Would definitely agree that everyone has their own preferences. When I thought about how many rivets I would have to squeeze, and tried both versions at a build class, I thought to myself "$125 for an Avery, $235 for a Cleaveland, or $4-500 some for a pneumatic." Again, I went the middle of the road route knowing that I would be squeezing a lot of rivets but could not rationalize spending the dollars on the pneumatic. With the quickbuild, I guess pneumatic would definitely be a real (read "extravagant"
) luxury, the Main Squeeze a more modest luxury, the Avery a necessity.
One thing I will say to "convince" you
to go with the Main Squeeze, is that a lot of times you will be squeezing at ackward angles. Can you do it (and do it accurately) with the amount of force you need to exert on the Avery? Absolutely. I just know for myself that if I have to exert the much greater force, the likelihood of messing up a rivet in an ackward location is greater--it's in these locations that I'd really like the pneumatic but the Main Squeeze is, in my opinion, much more manageable than anything that would require greater force. I think if I ever invest in building a second plane, however, I'll probaly rationalize the purchase of a pneumatic since I'll already have the rest of my tools.
Perhaps one place to save money if you buy a kit (although I'm sure others will vehemently disagree) is with the Sioux drill. I have it, and its great, but I've also tried (and seen others swear by) a Dotco drill from ATS that goes for about $90 (less than half the price of a Sioux). It has a great teasing trigger as well. If I did it again I'd save the drill money and put it toward the pnuematic.
Good luck with your decision(s)--there's a lot more ahead!
In most cases, as one of the others mentioned above, you'll make do with whatever you have and won't realize you "need" anything else until you have an opportunity to try it. That's the real insidious part of this hobby!
Just some thoughts for you to ponder.
Steve