flion
Well Known Member
Drill a #40 hole at 1" mark on a tape measure and cleco it in place.
Never thought of that - but somehow it would bother me to drill into my tape measure.
From another thread, but it made me think. Pristine tools are a joy, no doubt about it. But I have a handful of specially made or modified tools and have seen more in the shops of other mechanics. The forums are also full of advice to "grind a flat" in a wrench or "weld a socket" to a special handle or the like. So I thought it might be useful to have a centralized place for RV-specific tools that have been created for those special occasions when a standard tool won't work.
Along with my drilled (it's not my only, or even new) tape measure, I also have a half dozen cheap aluminum yardsticks, which are somewhat flexible, can be bent, drilled, or sanded/filed without weeping because they are so cheap, and are handy because they can be clamped or clecoed. I started using them when building the RV-6A fuselage (before pre-punching) to be sure the distances from bulkhead to bulkhead were consistent from side to side, but they still have a ton of uses.
I expect to add more tools, and photos, to this thread and hope others will as well. Wait until you see the grinding I did on a squeezer yoke to get into some tight spaces...