Tool advice

[Texaspilot]

I am in the process of turning my garage into what will be my aircraft factory and I need to start adding tools. Right now, I have only a small workbench, with a vice, a tablesaw, a circular saw, plunge router, and reciprocating saw, as well as a slew of automotive tools (which sadly probably won’t be much help).

i need some advice as to where to start. I will be making ribs first, so I think I need a band saw, some kind of sander, some aviation snips, a drill press, maybe a grinder and a scotchbright wheel? Is that an adequate tool list to get started? Any deletions or suggestions from that list would be appreciated. Also any suggestions as to brands etc and what types of router bits and drill bits as well as where to get them. I like a lot of stuff from harbor freight, but I am afraid of buying anything from there that has a lot of moving parts unless someone has guinea pigged it first! Thanks.

[Bcone1381]

You might look for a good used Shopsmith on Craigslist. A basic unit will get you a nice drill press & disc sander. A band saw attachment is available. Vans Aircraft sells a Scotchbrite wheel that goes on a grinder. Its awesome. You'll use that all the time. My Harbor Freight bench grinder is noisy, (Bearings?)but it works. Harbor Freight large silver sheet metal shears work good.

[robcaldwell]

I buy many tools from Eastwood.com. I recently purchased this 8" Bench Shear and love it! https://www.eastwood.com/8-in-bench-shear.html .

[geraldmorrissey]

A 6" and 12" scale, buy 2 6" scales because you will lose one, a Harbor Freight Pittsburg model 47260 8" digital caliper, a good comfortable scribe (I made several from dull, worn out reaners) and a center punch. Then learn how to use them. You will eventually need this stuff, none of which is expensive.
Gerry
Patrol Tandum #30 Wings

[zkelley2]

The biggest shear and brake you can afford.

Drill bits - #40 through a massive unibit.

Hand squeeze riveter and a pneumatic with dimple dies and sizes for AN3-AN5 rivets. At least one small tungsten bucking bar to get the hard ones to go with the steel bars that come with the red box rivet gun set.

TIG welder, angle grinder, bench grinder. If you stick to completely stock you probably won't need the welder.

Cable swager.

[James]

Yep, I've been lucky - people have loaned me good sheety tools, or else we downsized at work, and I bought half our workshop at auction :-)

Tools for quickbuild and tools for building from plans vary dramatically - mostly with regards to the size of the brake / guillo you need.

I'm half way through the wings in a QB 4-place, and I'd recommend (amongst the other suggestions on this post) the following for building up the wings:

- make yourself a drill block, with a #40, #30, #27, #21 #12 drills, then all the 1/32 drills from 3/32 to 3/8, plus a uni-bit in 1/16ths increments, and a simple countersink bit.
- buy lots of what we call here in Australia "tackle boxes", i.e. small compartmentalised plastic boxes, for putting rivets, screws, washers etc.
- buy a small Sioux or Chicago Pneumatic drill, should do about 2000 rpm+, with a 3/8 chuck, and a thumb-press reversing button.
- take the time to run pneumatic lines in your workshop, with a good compressor. About 17cfm minimum. At my vise, I have 3x airlines with Nitto Hi-Cupla fittings ready-to-go, saves time switching drills.
- a heavy, old 500rpm pneumatic drill with a 1/2" chuck, which is good for slow-speed countersinking and using microstop bits.
- Rivet squeezers, with a whole heap of dies, dimple dies, screw dimple dies. I have the normal Tatco ones, with a couple of different heads - one 2" deep, one 4" deep, and a really shallow one, that just has a flat face on the end of the head, no anvil. Great for tight places and inspection hole anchornuts. You need to buy a couple of anvils, and at least one that is 1/4" proud, so that you can rivet on the far side of anchornuts. Pack them out with 3/16 washers if needed.
- Microstop cage, with a 3/32 and 1/8 CS bit in them - great for deburring holes by hand as well.
- "Edge clamp" clecos, five of 1" long, five of 1/2" long grip. I'm always surprised how handy these are.
- Pneumatic "venturi" type vacuum cleaner.
- Good rulers - 6", 12", 3ft.
- Digital vernier calipers, with mm/inch/thou displays.
- Indispensable: A linisher - this is a 1/2hp motor, with a 3ft emery belt on it. I use it for pretty much all my aluminium work. I use snips, then a linisher, then a die-grinder with a 3m scotchbrite pad.
- Indispensable: a small dynofile. The Shinano ones seem to be the best quality.
- Indispensable: 2x die grinders - one straight drive, one 90 degree drive.
- A series of punches, including 3/32, 1/8th, up to 3/8 size.
- A small "touch up" spray gun, for priming small wing parts.
- FH212 Pipe Bender, Rolair 37 degree Flairer,
- a heater in your workshop, and good overhead lighting :-)
- the biggest workbench you can find
- Lots of 50-cal ammo boxes, to store your tools in.

Things I wish I had, but don't have yet: A 4ft pedal guillotine. A 4ft finger brake. A large hanger to put my wings on. More time to build my plane. :-)

I'm only at wings stage, so no doubt I'll need more tools as I move on to the fuselage. But the above list are things I like using in my hands, and make my life easier.

Buy the best tools you can find, especially second-hand ones that are good quality. I avoid buying things at Bunnings.
At the end of this, you'll have a plane, and a workshop full of beautiful tools. Win-win! :-)

Hope at least some of this list helps you

James




James

[James]

PS Texaspilot, I know there is this amazing website called "The Yardstore", where they sell all sorts of sheetmetal tools.
It's like the promised land.
But they won't deliver anything to my part of the world for under $100.

Actually, let me know if you come across any online store which says "Free shipping to the 48 contiguous US states + the east coast of Australia!"

[zkelley2]

I make it to Sydney a dozen times a year or so, but at random intervals that I can't predict more than about a week out.

[Texaspilot]

Thanks guys, great advice! I think I have the digital caliper! Otherwise, I’ve got one hell of a shopping list! Luckily, I like tool shopping. It’s about the only shopping I like.

James, I’ll keep my eyes peeled for shipping to your part of the world. It’s tough to get there, I work with a guy from Australia, and I don’t know how he does it, he goes home four times a year, I think he spends most of his year getting there and back again! Years ago when I was a kid before the 747-400, my old man went there on business and was on the plane over 24 hours. They ran low on fuel, had to go back to Fiji, got stuck there waiting for gas and paperwork... I’d have to go on a boat, I couldn’t take a plane that long unless I were flying it!

[James]

Yeah, being Australian sucks when you're trying to buy stuff online.
But being Australian's great when you watch the world news, and realise we're so far away from most of the world's troubles.
I'm thinking about going to join Battson in New Zealand :-)

[zkelley2]

That's one of the reasons I like Alaska. Removed from the rest of the country and world.

Oh... looks like America went off and did something dumb again. Doesn't effect us at all.
They don't care about us and we generally don't care about them.

[James]

Zkelley - plus you guys have some of the best flyin' country on the planet!
Green forests to soar over! Pointy mountains with snow! Enough water in the one place to land a plane on it!
I'd swap the endless brown farms of western New South Wales for that any day!

Gotta make the most of it! :-)
James

[way_up_north]

Desert Bearhawk did a nice tool video on YouTube ..

check out the eaa help videos... shows the bare basic tools you need and techniques

[nichzimmerman]

If you want to buy everything at once there are plenty of lists out there. But if you just want to buy enough to get started, the list in your first post is pretty good and I would only add fluting pliers, seaming pliers, a dead blow hammer, a deburring tool, and a fly cutter if that's how you want to cut your lightening holes. And a table router if that's how you want to cut out your ribs.

I love Harbor Freight's band saw. I use it more than any other power tool in the garage.

[Texaspilot]

Thanks. Does anyone know if there is anyone who sells a router table that I can mount my plunge router to? I don’t want to buy one with a router attached since I already have a nice router.

also which hf bandsaw do you have the bench mount or full size?

[nichzimmerman]

I got this one. Sometimes it will be on sale for much less, but it's worth the money either way. I buy replacement blades from McMaster-Carr. Always have one or two on hand.

https://www.harborfreight.com/horizontal-vertical-metal-cutting-bandsaw-93762.html

[svyolo]

I am about as disorganized as it gets, but very quickly realized that wasn't going to work building an airplane. You will have a dizzying array of AN bolt sizes, rivet sizes, drill sizes, misc hardware. If you don't get some organizers for all that you will go out of your mind.

Next to my organizer for drill bits are two different drill guides to measure drill bits. I never drill a hole on the plane without checking EXACTLY what bit I have in the drill. Too many close sizes

[way_up_north]

I would test any measuring device against another measuring device... before putting it into a trusted position

i bought a yard yard stick metal ruler that was made in China and it was out of measure by 4 mm over 60mm...

i double check everything now before it goes onto the table

[Texaspilot]

I’m looking within the next couple weeks to buy both a band saw and drill press. Nich says the harbor freight band saw is good. That can’t be beat on price. It’s about 140 bucks for the bench top model.

Any recommendations as to a drill press that won’t break the bank, yet be good enough for what we need?

[Chris In Milwaukee]

I got my drill press from Harbor Freight as well. $160-ish for the full-sized one. The chuck was... err... suboptimal. But the drill and motor has been reliable and strong.