YES! After much research, I decided to buy most of my tools from
Avery. I actually made a side-by-side spreadsheet and compared items
from both
Cleaveland and Avery Tools
in their basic kits. Avery was a bit more expensive, but had much more tools
in the standard set, and most (not all) of them seemed to me (this is my site, I'm
entitled to my opinion) to be of better quality. I dropped the hand squeezer
from Avery's order because I ordered (but still haven't received, as I write this
on January 11th) a pneumatic squeezer, and
Cleaveland's Main Squeeze seemed to be a better hand squeezer anyway, so
if I end up needing one, I'll get it from Cleaveland. As it is, I made quite
a few modifications to the standard kit anyway.
I left work a little early so as to arrive at Hicks Airfield before Avery closed.
Hicks is just 15 minutes from my front door, so that's another good reason for me
to pick Avery Tools. Jay Pratt's builder center is there too, so I've got
LOTS of resources around. I'm arranging with
Doug Reeves for some one-on-one tutoring before I dive into the actual kit.
I inventoried this at the will call desk, and it all was there. I added a
thin no-hole yoke to the kit and the quick-change clips for the pneumatic squeezer.
After laying out all the tools to get the required photo (for inventory and insurance
purposes, right?), I started work on the lighting by pre-wiring some six-foot pigtails
to each light. Some idiot (not me, though sometimes I can be called that too)
nailed down the plywood upstairs in the attic, leaving just a one-foot run of uncovered
space down the middle. That meant I needed to pre-wire the lights and try
to feed the wire up into the ceiling and over towards that one-foot gap and do all
the final wiring down that middle stretch. Thus, the pigtails. Plus,
wiring these is easier on the bench than with your hands up over your head on a
ladder. My friend Dave Neilson, an A&P who works on the flight simulators
at American Airlines, helped me with the light wiring plan...
Abby had fun with the tools when she got home... (
click
for MOV video clip)