Shop and Tools
Tool Kits
- Cleaveland Tools has a nice kit of starting tools
- See this VAF thread for a great detailed list
Protection for Spray Painting
- 3M Respirator (Note: make sure to get original 3M brand)
- HobbyAir fresh air respirator (pumps clean air from remote location into mask)
Paint Gun
- HF $17 This one works, however cumbersome to clean. Note: needs cleaning before first use.
- Lowes $90 This one does the job perfectly and is easy to clean. It has a pressure gauge (set it to 25 psi). It is very easy to control and works well for very small parts as well as for large surfaces. It blows air-only when pressing lightly, so you can dust off parts before adding paint to the air stream (screw the needle controlling knob on just so a few threads engage). You can use the Harbor Freight stand for it as well as the disposable cups (with a bunch of teflon tape on the thread). Use strainers to pour paint into the cup.
Workbenches
- EAA Chapter 1000 Standardized Work Table Plans.pdf
see also this EAA article
Consider making the top an inch all around larger so you have a 1 inch lip for clamps.
Consider putting the bench on sturdy wheels with brakes. You will have to move it around a lot during the build. - See also this FB thread
Generators strong enough to power a 15A compressor
Some airports don't have adequate wiring to run a compressor. A row of hangars might be on a single 20A fuse. On a hot day, the fridges run more often and there might not be enough power available to run a compressor.
Generators are rated for their total power but the ones with higher output usually have a 240V outlet and that automatically means they provide the full rated power only on 240V but only half the power on each of the two 120V circuits. If your compressor has a 120V connector you can only make use of half the generator's power. A lot of compressors can be converted though to 240V. Open the motor's electric connector access panel and look for instructions to reconfigure it for 240V, then cut off the 120V plug and put a 240V one on (the neutral pin is then not used).
- Note: The Harbor Freight 4,000W generator is not strong enough, even when running the compressor at 240V.
- Harbor Freight 9,000W works perfectly
(wheels and battery costs extra)
Adhesives
Standard adhesives:
- West Systems Epoxy
- West Systems G/Flex
- Aeropoxy Structural Epoxy Adhesive
- Lord 7545 A/E (Polyurethane adhesive, e.g. for bonding the overhead console to the cabin top)
- (incomplete list, to be filled in)
Non-standard adhesives:
- MMA (methacrylate) MMA is especially good for joining dissimilar materials. Aluminum-to-fiberglass, fiberglass-to-plastic, stainless-to-composite, etc., are applications where it can outperform a conventional rigid epoxy in the real world even when the epoxy has better-looking datasheet numbers. Its major advantage is toughness rather than merely flexibility. A cured MMA joint doesn’t normally feel like silicone. Most structural MMAs cure into something resembling a very tough hard plastic. You can dent/cut some formulations, but you aren’t going to stretch them like rubber. That combination gives MMA very good resistance to peel, vibration, shock and differing thermal expansion. That’s one reason products such as Plexus became common in boatbuilding and transportation applications. Another important advantage is surface tolerance. Many MMAs can bond surprisingly well to surfaces with much less preparation than epoxy requires. Some will bond aluminum without elaborate pretreatment and can bond difficult thermoplastics that ordinary epoxy dislikes. They are also excellent gap fillers. This is an important distinction from traditional structural epoxy bonding. MMA is commonly designed around a substantial adhesive layer rather than demanding an extremely thin glue line.