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Van's Control Surface Practice Kit

Would one of these be sufficient to get a good grasp on deburring/dimpling/riveting? Or would two be ideal to get basic techniques down?
 
As many as you want to do would be good. At least one, but it will take a while to learn. Probably took me 2000 rivets to feel comfortable with it, and I still made my share of mistakes that require some bodywork to fix.

I did one practice kit and figured I was good to go. I should have done a few.
 
The other day I pulled out my practice kit that I did at the SportAir workshop. I was quite surprised at how banged up it was and how poorly all of the rivets were set...

so yeah get two or three of them if you want to practice.
 
Practice kits

Buy one of each. Assemble. Drill apart. Lather, rinse, repeat.
No need for additional practice kits.
Buy some scrap and make your own.
 
Probably took me 2000 rivets to feel comfortable with it, and I still made my share of mistakes that require some bodywork to fix.

This.

You can order "trim kits" (?) from Van's which is the scrap metal left from cutting larger sheets. Make a practice kit by drilling many holes into some scrap and drive some rivets. The more, the merrier.
 
My opinion, I would buy two and assemble both. It will get you comfy with the process. Don’t hang up on what the have you do word for word because unless you are building a 4 everything is mostly predrilled on the later kits. The feel is a little different on the actual kits because of their size and I’m my opinion make things a little easier to work with. Do make sure you drop the pressure to the River gun to about 30-40 for the an3 rivets and maybe 50
For the an4’s. But yes I think the airfoils kits served me well.
 
For just practice on driving rivets, get some scrap aluminum and practice riveting two pieces together. Get good at that before you do the Van's kit.
 
I recommend two, minimum. The trailing edge drilling and especially countersinking will open your eyes to how easily things can go wrong if you are not prepared.
 
Great advice everyone. I think I'll get a couple of them and like suggested also get some practice drilling out botched rivets without enlarging the holes too much.
Thank you all so much!!
 
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