Anybody Got Some Aviation Tools

[Mikeske]

I was looking around and found some tools on eBay today and they were advertising as aviation tools. Well I was a aviation mechainic for the last 43 years and a lot of the tools were NOT aviation, might be some wishful thinking by the owner. But mainly I was wondering if anybody has pictures of some of the tools that are use in aviation. I have a couple and wanted to get some pictures but during the rearrangements I have been doing in my garage I misplaced them. If I find them again I will post some pictures. But anyway I think this might be a fun thread.

 

[snapmom]

 

[snapmom]

 

[bonneyman]

Thanks for starting this thread. Seems like a good idea to have an aviation mechanic comment on aviation tools.

 

[Mikeske]

Yeah so far I used just about every one of the tools pictured especially the spanner wrench snapmom has. They were mainly used on the engines and landing gear.

 

[MikeF2316]

How about a rivet squeezer? Cleco brand!

 

[bonneyman]

I have two of these Emhart pop rivet guns that I've "heard" were designed for aviation work. They're really nice compared to most commonly-available pop rivet guns.

 

[Mikeske]

The Cleco rivet squeeze is a really nice thing for bench work, I have used them for years. Some locations on the plane they also can be used but it has to be where there is access to both sides of the work.. Emhart blind rivet guns were mainly used on smaller rivets that were not structural in nature.I hated blind rivets as a lot of times the center core is steel in order to pull the "tail" pos the rivet, if you ever had to remove the blind rivet to gain access to something behind the part fastened it was a hard thing to do. You have to drive out the center with a punch then try and drill the head off of the remaining part of the rivet. A lot of the time the remaining rivet will spin when you hit it with the drill.

 

[Provincial]

How about an aviation tool box? Operational Squadron Special Tool for Grumman F6F Airplanes

 

[Mikeske]

How about an aviation tool box? Operational Squadron Special Tool for Grumman F6F Airplanes

That is really neat and historical.

 

[Provincial]

I saved it from the trash about 35 years ago. I wish it had the tools in it!

 

[Mikeske]

http://www.flyingheritage.com/Explore/The-Collection/United-States/Grumman-F6F-5-Hellcat.aspx

The link I have is from the Flying Heritage Museum and gives a brief history of the F6F that they have.

 

[Provincial]

Back in the 1960's a fellow flew an F6F out of Aurora airport south of Portland. In the early 70's he had an engine failure one winter when the engine quit and he tried to land with the gear down. It did not go well and he rolled the airplane into a ball. It broke off just behind the cockpit, just like it was designed to do. He said he was going to rebuild it, but nothing ever came of it.

Not to be confused with the FM2 that Jack Lenhardt restored at Hubbard.

 

[yhprum]

here are a few, in level of difficulty

 

[cvairwerks]

Aww Mike, that's for tack rivets.... Try these: From a double cylinder "C" frame, to a 18", 24" and a pair of 36" throat floor based units. The little nibbler with a 36" throat, and a 54" throat one that is peeking out behind the 18" squeezer. The other shot is of a Proto Tools set of P&W castle nut tools for push rod tubes, and induction tubes.

 

[cvairwerks]

yhprum: Use the Cannon plug pliers nearly every week at work. Haven't needed a screw knocker in a while. We usually use a Brutus Bar instead. Haven't had to use a right angle pancake drill in a lot of years...Want to get crazy? Try having to use a pancake on a pancake to get around obstructions on a repair job....got to have one with an even number of offsets and one with an odd number to make the bit go in the right direction....

 

[faiee]

No pictures but I do have some hot section tools for a pt6-42.

 

[MFolks]

Before being layed off from General Dynamics/Conviar in San Diego,where I worked for almost 10 years(1983-1993),I worked on the second shift,and had access to the tool crib,as it was not a job the attendents wanted. So 6" and 12" aircraft drill bits,aircraft counterbores,and the reverse ones came home at night with me at the end of shift.

Cleco's,and their pliers made it home too,along with chucking reamers from .30 to 1/2"diameters.

 

[Provincial]

No pictures but I do have some hot section tools for a pt6-42.

The pen is the only tool that had been used on some airplanes before they came to me for work!

 

[Mikeske]

here are a few, in level of difficulty

Cannon plug pliers were to securely wiring connectors, I actually used them up to the last week of my employment.

A Lester tool place the round end in a rivet gun with a screw tip and with heavy pressure against the tools remove screws that otherwise would could not be removed otherwise. Little trick I showed co-workers was to use the setup without using the rivet gun on floor panel screws that were stubborn. Just body weight and slow and easy normally got them out. If that failed apply air and hit it a couple times with the rivet gun. I normally would be able to get 99% of the screws out.

90 degree Powervane (also known as a 90 degree pancake) is used by almost all aircraft mechanics for access to areas that are not reachable by the standard drill.

 

[cvairwerks]

The pen is the only tool that had been used on some airplanes before they came to me for work!

Seen it before and on some very expensive airplanes. We had a Mustang left in my buddy's shop for slow fuel flow from a gun bay tank to the main on the same side and a fuel smell in the cockpit when flying with the right gun bay tank full. We pulled about 40 feet of garden hose out of the wings being used as fuel plumbing. It took us nearly 3 months to get the bird airworthy and we sent it home with nearly 300 more squawks for the owner organization's mechanics to fix.

 

[AA/FC]

A tool box full....

 

[bonneyman]

A tool box full....

 

[Mikeske]

A tool box full....

Cleco's, bucking bars, rivet dies and in the plastic bag drill stops

 

[yhprum]

Good one Mike.
Once I worked on a overhaul bay for a large airline with 727s. They would get the interior stripped out when the first came in. The guys would alwys watch one guy take the screws out of the lavatory floor. He would put the screws in his mouth! Yuk.

 

[Mikeske]

Good one Mike.
Once I worked on a overhaul bay for a large airline with 727s. They would get the interior stripped out when the first came in. The guys would alwys watch one guy take the screws out of the lavatory floor. He would put the screws in his mouth! Yuk.

When I was the mechanic in the early 1990's we did change incorporation on flight test 777-200 planes. This is basically gut the interior, make any modifications that were needed reassembly of the interior and then to deliver the these planes to customer airlines. I always hated to work on or near the lavs as they were always used on the flight test birds.

I had one lav I pulled that had a bad vacuum waste system blockage. We used White coveralls, fresh air respirators and vinyl gloves and a guy from the environmental lab to collect the waste. We then had to haul the lav out of the plane. No matter how much protection I hated those used lavs. The worst part was I was the only mechanic on the team that had a A & P certificate so I had to do the job since I was the higher pay grade.

 

[Provincial]

I spent one winter in Puerto Rico and worked as a mechanic on DC-3's for a cargo 121 operator. The inspections were farmed out to a shop run by a former FAA maintenance inspector that had left the Agency under a cloud. When we had a heavy check done I noticed that the floor had not been taken up to check the condition of the control cables and pulleys (not to mention the other important stuff down there), so I pointed it out to the owner of the airplane. He could understand my concern (what else was being overlooked) and stood over the crew until the work was done.

What a mess under there! We saw everything from Fedex Overnight letters (from five years earlier) to cockroaches over six inches long. The entire belly was full of loose packing materials that had filtered out of the packages. Fortunately, the controls and structure were in great shape.