I decided that if I was serious about building an airplane, I should attend a builders workshop to see if I can actually handle these tools.  They say that all you need is "average mechanical skills" (okay, what does that mean?)

I attended a builders workshop with Cleaveland Tool Company in Boone, Iowa. I HIGHLY recommend attending one of these workshops prior to plunking down some money on tools and an airplane kit.  Taking the builders workshop with a tool company was great.  As questions came up regarding use of different tools, Mike, our instructor, would go over to the company office and get the tool for us to try.  That helped me when it came time to plunk down some cash.  I knew what tools I wanted most.

For me, I found that the building process of drilling, de-burring, dimpling and squeezing rivets was fairly easy and was something I thought I could become proficient enough to continue on and build a plane.  During the builders workshop, you actually build a small airfoil from Van's that has you practice a number of skills you will need during the construction of their kits.

LEFT TO RIGHT:  Buzz- Owner Cleaveland Tool Co., Unknown (sorry)- RV-10 Builder, Keith- Innocent helper/bystander and owner of the completed RV pictured below, and me.

In this picture, Keith is helping me lay out a line of rivets using measurements and some basic math that will allow all rivet lines to line up straight from the row of stiffener rivets to the forward spar rivet line.

Not only did the builders workshop allow you to practice your building skills, but allowed me to meet other prospective builders.  It was my first sample of the network of friendly and helpful builders. Van's has so many builders, chances are, you will not live far from at least one or two.  I live in the middle of "Mayberry" Nebraska and I have met two builders and know of several others in the area that I have yet to meet.

An example of the builder comradery includes one builder (Keith, YES-that is a picture of his beautiful RV below) lives in Boone, IA stuck around for the better part of a weekend helping us "new" builders.  This individual is not on Cleaveland's payroll or was he obligated to stay and help us.  The insight he offered was invaluable.  Keith even gave a student of the workshop his first RV ride.  Needless to say, you couldn't peel the "RV-Grin" off his face the whole day.

Be prepared, should you go to a builders workshop, to have a good time.  I enjoyed it so much, that I came home with a couple of boxes of tools and a whole lot less money in the checkbook.

The tools in this picture came to $2200. Holy Cow!!! When I picked them up at the end of the workshop, I asked the salesman at Cleaveland Tool if the tools would fit in my car. He said, "No Problem." I expected the tool kit to be ALOT BIGGER. It was all there when I ran down the inventory list.

To store all the tools I bought (and would buy in the future), I started with the top chest you see here.  However, it didn't take long before I out grew the chest.  I found myself just piling tools on top of other tools.  So in the middle of my wing kit, I broke down and bought the lower section of the tool box you see here.  Believe it or not, majority of the drawers are being used and/or full of tools.  This tool box is strictly tools used for aircraft building.

This is actually my second compressor I have used on my project.  I started with a oil free compressor with a 25 gallon tank that I have owned for years before I started the RV project.  Oh it still works, but I have retired it to the hangar as my back up compressor.  The oil free compressors are so darn noisy and when you are running grinders and drills, you WILL DEFINITELY get tired of listening to it.  I decided to replace the old compressor with a new upright compressor oil bath compressor.  I got this at Lowes after looking around at the local 3 big aircraft tool stores (Menards, Home depot, and Lowes).  This compressor is really nice in that it has a slightly larger tank at 30 gallons, it is notably quieter than my oil free compressor, and this compressor has an operating pressure of 150 psi.  This compressor turns on at 120 psi which was the pressure my other compressor turned off.  So far, I have been really happy with it.

During the Empennage kit, I found a couple of holes that were difficult to get to with the straight drill so I bought a right angle drill. The right angle drill was able to get to the holes I struggled with. I really wanted the Sioux version of this drill, but at $450, I decided the Taylor would do ($249). It's down side is that it does not have a very good "teasing" trigger and it requires special drill bits that are screwed into the drill head. I am in the early stages of my wings and I haven't used this drill very much to date.

During the empennage kit, you have to torque the rudder and elevator counterweight bolts, the hinge hardware, etc. I bought this torque wrench from Cleaveland Tool. It came with a certificate of calibration with some really close tolerances. I bought the 20-150 in-Ibs version of the torque wrench. Most of the fasteners I have torqued to date, need a suprisingly low torque value.  My only complaint about this toque wrench is that it is of the "break-away" design.  That is, when the torque exerted on the bolt has reached the setting of the wrench, there is a slight slip on the wrench indicating that you are at your desired torque setting.  At the lower end of the wrench's range, this "break-away" is very difficult to feel.  At work, I have access to Snap-On torque wrenches and the "break-away" has a lot more of a solid feel, however, I would imagine that they are alot more expensive than the CDI torque wrench.  In any case, a good torque wrench is not cheap.  This one was $145.00.

This little ugly tool is a cleco installation/removal tool. I found a reference to this by a fellow builder on the Yahoo RV-7/7A group. I bought this from the Yard store (http://www.yardstore.com) for $35 after shipping. Pretty crude looking but it works pretty well when you have a ton of cleco's to remove and install.

I ordered a rotary burr set from Aircraft-Tool Supply. I was having a hard time trimming the trim servo re-inforcement plate to allow the trim servo arm and attachment hardware adequate clearance when the trim servo arm was fully extended through the re-inforcement plate.  When I took a vixen file to the re-inforcement plate, it looked like it was trimmed by chewing on it.  After I ordered this, I ran across a rotary burr bit for my Dremel (worked GREAT).   Because of that, I haven't had an opportunity to use these yet.  These were kind of spendy at $120.

I found this 220 piece Dremel accessory kit at Home Depot.  A Dremel tool has proven to be VERY VALUABLE in the building process already.  I have used it alot along with a lot of the sanding and filing attachments.

I got this aluminum hand nibbler and it works great.  I have seen where other builders have needed to trim the horizontal stabilizer to accomodate the re-designed counterweights Van's has put on the elevators.   I am hoping that this will allow me to trim the HS with a professional fit and finish.  I tried it out on some scrap stiffeners I had laying around.  Very controllable and a nice clean cut.

This is an FAA publication detailing construction techniques. I figure when the DAR comes out and to inspect the aircraft, this will be some of the criteria the plane is evaluated against. Alot of information in this circular... I don't have it commited to memory yet :)