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You might be an RV builder if..

scard

scard

Well Known Member
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We haven't done this in a while.

As I celebrate a very rewarding Saturday with a little (not so) quiet time in the shop this evening, toiling away on the RV8, it occurred to me that I'm certainly not the only one to chuckle at myself for taking a few minutes to "reflow" the Boelube dust in the top of the stick back into a solid for continued use!
What is your method? Mine is the hot air reflow pencil. Very high temp, low flow. "Hot" tip, don't try to hit dust with a standard heat gun :).

Build on!

(drilling a finger no longer counts. Every RV builder thinks that everyone you see on the street has a #40 hole in at least a finger or two.)
 
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I can honestly say I have never drilled my finger(s). Ever. I did drill somebody else's fingers once - but that was his fault. I asked him 3 times to make sure his fingers were out of the way and I still managed to get him. He went white. He quit the job and left Fiji two days later.

I did drill my hand once, repairing baffles off a GTSIO-520 as a 20 year old apprentice. A nice 1/8th drill right into the web between my middle and ring finger... and yeah, I had to lay down for a bit after that.

Getting hooked with the deburring tool was about the worst thing I managed to do while building my RV-6. Twice.

Pumping my hand with grease while trying to regrease a bearing (slipped!) also made me feel pretty ill.

I think I miss the smell of Proseal.
 
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Well it just may be the aluminum shavings that get caught in socks, it's a one way snag, especially if it's a new pair of socks. Try and explain that to a stranger on the street!
 
I know someone who drilled a hole in his wifes finger, and they are still together! And someone else who had a very neat #40 hole in his thumbnail for a while. His thumb was on the other side of the wing when it happened so he couldn’t see what he had done!
Cheers
Mike
 
planenutz said:
I

I think I miss the smell of Proseal.
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Wish that was univeral. I resealed three tanks thsi winter and was too cold in the garage at night so put them in the living room. Unfortunately caught grief for that and they don't miss it:eek:
 
You might be a builder if, when you pick up any metal object, you run your finger across the edges, and usually think “Yea, that needs to be deburred a bit more.”
 
Ann & I spend a lot of time on cruise ships. I find myself constantly looking at large bolt/nut combinations and saying; "Not enough threads showing here.", "That really should have a castellated nut & cotter pin." "I'll bet if I look hard enough, I can find a loose jam nut!", etc.
 
You might be an RV builder if…

…there is a cleco pliers riding in a drink holder in your truck.
 
This is the best thread in a while. Number 30 drill.
 

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Mel said:
Ann & I spend a lot of time on cruise ships. I find myself constantly looking at large bolt/nut combinations and saying; "Not enough threads showing here.", "That really should have a castellated nut & cotter pin." "I'll bet if I look hard enough, I can find a loose jam nut!", etc.
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On this subject, I was in KL, Malaysia, and took the tour to the top of the Petronas Towers - the tallest twin tower buildings in the world. I was astonished as I was standing on the top floor (about 1,200 feet up) when I noticed how many bolts in the structure had missing nuts or loose nuts!!! I'm not talking one or two... I'm talking several. I took photos of some of the errors but really I couldn't wait to get out of there. So much for quality control.

Sorry for the thread drift.
 
You get an excessive amount of Google ads and recommended YouTube videos for campers and tennis shoes.
 
Drilled into my finger nail!
 

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Debur…

We’ve all check for deburring on our builds with out two attached test instruments, hands. Stainless steel firewall broke me of that habit, quick.
 
If that ten minute task takes two hours.
The mail person says they feel they are delivering your airplane one part at a time.
At least once a week someone asks when you’ll be done.
 
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Davea320 said:
<snip>
The mail person says they feel they are delivering your airplane one part at a time.

At least once a week someone asks when you’ll be done.
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Funny, I restorred a VW Beetle many years ago. Should have seen the look on the UPS guys face when I showed him the finished product and told him he delivered it.

Exactly right on people asking when it will be finished. I always say Tuesday. The puzzled look is priceless. Then I tell them, I don't know which Tuesday but it will be done on a Tuesday.
 
wirejock said:
Funny, I restorred a VW Beetle many years ago. Should have seen the look on the UPS guys face when I showed him the finished product and told him he delivered it.
Exactly right on people asking when it will be finished. I always say Tuesday. The puzzled look is priceless. Then I tell them, I don't know which Tuesday but it will be done on a Tuesday.
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I say, Saturday 10 am.
 
I sometimes woke up in the middle of the night and started thinking about the project or an upcoming task. The only way to shut my brain back off was to go out to the shop and verify what the issue was. My neighbors probably thought I was nuts for being out there at 2AM for a quick look...
This is a sickness...
 
Funny story

wirejock said:
Funny, I restored a VW Beetle many years ago. Should have seen the look on the UPS guys face when I showed him the finished product and told him he delivered it.

Exactly right on people asking when it will be finished. I always say Tuesday. The puzzled look is priceless. Then I tell them, I don't know which Tuesday but it will be done on a Tuesday.
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I copied this and have been telling people Tuesday for years now.

Guess what, i was done on a Tuesday.
 
The first thing you vacuum in your house is the eternal trail of tiny shiny aluminum slivers leading from the garage into the mudroom. And, they're back the next day.
 
Your neighbor walks by your garage while walking the dog and you are flat on the floor resting your back and she asks “are you OK or do I need to call 911?”

You give her a thumbs up and she replies “just checking” as she walks past.

Later in the day, the same neighbor stops by and tells you her mailbox hinge broke and can you put one of those rivet thingies in it. Of course you oblige and it take longer to get the tools out than it does to fix it.

And those chocolate chip thank you cookies are dynamite.
 
Webb said:
Later in the day, the same neighbor stops by and tells you her mailbox hinge broke and can you put one of those rivet thingies in it. Of course you oblige and it take longer to get the tools out than it does to fix it.
.
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I did exactly that for my neighbor a while ago except I used a few cherrymax pull rivets. That sucker ain’t never coming lose again!
 
Every time I'm around an airliner (which is often since it's my day job), I'm examining the rivets and the quality of the shop heads. The flight attendant thought I was nuts a few days ago when I stopped to examine the hardware holding the door together.

I also don't envy the poor souls who rivet the fuselage together. The entire pressurized portion is proseal. A little bigger than our fuel tanks.
 
You might be an RV Builder when I say to my wife.....

Me: I love you

Her: How much

Me: A whole lot!

Her: I mean how much money are you needing to spend at Aircraft Spruce!!!
 
My slow-build RV8 project was still in its fuselage jig just about completed thru the "canoe stage" when a stranger stopped in my driveway by my open garage and after staring at the project for a few minutes he asked me what I was building. I explained it to be an original design aluminum racing canoe. He walked around it looking it over for several minutes and finally left without saying a word.
 
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