Brief Description: Updated Bench and Riveted Bend Brake
Having a lot of fun just getting my shop and tools ready but this has become a project unto itself so there has been zero aircraft building to date.
Added 1/2" MDF to bench top to provide a thicker, flatter, harder work surfaces. Given that MDF swells badly when exposed to liquid I decided to generously coat the top with a quart of polyurethane to protect from the inevitable beverage condensation and all other liquid sources. Tested with water which merely pooled up.
Took a mid-day brake to play 18 holes of golf with my wife. Achieved two goals there today: shot one nine under 50 (44) and shot 18 under 100 (97). Like building an airplane this is a continuous work in progress.
Continued work on bending brake by riveting the bottom plate to the bend plate using 3/16" large head steel rivets. I pulled these with the manual rivet puller that was purchased from Zenith a couple of years ago for trying out aluminum riveting. Not really sure if this tool designed to handle these big rivets because by the time I had pulled 64 of them it was becoming difficult to get it to grip the stems. I was considering hand-pulling my aircraft rivets but after this experience I'm convinced that a pneumatic puller will be a future addition to my tool collection. I added clearance holes to the base plate hinge half to prevent the head of the handle-attach bolt from holding the brake in a partially closed position; this is the same reason I staggered the rivets. Verified that brake halves open to form a 180 degree flat surface.
