REFLECTOR: Recommended Tools for Building a Composite Aircraft

[Brooke Wolf]

What kind of saw blades are you guys using in your body saws?  How many teeth per inch? Carbon blades?  Mine seems to take forever to cut.  I think I may have too fine of a blade.

Brooke
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jack Prock 
  To: Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list 
  Sent: Friday, March 14, 2008 3:48 AM
  Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Recommended Tools for Building a Composite Aircraft


  I agree with Alex with one minor variation. I could never get the hang of using the body saw doing fine cuts. So I started using a dremel with a cutting wheel.
  After I burned out two dremel tools, I hit on using a Rotozip (more power) and attaching a two foot flexible extension. This keeps the dust away from the motor. 
  I also Highly recommend the perma-grit cutting disks instead of the brown disks that come with the Dremel, those are crap and break way too often. I bought one 
  set of perma-grit disks when I bought my kit, and 20 months later, they are still in great shape. I prefer using these for fine line cuts.The body saw is great, but I use it for
  rough cuts when precision is not needed. Everything else Alex says is pretty much exactly what I use as well.
    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Alex Balic 
    To: 'Velocity Aircraft Owners and Builders list' 
    Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 7:22 PM
    Subject: Re: REFLECTOR: Recommended Tools for Building a Composite Aircraft


    Basics would include a big air compressor to drive a 90 degree die grinder with 2.5 and 3" abrasive disk pad- my personal  favorite the air body saw, in line sander, DA sander- assortment of files, sanding blocks, lots of gloves and disposable brushes. Sharp scissors for the glass, epoxy pump, drill press, vice, air drill, close quarter electric drill, assortment of drill bits- a hole saw set- tubing bender, tube cutter,  roto flaring tool, precision level / laser level with line generator head- 24" stainless steel ruler, utility knife, dremel tool, sanding drum that will fit the electric drill- that should get you going- I am sure some folks can chime in- but the most used tools in my shop are the 90 degree grinder with fast loc disks -50 grit usually- and the air body saw- that thing cuts glass like butter and with practice you can have some amazing control for all sorts of cuts- good for cutting just about anything. You will also want to invest in a decent wet dry vac to keep the annoying scratch dust to a minimum- you will be tempted to blow it off with compressed air, but that just makes things worse unless you are outside on a windy day- get some decent dust masks too while you are at it you will be going through a lot of them too especially if you are doing your own wings.

     


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    From: reflector-bounces at tvbf.org [mailto:reflector-bounces at tvbf.org] On Behalf Of Tom Tolton
    Sent: Thursday, March 13, 2008 7:27 PM
    To: reflector at tvbf.org
    Subject: REFLECTOR: Recommended Tools for Building a Composite Aircraft

     

    I am new to this kit building game.  I purchased a two car garage with an attached house. It is now heated, insulated, and has good two-part epoxy paint on the floor.  My question is this:  What tools would you seasoned builders recommend for building a XLFG Velocity? 

      



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