toflightfromscratch
Member
I am in the planning stage for building a Zenair Zodiac CH 650 B, discussed at Zenith Zodiac CH 650 B: A Light Sport Aircraft Safety Plan Overview. If you are like me, you are a hands on kind of person that isn't satisfied with a crated kit aircraft. As I began analyzing the bundled part costs, crating and shipping costs, and other costs as it related to my planned build, I began to recognize that I needed to learn how to bang aluminum with a mallet, and quick, as the pre-fabricated kit is easily 60% more than the cost of the materials. Granted, there will be some things I will need to buy from Zenith, such as the canopy parts and firewall forward kit, however 6061-T6 aluminim, I discovered that one can pretty much get anywhere. One of the places where I discovered that it could be "gotten" is on Amazon.com. I recently provided a post in the Avionics area https://www.homebuiltairplanes.com/...e-10-nearly-your-entire-avionics-package.html where I discussed how the majority of the avionics that you might want to install on an LSA are available via Amazon.com, and the potential to save 10% on the cost of the Avionics system by becoming an Amazon Affiliate. As most builders tend to put their build snapshots online anyway, getting an Amazon Affiliate account on top of that is no real hardship. If you go to http://www.amazon.com/Aluminum-Unpolished-Finish-Temper-Thickness/dp/B00CNLV9B8/ref=sr_1_1?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1371997168&sr=1-1&keywords=6061+sheet, you can see that Amazon has a wide selection of aircraft grade aluminum from a few its suppliers in all kinds of sizes, and many have the "Amazon Prime" shipping to offer discounted or expedited shipping. So, in my case, I can consider that I will be saving on pre-fabrication, the 10% from all aluminum that I buy, and save on freight. I will let you all know how it works out as I start building.
Also, another thing I will be buying from Amazon (remember, as an Affiliate, you can get 10% on anything including tools..) is a band saw. Obviously one can use the band saw for making the wooden forms to fabricate the aircraft parts. However, with a quick swap of the saw blade band to a blade that more closely resembles a hack saw you can use it to cut through your aluminum with greater precision without warping the sheet, or the scrap from the cut. This means more parts produced per material sheet, less scrap, and less waste. It is also a lot easier to make a cut. One of the norms I have seen online is that people tend to equivocate 1 part to 1 small square of aluminum from a larger sheet. It should not have to be so, as this tends to create a lot of scrap aluminum. In a perfect world there should only be aluminum dust.
Just make sure that if you use this technique that you drill your relief holes on the part corners first, before you cut, to prevent stress cracks later. With the band saw, your part layout on the sheet might be a bit weird, and tight together, but you will certainly have far less scrap. Unless you have an aluminum foundry in your back yard to recover your own scrap, this might be the way to go.
As I mentioned in my Avionics post, I don't want to be misunderstood by this post. I don't get paid in any way to refer people to the Amazon Affiliate program, and they have no method of compensating those who do. There are many online who tout get rich quick schemes. My advice is not about that. I am just into beating the system to get a good discount, and willing to share the details. This said... if you really really want to help me (and my build) for this advice, just go to VFR and IFR Pilot Kneeboards, and PDA Kneeboard Accessories on my website, click on any one of the products (which takes you to Amazon), and then buy whatever you might otherwise buy from there - or don't. You don't have to buy the thing that you clicked on. I thank you for your session!
Aside from the products that you can sell to yourself, occasionally, someone might buy a product through your build website, something that you might be using. If it's in Amazon, you can sell it on your web site to others. Should someone else stop by, click on one of the links, and then choose to buy something else once they are on the Amazon website, you get a percentage of whatever they buy in the session that comes off your link. I can only hope that they click on one of mine and decide to buy some real estate or something
.
Granted, you will have to build up to the 10% as it starts as the commission structure starts at 4%. You might want to consider how many things that you presently buy from Amazon right now, or that you might need on the way as you build your aircraft. Tools, pilot courseware, yada, yada, yada. It's all counted as a sale, including "used" stuff purchased through the Amazon website. To Amazon, a sale is a sale. It does not matter how much the sale is to bump you up in the commission structure, they go off of the number of sales. 10% comes around quick while making these small sales to prep for the big purchases that you might make yourself.
Feel free to do your own research. Don't let a guy like me tell you how to save some cash!
And if you decide to click my way... thank you! - To Flight From Scratch
Also, another thing I will be buying from Amazon (remember, as an Affiliate, you can get 10% on anything including tools..) is a band saw. Obviously one can use the band saw for making the wooden forms to fabricate the aircraft parts. However, with a quick swap of the saw blade band to a blade that more closely resembles a hack saw you can use it to cut through your aluminum with greater precision without warping the sheet, or the scrap from the cut. This means more parts produced per material sheet, less scrap, and less waste. It is also a lot easier to make a cut. One of the norms I have seen online is that people tend to equivocate 1 part to 1 small square of aluminum from a larger sheet. It should not have to be so, as this tends to create a lot of scrap aluminum. In a perfect world there should only be aluminum dust.
Just make sure that if you use this technique that you drill your relief holes on the part corners first, before you cut, to prevent stress cracks later. With the band saw, your part layout on the sheet might be a bit weird, and tight together, but you will certainly have far less scrap. Unless you have an aluminum foundry in your back yard to recover your own scrap, this might be the way to go.As I mentioned in my Avionics post, I don't want to be misunderstood by this post. I don't get paid in any way to refer people to the Amazon Affiliate program, and they have no method of compensating those who do. There are many online who tout get rich quick schemes. My advice is not about that. I am just into beating the system to get a good discount, and willing to share the details. This said... if you really really want to help me (and my build) for this advice, just go to VFR and IFR Pilot Kneeboards, and PDA Kneeboard Accessories on my website, click on any one of the products (which takes you to Amazon), and then buy whatever you might otherwise buy from there - or don't. You don't have to buy the thing that you clicked on. I thank you for your session!
Aside from the products that you can sell to yourself, occasionally, someone might buy a product through your build website, something that you might be using. If it's in Amazon, you can sell it on your web site to others. Should someone else stop by, click on one of the links, and then choose to buy something else once they are on the Amazon website, you get a percentage of whatever they buy in the session that comes off your link. I can only hope that they click on one of mine and decide to buy some real estate or something
Granted, you will have to build up to the 10% as it starts as the commission structure starts at 4%. You might want to consider how many things that you presently buy from Amazon right now, or that you might need on the way as you build your aircraft. Tools, pilot courseware, yada, yada, yada. It's all counted as a sale, including "used" stuff purchased through the Amazon website. To Amazon, a sale is a sale. It does not matter how much the sale is to bump you up in the commission structure, they go off of the number of sales. 10% comes around quick while making these small sales to prep for the big purchases that you might make yourself.
Feel free to do your own research. Don't let a guy like me tell you how to save some cash!
