Even though most modern airplane kits are pre-punched, pre-drilled, pre-bent, pre-welded and pre-machined there is still a signifiacnt amount of measureing to do. Do you need high presicion tools like micrometers? Not really, but a collection of good quality measuring tools will be required.

Note: I’m building in the backwards country of the United States and my kit came from the US. My measurements are in inches and feet so my tools are measured in these increments. If you are in a more advanced county, with your kit from there, your tools will probably be in metric.

Squares: You will need two: a large square (18 inches or more) and a small adjustable square (12 inches or less)

Quality tape measure: I suggest a small measure (12 feet or less) and a long one (25 foot)

Steel rules: I suggest three. I use a 48 inch with 1/8 increments. I have a 12 inch steel rule and finally a couple of 6 inch rules measuring increments of 16, 32 and 64^th increments (you never really need 64^th increments on a modern kits).

Caliper: I have a plastic 6 inch caliper and the plastic ones are fine for kit building. Don’t know how to read a caliper? Digital calipers are available at a relative low cost.

Protractor: A good quality steel adjustable protractor is cool, but a simple plastic one will do.

Bolt Gauge: A template to measure both bolt size and length is important. Plastic ones for both metric and SAE are available for a very low cost. The one you see in the picture is from Van’s Aircraft and came with my RV-9A kit. Many are available for under $15 USD.

Drill Gauges: If you are careful with storage and can read very tiny lettering on drill bits, you probably do not need a drill gauge. If you do need a drill gauge be sure to get two; one that reads fractional bit sizes and one that reads numbered bits.

Finally, marking measurements on aluminum can be done with blue or red sharpies. Blue or red ink will make sure you can clearly read the mark, and sharpie ink is easily removed from aluminum with acetone.

Having good access to plans as you are building is very important. So important to me, I built a custom plans table. It has wheels, and holds the plans for fast and easy access.

For my RV-9A build, the Van’s plans came in individual sheets, and could be loaded into clear protective sleeves and easy to cycle as needed.

The Sonex plans seem to come in a pad where the sheets are held together so you can flip through them. For the Sonex, I customized the plans table to allow me to clamp the plans tablet edge to the table and flip through them easily. The table is still on wheels and I added a shelf, maybe to hold rivets.

Even when building an all metal airplane, it is a good idea to have wood working tools and some scrap lumber around.

The biggest difference between building an RV-9 and a Sonex are the blind rivets. Almost non-existent with the RV-9A, the blind rivet is the most common rivet type with the Sonex.

The blind rivet is also called the pull rivet or a pop-rivet (which is a registered trademark)

The original design was for riveting where the rivet was unavailable for bucking or squeezing. For the Sonex, it reduces build time significantly. We just completed skinning the horizonal stabilizer in just an hour. For my last project, this would have taken a day or two.

That said, there are some new tools you will need to build the Sonex. You can use a hand squeezer, but unless you want forearms like Popeye, and add a year or two to the project, you will want a power tool. Now there are two flavors: pneumatic or electric. The pneumatic type is available from your favorite aircraft supply or from Harbor Freight Tools.

For the electric, I bought a Milwaukee with the small battery (for lighter weight) and I bought two batteries. They do sell blind rivet tool adapters for cordless drills. These looks a little iffy to me but I have no experience with them.

You will still need a hand rivet puller for tight spaces, and I scored a VERY thin model at a garage sale for $5. Look for one with a small profile.

You should also get a close quarter rivet pulling wedge (about $25) that allows pulling a straight rivet at a slight angle. I got mine from cleavelandtool.com

OK! Back to work. For the RV guys, they usually say “Keep pounding those rivets!” For the Sonex guys, “Keep Pulling those Rivets!”