Dave,
Glad to see another P-3 guy building an RV-12. Although you can never have enought tools, here is the list that I have found most useful in building my 12 and would have liked to known before I started.
Pneumatic drill ? 3600 rpm Sioux or equal. You can learn to tease the trigger and use it as a variable speed drill.
90 deg and straight pneumatic die grinders; set up the straight grinder with a 1? Scotchbright 3MW7A1 wheel on a screw-on mandrel and the 90 deg with a 3M 3? Roloc backer and very fine non-woven abrasive disk (blue). I started with a 6? Scotchbright wheel on a bench grinder and quit using it after finding the 1? wheel on a die grinder is faster and easier to use. I went through a dozen 1? wheels for the entire build. Buy a box of 3? disks. This setup makes metal edge finishing a breeze.
?The Main Squeeze Kit? from Cleveland Tool; worth every cent you will pay for it.
#30 and #40 chucking reamers, sometimes the pre-punched holes need a little help to fit a rivet in them.
Pneumatic rivet gun ? my HF unit has pull over 14,000 rivets with no problem. Takes a few rivets to get it adjusted right (not retaining the rivet stem after pulling). I also have three manual pullers, two HF units with the nose piece and body ground for close-in angled pulls and one unmodified unit.
Big compressor ? I stated with a small 20 gal unit and ended up with an 80 gal/5 hp two-stage. Die grinders use a LOT of air and I can still get the 80 gal unit hot on occasion.
Band Saw, Jig Saw, Drill Press ? have them all and only really need them when I am making my own parts from scratch (I build EAB with a lot of mods). A good set of snips will handle most part separations for the Van?s parts.
Cleveland Aircraft Tool, Edge forming tool ? not required but adds a nice finished edge to overlapping skins, decide early if you want to do this.
Check the Van?s tools list for the RV-12 in section 3 of the plans, you will need them all at some point.
Enjoy the journey.
John Salak
RV-12 N896HS