Week 10

This week we've spend our time doing the assignment on Hi-Lok installation.

I felt lucky as the Hi-Loks that were provided by LTT were of the same used in aircrafts. This gives us the feel or installing a real Hi-Lok on an aircraft.

Hi-Loks are generally easy to install and they are of interference fit.
They must also be taken with care as Hi-Loks are expensive!


Built from scratch!

Deburring is still very important till now! Remember safety first!

This sizes of holes we must drill before installation of the different Hi-Loks!

Hi-Loks may seem easy to install but.... STILL MUST TAKE CARE!!!

Tada! The final product! With the different Hi-Loks! The flushed head and the universal head!

-PeRrY-

Week 12-15

Hydraulic Jack!

Yea! We spent 20 days doing a project named Hydraulic Jack. We were given components and by the end of 20 days, we are required to assemble a workable Hydraulic Jack! I personally loved doing this project the most in my stay in LTT as this project is the closest we can get to real life situations!

Throughout the project, we are faced with problems and that allow us to put on our thinking cap and search for solutions to overcome the problem. =)

These are all the components needed to make a workable Hydraulic Jack! Day 1....

Well! I shall not waste more time and let the pictures speak the rest of the post! ^^

There are times when we get serious...

101% attentiveness...

Right technique is all it takes to get a nice radius!

Chamfering with care!

Smallest tap (M2) available and it will breka easily if not taken care of!

Project Hydrauic Jack gives us the opportunity to recap everything learnt from week 1!!! ^^

Drill bit will eat into this material easily so its essential to have proper control on the drilling! =)


It is also essential to practice good housekeeping practices and return all tools in good and clean condition =)

Our confidence of completing the project stood as tall as the rod sits onto the base plate =x

Yea.. After 20 days...

With a little help from this...

We are all good to go!


Yea! Mine's working perfectly!!! ^^


Yong Gang all smiles, proudly owning his very own Hydraulic Jack!

Yea! Something there to tickle your nerves =p

As AE4 Hydraulic Jacks stood tall onto the tray...

Their proud owners were all smiles!!!

AE4 rocks! We play hard but we work harder!!! ^^

-PeRrY-

Week 9

Screw Installation (Locking Devices)

The screw installation exercise put to test student's ability to drill holes accurately and most importantly read the part number and install the correct screws into the right slot.
The key learning point of the project allows students to apply what they have learnt and additionally teaches students how to install Hi-Loks and how to do Wire locking.

The Hi-Loks provided by LTT are the real Hi-Loks that are installed in the aircraft. Hence students are required to install them with care and try not to make errors.

Again, we apply what we have learnt and mark out all the hole as accurately as possible to facilitate the drilling process! =)

To ensure that the errors are minimised, we work in pairs! Although using the machine drill may seem like an easy task, accidents can happen!

2 of our classmates shocked the whole class when the vice of the drilling machine dropped down halfway! If not for the vibration proof rubber near the base, there would be a hole in LTT =)

Doing the rivets manually cause they are too small for the riveting gun! We are slowly recapping what we're learnt!

Installation of Helicoils! This process has to be done with care cause if the helicoil jumps a thread inside, its hard to save it! Helicoils are expensive too! ^^

Installation of Hi-Loks! We worked in pairs again cause Hi-Loks are expensive so we cannot afford to make any mistakes!

Shhhh.... 101% concentration given there.. =p

Eileen doing wire locking!

Well.. we have a video showing how Wire locking is done! Wire locking is not an easy task and I must say there are lots of skill involved!


Eileen demostrating to us how wire locking is done! =)


Woo hoo! What a sense of achievement felt throughout the whole class after 5 days of hardwork! All the bolt and nuts fit nicely! =)

Thanks to the guidance by Mr Zahir and some of our classmates, everyone's screw installation exercise looks real nice! It's not about an individual, it's about the whole class! =)

-PeRrY-

Week 7

Sheet Metal Shape 3500

We spent 4 days doing Sheet Metal Shape assignment. As we have aquired the skills of riveting in the previous exercise, this exercise will put what we have mastered into test!
This project do require some teamwork in a pair cause it's more efficient to have 2 people riveting rather than doing it alone! Reason being working in pairs can help each other look out for mistakes =)

The key learning point in this project is to let us experience riveting rivets of different sizes and the skills of our riveting. We can also learn the correct technique of repairing a rivet in case of an mistakes made.

The holes that are drilled are used as guidelines in case we saw over into the radius! We shade the area so that we do not saw the wrong portion if we were not careful!

This is what it looks like after sawing! We will still need to bring out our most powerful tool to help us get the nice shape! The FILE!!!

You might be wondering how do we file the small corners and radii? =)

We have the needle files! They may look small but do not underestimate their usefulness!

Riveting in process! Cleco are used to hole the workpiece in place before the rivets were installed so as not to let the workpiece "open" up!

With concentration and teamwork, they did it!

There you have it! The completed sheet metal shape!
The challenging part for the project is to file the gap evenly of 2mm throughout. This will test the skills we have aquired in the first week!
Another challenge is to make sure that the surface of the workpiece is not scratched from riveting and the rivets are all even!

We have also reaped additional rewards! We have learnt how to read the different rivet and sizes! This is essential as there are many different types of rivets installed in an aircraft and 1 wrong installation can be disasterous! I've watched an episode of Aircrash Investigation where the pilot flew out from the cockpit due to a wrong installation of rivet!

Last but not least, we have our star of the blog again, Lu Wei to show us how to do repair of a rivet!
*P/S: There might be some sidetrack in this video. Please bear with us =p*

-PeRrY-

Week 5

Drill Panel 1 & 2
Drill Panel 1 & 2 will put our hand drill skills to test. Reason being we will be given a plexiglass and aluminium workpiece. Both material will break easily if not well taken care of. So, it will put our hand drilling skills to test if we are able to drill it with the correct technique and a pair of steady hands

Drill Panel 1

Material is Aluminium, so it has to be accompanied by the magnetic clamp when being clamped onto the vice.

This is the end result if everything goes well. We have to ream 10H7, counter sink, counter bore and tap the holes! There is even chamfering and filing of radius!
I can say that the challenging part in this assignment is the reaming of the holes as the pre ream hole size is 9.7mm. This is a large drill bit and will chip off the aluminium if not well drilled.

Drill Panel 2
Material is plexiglass (plastic), so the material will chip off easily if the increment of drill bit is greater than 1 mm.

It is a good practice to protect the surface of material like aluminium or plastic as the surface will be scratched easily. We have also labeled what do we need to do with each hole. This will help us to speed up the process of drilling and save us the trouble of referring to the blueprint over and over again. It is also good to do that as it will help us prevent drilling the wrong hole.

This is the end result. The surface is well taken care of hence there are no scratches.
The challenging part drilling this is the pre drilled hole size before reaming. As mentioned earlier, 9.7mm is a rather big drill bit and wil lcut the material. Above is an example of the plastic chipping off when drilling the 9.7mm hole. This can be due to increment of drill bit more than 1mm if not is due to improper drilling techniques.

This is the correct technique of holding the hand drill. The drill is 90 degrees and perpendicular to the workpiece.

Key learning point in both drill panels tells us that some materials are to be handled with extra care as they are not as strong as steel.

Riveting by Hand & Riveting Exercise
Riveting by hand is rather simple but challenging as it require skills to knock the rivet straight and to the correct diameter.

This is how we do riveting without the use of riveting gun. We cannot hammer too many times as it will flatten the rivet and the rivet will not sit properly.

Microstop is used to do a small countersink on the material for installation of flush head rivets. This is a sensitive tool and it must be calibrated accurately before using on the actual material.

As for riveting using the riveting gun, I will show you a video on how our instructor Mr Zahir demostrated to the class with the help of some students. Lets sit back. relax and enjoy. =)


Mr Zahir got a little shock cause Lu Wei did not follow the correct instructions. LoL!
The learning point of this exercise to to teach us the skills of using a riveting gun to rivet nicely.

Lastly, I will show you why it's better to always have a guy around in the workshop =p


NOOB!! =)

-PeRrY-

Week 3

Drill Panel 3, 4, 5
Week 3 of LTT is filled with doing a particular assignment! That is the drill panel assignment! This project will test our skills we have aquired from the first two weeks of the training. At the same time, this assignment will also impart new skills to us.

We were given a piece of steel block each measuring 15 x 81 x 121 mm.

We are required to cut/file it to dimension of 15 x 80 x 120 mm.

We need to file the slot flat and this is tedious! It is a tedious process as it has to be handled with extereme care cause it will get oversized if we are not careful. So we got to use the small file and file carefully.

The result after all the major holes were drilled and the slow is file flat! Ever wondered how we drill those holes?

With the help of counter bore and counter sink, we can drill holes that are slightly more special!

Drill bits of different sizes were used! (3.2, 5.0, 5.7, 6.4, 6.8, 7.7, 9.7 mm)
3.2 mm are used for pilot holes!

Reamers! They are used to make holes smoother!

Counter bore are used to enlarge a hole up to a certain depth!

A conical hole is created with a counter sink tool! They are usually used when inserting flush head rivets!

What are all the small holes being drilled for?!?! They are drilled so that we can chisel the excess material out!

Ever wonder how we created that square dent?

Let me show u a short video on how we do it!



That is how hard we must chisel to get that steel part out!



These are the GO NO GO gauge! They are used to check for the dimensions of the holes.

This is how we test whether the hole size is perfect or not! ^^

Now I will show a video of some of the techniques we used for this assignment!


We have sawing, filing, chisel and drilling!

Last but not least, I will show you our progress and actions in the workshop!


Like I mentioned. Mr Zahir is a good instructor! He also emphasize on good workshop practices =)

He is also guiding students along patiently if any problem is faced!

Good workshop practice by wearing goggles even when deburring the workpiece!

Breaking of this file is no joke. It requires great force! But we did it! ^^ The file was broken while filing the slot of the drill panel halfway =p

Last but not least...
Housekeeping is always very important! Keep that in mind! ^^

-PeRrY-