Category: Everything Else

OK, this post is not really related to building my plane, but I wanted to share a little about another transportation device I just recently acquired – a Tesla Model 3! I’ve been waiting for this beauty for more than 2 years – though I’ve wanted to make the...

I’m buying a second rivet gun – as I mentioned in my earlier post, it’s pretty common for assemblies to use both 3.2mm and 4.0mm rivets.  Changing the bit on the rivet gun is a little annoying (even if it doesn’t take too long) – it’s about the same...

This seemed to be much easier than filing down 26 rivets...

Working on the elevator trim tab now, and the instructions call for removing 4mm from the rivet body. Of course, the engineer in me insisted on a precise way to do this with a 3D-printed tool to hold a bunch of the rivets and then run them under my...

After about 2 days of drying, my freshly-primed parts for the horizontal stabilizer started showing spider lines in the paint, then flaking off and looking like this horror: It took me a while to figure out what went wrong, but it looks like I failed to properly clean the...

I decided I needed a more comfortable chair to sit on while I work. Here’s a pretty nice drafting chair from Amazon that I just got today. Also notice, just behind the chair, I bought an anti-fatigue mat to stand on while I’m working....

The first two kits arrived, so I can finally begin! First I’m doing a full inventory and inspection of the kit pieces.. it will take some time as there are MANY parts, especially in the wing! I thought it might speed things up to scan all the parts with...

Just in time for my kits arriving tomorrow, I received my Milwaukee M12 rivet gun today! It’s quite substantial, more so than I was expecting. It just came out this past weekend so I must be one of the first people in the whole country to own one. I’ll...

Before I decided to buy a kit plane, I had no idea that there were so many choices for priming metal parts (or even to prime at all!). But given the New England weather, I decided I’m going to prime mating surfaces. I’m going with SEM Self Etching Primer...

I spent a few hours today finishing up the work tables, they look good! I added some retractable casters to make them easier to move around. The last 1% is a attaching some vinyl fabric over the MDF tops – I’ll get that done during the week. Really hoping...