Tail kit delivery & inventory

This is what a crate looks like when someone puts a forklift through the side of it and tries to lift..  I'm not sure exactly how it was shipped, but it arrived with one skid underneath (as shown) and one skid on top of the crate with three metal bands wrapped around the crate/skids.  I think the dock workers tried to make the crate shippable again..  but the damage was already done.

There were four skins which were damaged .. all part of the tailcone.  But surprisingly, everything else was OK.  I took inventory and the only item outright missing were TWO 3' lengths of piano hinges.  I wouldn't be surprised if they fell out during the mishap, however, all other parts were accounted for.

I didn't want to wait ONE week to send back to Van's, ONE week for them to re-pack the crate, and ONE week for re-delivery,  so I accepted the crate and noted the damage on the BOL.  The driver took photos, as did I.  The procedure then is to re-order from Van's and then submit the Invoice+shipping charges as part of the damage claim.  So I'm temporarily out about $300+shipping.

Today: 2 HOURS;  Tail-Kit TT: 2 HOURS; TT: 2 HOURS

Intro

This is the "official" build log of my RV-12.  

Tail kit ordered Tuesday, June 13, 2017 and was shipped via Old Dominion on Tuesday, June 20, 2017.  Van's seems to prefer OD for shipments out here to NJ.  That's fine, but OD seems to do pickups on Tuesdays.  This isn't UPS and delivery time from Oregon to New Jersey takes about 7-8 days.

Unfortunately, as I later found out, I made the mistake of giving my home address for delivery.  When OD called to set up a delivery appointment, I asked if I could have it delivered at the airport hangar instead.  Even though it's only 5 miles from my house, I had to fill out a re-consignment form along with an $80 charge.  Ooops.  Though not all my fault, at the time of ordering I didn't yet have the hangar in my name.  Luckily,  Vans requests a lift-gate truck as I forgot to mention I needed one for the airport delivery.

While I wait for delivery, I'm building two work tables based on EAA Chapter 1000's Standardized Worktables.  You can find the materials and instructions here.  It's an absolutely overkill sturdy design.  Later, I'll find out that it would have been nice to have a 1" overhang on the table top.. its very difficult to clamp things to the tabletop when there is no overhang.

I also ended up building a workbench based on the design from here.  This too came out nice, but I should have selected a better, sanded wood for the work surface (I cheaped out).  At this point, I was cutting my 2x4's with a jigsaw.  It's horribly impossible to make straight cuts with it, so I ended up cleaning up the cuts with my band saw.

I also ordered nearly ALL (sans Carb Sync tool) the RV-12 tools as listed by Van's.  I ended up buying most items from Brown Aviation Tool Supply Co and from Aircraft Tool Supply.  I selected the items from whomever had the lower price.  

The only straggler items were the torque wrench (I had one, but it wasn't accurate at the low torque measurements) which I bought from Sears for $90, the PRP-26A pop riveter ($75 used on e-bay), and a couple odds and ends from Amazon.