More Tools, Building Practice, and Shop Prep

I wanted to first start off with a video of the final product of what the shop lights look like. They turned out great for the amount of money that was spent. I would really have preferred to have had light boxes installed in the ceiling, but that’s money I just don’t feel like I want to spend right now, and these will do just fine for the time being. I am not a fan of the cables showing but whatever. Sorry for the vertical video as I was too excited to have it completed now. LOL

Now with the lighting sorted out and plenty of space in the garage, I was just waiting for the rest of the tools I had ordered to arrive. I got the final shipment from Cleaveland and they did an excellent job of packing the items. The tools come in a Craftsman plastic toolbox and each of them are individually wrapped to protect them in shipment. They’ve provided paper packing material in some places to fill in the voids where necessary. The toolbox was then placed in a box with foam blocks surrounding it to isolate it from the bumps from shipment. Everything was accounted for and they even mentioned that they had a few of my tools on backorder and they would ship them when they arrived. None of those tools were needed for the practice kit so I’m fine with that for now.

With everything out of the way and the air tools properly connected with the right NPT connectors, I started working on the practice kit. I didn’t bother with working on de-burring the skin on the first project of the practice kit as I wanted to focus on a few things at a time and of course I was excited to use my tools for the first time! The first project only had three steps mentioned which was not a ton to go by for a noob.

I sat down and really dug in deep to the rest of the material they provided me which was basically all of section 5 and what appeared to be all of section 3 as well. Section 5 covers building basics such as sanding the edges, de-burring both edges and holes, riveting basics, nomenclature, painting, electronics, the whole lot. I will say, this project does not appear that it will give you exact step by step instructions and they expect you to know how to select the right size rivet, drill the right size hole, how to dimple, the lot. But the instructions they do provide, you need to read them word for word and make sure you understand what they are conveying to you before you proceed. Reading schematic/engineering charts is also an art that will take a little bit of practice but is not too difficult.

After reading up on those sections (which I will probably have to read them three to four more times before I fully understand it all) I felt confident going back to the project and starting it anew. None of the holes for the first line of rivets was drilled on either piece. I took the measurements they provided and marked them on the top skin with a blue fine Sharpie. I used some spring clips to hold the two pieces together and used my drill press to drill the holes. I learned very quickly on the first hole that you need to have a clamp supporting the piece to the drill as well. This is not like wood and will bite you once it penetrates the metal and try to start spinning your work piece on you. After clamping the piece down, I would drill another hole. Release the clamp, move the piece, clamp it down, and drill another hole. Rinse and repeat for each hole along the entire edge. I eventually started using clecos to help hold the two pieces exactly in alignment. Now, this was the only de-burring I did for this first project. I took the de-burring tool and used it very lightly on the back of the holes I had drilled just so that I could rub my finger across it without feeling it snag.

I will tell you that using the C frame dimpler is actually not that bad. It is quite loud with each hammer swing, but I feel like I quickly got used to the sound the dimpler would make when the hole was fully dimpled. I would have to swing the hammer twice to get it to fully seat which is fine by me.

Now, it was time for my first rivets… I had set the gun to what I thought was an appropriate level with only 90 psi of air pressure at the tool. I then reduced it even further with the inline air restricter. I selected what I thought was the right rivet and started going at it with the 16″ steel plate as my bucking bar. My rivets were flatter than a pancake, which I knew couldn’t be right, but I kept going trying to work out the problem as I went along. Long story short, each of those rivets was bad and I had to redo the entire line of rivets, but I don’t count this as a failure. This is an opportunity to learn how things feel, and more importantly I get to learn how to remove rivets on a practice piece rather than the real thing.

With my second go around, I finally read AND understood the instructions on how to select the proper rivet and I also got very acquainted with the Cleaveland Tools rivet gauge. This is a very handy tool to get started and sight your eye in to what a proper shop head on a rivet looks like. With that I was able to get these rivets worked out… Not too bad, but definitely not perfect either. Still need the practice, which luckily I will get on the second project of the practice kit, which I plan to start tomorrow.

All in all, I am glad that I’m learning this the hard way now. I’m one of those kind of learners that has to just start and get his hands dirty, learn from my mistakes, and chug along. Here’s to tomorrow’s practice day!