Shop Talk

With a panel full of glass and diodes turned into all the colors of the rainbow, the poor old VHF com sitting over in...

I affectionately refer to my Jabiru light-sport as being a “low high-wing” airplane. This is because, despite it being a high-wing configuration, you have...

Torque is a twisting or rotational force about an axis such as the length of a bolt. It is measured in foot-pounds, inch-pounds or...

Having constructed several high-wing aircraft kits, I can attest to the anxiety that comes from the exercise of mounting wings to the fuselage. This...

A long time ago, when homebuilders began installing Garmin 430s—the most popular IFR GPS/nav/com of the day—we were mostly left on our own to...

Let me say right up front that I hate nutserts. Also called rivet nuts, threaded inserts or rivnuts. (I’m sure there’s a formal product...

Whether you build in a big box or a one-car garage, you can benefit from shop organization and tool selection.

This is the root rib on a horizontal stabilizer. The rivets that fasten the rib to the spar are completely missing!

People tend to design around their particular expertise. A machinist will design based on machining parts out of solid billet, a welder will design...

Porkers of the world, relax. I’m not about to turn you all into bacon and spareribs (although that’s not a bad idea). No, HOG...