Workshop & Tools

Garage Workshop

My main construction area will be the two-car section of my three car garage. It should give me enough room to build, without feeling overly cramped or worrying about hitting things as I move around.  It also gave me an excuse to do some organization of the space.

Soon there will be tools!

Preemptively in having the idea that I might want to build an airplane in the future I decided to go ahead and do some bench construction. I spent about a half a Saturday making a pair of EAA 1000 Workbenches. Even if I decided not to build the plane these make great all-around garage accessories. Having so much fun building them I decided on Sunday to build a smaller one and put wheels on it.  This will function as my primary tool work bench.  The plan is to hook an air compressor manifold to it and use it as my mobile construction station.  Throughout the process this set up will most likely morph into what's the most efficient and convenient.

Tools

My tool collection is very basic, used primarily for household projects or small engine work on motorcycles and most recently plane interiors.  I have a sufficient set up for electrical things but when it comes to fabricating an airplane I'm starting from scratch.

This week I'm picking up a new Air Compressor from Tractor Supply, waiting to see if it goes on their Labor Day sale.  If I had 220 capability I would have liked to go with a 60, two stage, but the general conscientious is the 30 gal should be fine. I also grabbed about $200 of miscellaneous items from Harbor Freight and Amazon.  People generally give Harbor Freight a bad rap on tool quality but when you're paying $15 for an angle grinder, $2 for a vice and $1 for some scissors... if they break buy some more.

Finally comes the actual plane tools.  I'm going with Cleveland Aircraft Tools  based on referrals from other builders. Reached out to Mike with some questions about specific tools, which tools are great upgrades, what can I do without ect.  For example, if you go with the Pneumatic Squeezer upgrade than you'll do 90% of your dimpling with this so you really don't need a DRDT2 dimpler unless you need it to be quiet. This weekend I worked with one of his associates to finalize the list and I have a few more tweaks and questions but will be pulling the trigger on the tools in the next few days.