Having not touched metal for 34 years since my school days I thought best to practice on some spare metal first. The RV Training Kit is ideal for this. It comprises three projects; one - making a small mild steel bucking bar for use on the skin/rib (see image 2 top centre), two - joining sheets and an angle and finally the main item - a section of a control. Over the three projects you cover cutting sheet,dimpling, countersinking, all the types of rivetting and also using the grey matter to work out the odd little problem. I primed the parts to try out the new water base primer, my booth and the gun.
Lessons learned?
1. Check the drawings twice then rivet once! 2. Oops rivets can hide drill outs extremely well. 3. A pneumatic squeezer is heaven sent (I adjusted the sets with a spanner not my fingers as recommended in the instructions - my inspector has a bit of his finger missing from adjusting one of these beasts - I intend to hang onto mine!). 4. Building is not a race - take your time and enjoy the journey.
Rather than treat building my RV8 as one project I'm going to treat it as many small projects and we've just completed this one and it was very satisfying ..... now onto the real McCoy :-)
