Aircraft Mechanic Must Have Tools

this one's for all you up and coming mechanics your amps and training amy apprentices whatever you want to call yourselves from whatever part of the world you are this is what i would recommend as a basic get you going amount of tools and what you might need to start in the industry and if you've seen my other stuff you know i'm not a picky guy i'm not a tool truck snob by any means although all you see here majority of it anyway is off the tool truck that doesn't mean you have to to go do the same thing i've been doing this coming up on nine years now and it took me a while to get here so i started off with the cheaper stuff and it works just fine but this is some crucial stuff here that i'll show you just think of the tools themselves not the brand as uh as what i show you into what you need we'll start on the left here screwdrivers of course i'm just showing you my ratcheting ones here right now but you're gonna want a basic set of uh just a regular combination set of screwdrivers i mean you can pick sets up of those anywhere for reasonable money but uh most of the time i find i do line maintenance and a mix of line and a little bit of heavy but uh often times when i go out i'm just going to be grabbing these ratcheting ones anyway and again many different brands make ratcheting screwdrivers i've had three different kinds including this these snap-on ones personally i find these i like these the best but again that's that's up to the individual i like the ability to change out the the tips on them these are all interchangeable that is kind of nice you can get a little extra torque on the longer one i don't know the gear mechanism feels better the ratcheting mechanism there's more teeth and yeah it's they're just good all-around screwdrivers of course a little more pricey but you're going to be using a lot of ratcheting screwdrivers invest in a half decent ratcheting screwdriver combination wrench set as well or sorry wrench screwdriver set you know your standard you're slotted your flats um philips for us canadians there's no robertsons really in aviation unfortunately it's a really really good bit but you won't see any of those on aircraft and some exotic quad wings triwings i mean you can buy individual screwdrivers with those bits they're a little more pricey or you can just buy the bits themselves and run them in your ratcheting screwdriver ratcheting screwdriver is kind of a jack of all trades so to speak another do-it-all sort of thing i always have this in my pocket for when i don't have anything else on me again i'm sure there's other brands that that make an equivalent this just happens to be the snap-on one it's reasonably priced i think it was like 60 bucks canadian so that's probably like 10 us dollars right now and uh this has the there are four bits in here total phillips and slotted different sizes and this pops out and you get the smaller smaller ones on this half this this flips out as well there's a phillips on the other end of that so this is just for last minute tightening up panels or who knows if you find something on the line and you just need a screwdriver real quick this thing is always nice to have in your pocket there are others that will do the exact same job again so don't don't feel like you need to get it but there's the part number if you want it and keeping on the screwdriver theme you're gonna get sick of running them by hand i mean some of these screws on these airplanes there's literally hundreds of them and you're gonna be ripping out hundreds on a leading edge or a whole wing section or something depending on what you're working on so you're gonna get tired of doing that by hand and you're going to want a drill i i like this little rigid one obviously it doesn't have much power but you really shouldn't be using these to to break the torque on a screw that's that's really tight that's what you do by hand and then you come over with the drill but we'd all be lying to you if we said we we didn't just use this right off the hop until you strip it and then you get mad and then you go to this and then you struggle and you know how it is i recommend this little or the smaller the drill the better really like oftentimes you're going to be working above your head for extended periods and uh i don't know unless you want to be huge well uh also like this physically will fit into areas that a larger drill can't so that's another plus for one of these smaller sized ones i know milwaukee makes them too and probably a nicer drill overall than this one but uh whatever this thing was 100 bucks it came with an impact as well two batteries and yeah it's been good for a few years so far you need an electric drill um and i mean this also doubles for this if you do any sheet metal work and you don't have an air drill again you already have a drill so you can throw a drill bit in there and go to town so it's kind of versatile in that way combination wrench set i've got three full combination wrench sets i just happen to grab this one out of here don't feel the need to to buy fancy ones these are considered fancy here in canada great tools out of toronto but anyway yeah a regular just combination wrench set again like you don't need to buy snap-on you don't need to buy mac or any of that crap i ripped mastercraft for many years the canadian tire brand and i did just fine quarter inch all the way oh don't mind all the uncle ben's by the way he's just kind of starting to surround my my box here but quarter inch all the way up to in this set i am up to an inch and a sixteenth inch and sixteenth don't use a hell of a lot uh inch and an eighth to use sometimes inch and a quarter for some lines but you want a a good range you want at least one big complete set with 11 32 that's also crucial you need an 11 30 seconds wrench in in that set so combination wrench that minimum one you're gonna end up buying more especially mini ones too again i i thought about putting them in this list as must-haves but you can get buy without but i they're they're cheap as well you can buy sets the the stubby stubby versions of these combo wrench sets are another thing that i would be looking to get if uh if you're just starting out and angle wrenches i ran the these power fist ones for many years similar angle to the snap-on ones just this one is is slightly different but i never had an issue with these this set was from 3 8 up to an inch and a quarter i believe um yeah good set i ended up getting a good deal though on the snap-on set i don't have it completed already but i've got the quarter inch up to the three-quarter and as you can see there's slightly slightly more of a bend on this than then the other and it's honestly most guys say yeah it does make a difference don't get me wrong i'll be lying to you if i said uh it didn't but i ran these ones just fine for so many years i never had an instance where i couldn't undo or tighten up something that at a certain angle with either one of the heads it's just um i don't know the angle is a little better on these and you get that bling factor i suppose too as you go broke buying wrenches so offset wrenches are kind of a must as well a lot of lines you deal with hydraulic lines uh could be pneumatic could be oil like anything these are very nice to have to get into tight areas and you don't need a massive set to begin with like this if you get the 3 8 up to three quarter to begin with that will probably nail about 80 percent of what you're going to be doing uh to start off with so don't need to get this whole variety just just right away lights this is another big one and i should add a mirror too as opposed to this this list but uh yeah i'll get it out later amir should be sitting in here too i would say you need a friggin mirror lights regular old flashlights don't skimp on these either uh you can buy them cheap obviously uh everywhere on amazon and stuff these days so get a decent one and a good headlamp too you're gonna be wearing this lots and but yeah the better your light is the better chance you have of seeing something maybe very critical right so that's all part of the job and for a little pizzazz these are dirt cheap as well on amazon this is a uv light and you'd be surprised how nice this thing is at finding oil leaks 2380 turbine oil shows up kind of like this white on on the surfaces when you shine this over it so on like a engine case or something that you can't really see you shine this around a near seal this little this will show whether it's leaking or not pliers i left out lock wire or as the americans call it safety wire pliers out of the list here because i mean technically you really don't need them and you're just starting out it honestly is better that you learn how to do it by hand or with old tried and true duck bills and uh i mean safe to wire pliers can be expensive for some people too so you don't need it to to get the job done yes it's a lot easier yes it's faster in most instances but you don't really need it to get the job done these kind of three are your big ones here this is these are flush cutters and if you do a lot of avionics work or shoving your hands in holes in an airplane that have wiring bundles and if the last guy didn't tie harnesses up with flush cut zip ties you are going to get opened up everywhere and you're going to curse his name so do everyone a favor get flush cutters they don't have to be nip x ones like these there's many brands that make them and the dirt cheap but it's just just be nice to everybody else and buy these basic needle nose pliers these are mac branded nip x ones but again it's just a pair of freaking needle nose pliers uh nothing too fancy or crazy these are probably oh i don't know eight inches long uh obviously you're gonna want other pairs down the road different bends different lengths but just a standard straight pair for now uh will be just fine cutters um these i should really put away and bring back more general pair i'll put two cutters in here these are the snap-on ones i will say the long neck kind of high leverage these things are pretty minty lock wiring in tight places cutting tails and they have quite a bit of power to them actually too great little cutters but i really should be showing you these these are just this generic pair of dikes that i put some silicone in the jaw to collect block wire when you cut it these are again these are probably eight inches well ish just a generic pair of side cutters doesn't have to be nip x again get the stuff when you're later in your career and you make more money but uh yeah gonna need side cutters and then yeah duck bills lock wiring uh holding other stuff at dell clamps you name it duckbills you'll be using lots of these guys and i'm going to put these in the must-have category because i'm just so in love with them these are the smooth jaw nippex ones this came as a set on amazon i want to have more they make smaller and bigger ones than even what i have here but when you're out in the bush or you're just climbing on a wing to do a job and just a quick job it's not a bad idea to have a pair of these in in your pocket they grab beautifully onto line uh lines i'm talking especially um b-nuts of certain fittings but yeah these things i can't say enough good stuff about these every every aircraft mechanic should have a set of these guys here coming down to ratchets and sockets if you don't already know quarter inch is king in aviation you can have a standard uh 3 8 small set in your toolbox floating around it's not a bad idea doesn't have to be anything fancy because you're not going to use it too much again i'm generalizing this is for it all depends on the machines you're working on but in general i've worked on a pretty wide variety of them and in general you're going to be mostly using quarter inch you don't need what do i have here seven ratchets like i do but they all have their own purpose and on a big job i will have sockets on for them at once and so get a kind of a range of them you get everything from these little kind of one-way bearing style guys mac uh mr4c i use this all the time i'm just a generic this is a gray one nothing special with an indexing head for when you really want to get real fancy this blackhawk or proto one that actually has the ratcheting handle and it drives the head yeah i've only used this maybe once or twice a gearwrench they make good stuff this is a gearwrench is an awesome option as an alternative to the the big players the snaps snap-on and max and matcos they do make pretty high quality stuff and uh their ratchets the 84 i don't know what they call them their 84 tooth ratchets are very nice i don't have one personally but they're they're the real deal this 120xp sounds like a zipper and then this power fister from princess otto here in canada is my kind of wheel i break down king air wheels with this one here for when i want a little more torque the point is you need to arrange you don't need seven but you you kind of want a range of quarter inch ratchets some small some long maybe some indexing different teeth counts um yeah sockets i only put out my 12 point quarter inch to begin with you do want six point as well but when you come across 12-point fasteners you obviously need a 12-point and when you come across six-point fasteners with a 12-point you can use them but you just it's you hope it's not in a high-torque application because the six-point will grab the six-point fastener a lot better than a 12 point will grab a 12 point fastener so you want both deeps and shallows just a generic set and get mediums as well too they still sell you bonus points if you get up to 9 i know snap-on makes five-eighths i think it's the biggest quarter-inch drive sockets they have i just don't have them most of what you're going to be using is say 9 16. no not even really half 7 16 3 8 there's a lot 11 32 and some quarter inch stuff oh 5 16 as well so the smaller ones a lot of the fasteners are just this size so anyway this is was just a quick very generic if i was starting all over again and knowing what i know now these are kind of the tools that i would buy first obviously it's built upon from here and you kind of get multiples of everything or different versions of each for when you're just starting and you have a little we say handheld toolbox you don't have a tool chest these will get you by for the most part and you just hope that people that you're working with aren't dinks and whatever you don't have they'll let you borrow it and as time goes on too once you start borrowing a tool say you need it three times in a span of a few months well then you probably should buy it yourself because you know you're going to be using it it's another kind of good way of trying to figure out what you do and don't need don't get lost in the brand of what you're buying or what i'm showing you here i'm not saying you have to buy the snap on this or the nippex that's it's just the tool itself and what it was designed for but anyway hope this makes sense and help some of you guys out and yeah we'll talk to you soon

Channel: turdpike

Views: 29,817

Keywords: a&p, airframe and power plant, a+p, tech, technician, mechanic, aircraft maintenance, AME, aircraft maintenance engineer, engineer, aeronautics, aeronautical, AMT, line maintenance, heavy maintenance, aircraft, tools, toolbox, snap on, snap-on, Mac, match, harbour freight, auto, transport, toolbox tour, tour, proto, knipex, gray tools, must have, favourite, best, snappy, boeing, airbus, saab, 340, king air, Beechcraft, cessna, general aviation, aviation, fix, maintenance, embraer, bombardier, airline, AMO, overhaul

Id: Ju6ECbA3o-Y

Length: 16min 43sec (1003 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 08 2020