Preparation

Spent a long (11 hour) day with Rick Grey on Tues the 4th. He taught me the basics of working with aluminum and had me put my hands on metal for the 1st time since a miserable semester of metal shop back in 8th grade. Cutting, deburring and drilling were fine. Installing pop rivets is a no-brainer. Riveting was challenging, as expected. He seems quite sure that I’ve got what it takes, but there were periods of doubt on my part.

During the meantime, I’ve received all of my ‘big tools’ from Home Depot and Harbor Freight—work tables, band saw, drill press, grinding wheel, belt sander and air compressor are all delivered and the garage is now configured to be a decent work area.

UPS has delivered my ‘small tools’ kit (their package of “everything you need for an RV-12”. I’ll look at that tonight when I get home from work.

The empennage kit is due to arrive tomorrow!

I’m still holding myself to a “slow & steady” mode. I’ll inventory the tool kit and do a ‘quick inventory’ of the kit in order to decide how much storage space to buy at Home Depot. I’ll make sure everything is stored in an organized manner before starting.

Before even touching a piece from the kit, I’ll get some scrap sheet Al and repeat some of the lessons Rick gave me. After that, the toolbox and the test project from Vans. Then, and only then, will I touch part of the real kit. More to follow...