. I just have a 1 x1/2 x 36 inch steel stock. I had to be really careful to keep the rivets lined up. With a wider plate, I wouldn?t? have had to move the skin around, which caused?
5) ?scratches in the skin. Next time I removed the vinyl from the skin, I am going to immediately replace it with painters tape. All of the scratches on the skin are where I removed the vinyl. This can be prevented.
6) Priming. Using the self-etching primer is so easy, I think I may do all of the interior skin next time ( I only primed the rivet lines, where two pieces of metal would meet this time).
7) I need a no-hole yoke for the rivets near the rear of the trailing edge. I managed with a thin bucking bar, but I didn?t like the results. A no-hole would make this a non-issue.

 

[techbill]

Glad to see I'm not the only one. Got the tool box and the practice kit in last week. Tools got in this week. Finishing up the workshop/garage. Hoping to start soon.