Newbie Do's & Don'ts

Some do's and don'ts I've discovered along the way...

DO

1. DO regularly wax your bandsaw blade with candle wax. This keeps the blade cutting well and prolongs it's life greatly.
    

2. DO use a vixen file (also called a dreadnought file, or curved-tooth file) to remove saw marks from cut angle pieces and for trimming to the marked line. To trim the ends of angle pieces to the correct line/angle I usually use a benchtop belt sander, but for long sawn edges there is too much material to remove with a sander, and this is where the vixen file really helps.
    

3. DO cut angle pieces to size lengthwise first, where required. I made a couple of mistakes early on (W11-05) by marking dimensions and cut-line endpoints based on the original angle size, which resulted in the angle of the cut-line being wrong.
    

4. DO double check measurements before cutting.
    

5. DO use a reamer on bolt holes. I found I could not insert AN3 bolts into holes drilled with a 3/32" drill bit. Searching around the RV lists suggests a #12 drill will work in some situations, but the best was to go is definitely a reamer.
   
   I later asked Sonex about this, and their advice is to step drill through the following:
   
   #40 (pilot holes)
   #30 (stop here for 1/8” rivets)
   #21 (stop here for 5/32 rivets)
   #11 (Stop here for –3 hardware)
   1/4” (stop here for –4 hardware)

DON'T

1. DO NOT use a compound slide-saw to trim angle pieces lengthwise. Use a band-saw or table-saw for this, with a fence to guide the angle -  much more accurate, and safer.
    

2. DO NOT try to drill through 4130 steel parts (such as the elevator control horn, hmm!) with a high-speed air-drill. I was on a roll, and tried to redrill the #40 pilot holes to #30, instantly wrecking two drill-bits before I realised what I was doing. Use a drill press on a slower speed with cutting lubricant, even when just redrilling from #40 to #30.