Monday, January 7, 2019

Been sick....Got new tool!

Been sick as a dog for over a week!  Very little getting done on the plane....

So I built an entire RV7 with a cheap, slow and noisy Harbor Freight pneumatic drill motor.  I decided I had had enough of that and bought this Nova 4000 rpm motor!   This thing feels like a very quality tool.  It is very lightweight, compact, and feels great in your hand.  Half the price of its nearest competitor.

While the new drill motor is only 1/4” capacity, it is much more compact vs the old motor.  The Nova has a feathering trigger/throttle which is awesome!  The old one is basically on/off.

The old motor weighs 2 lbs 8.6 oz.

The Nova is almost a pound lighter at 1lb 9.8 oz.

I tested the speed of the old motor and it came in at 1475 rpm.  The Nova turns 4058 rpm!  The higher rpm is better for small holes in aluminum.  The high speed helps minimize the pressure required and gives you a rounder hole.  The high speed is an advantage on drilling thick stock like the million holes in the longerons.

The old motor is very loud,  the Nova is almost as quite as my battery powered drill!  
I did a test with a dB meter 1’ away from the motors.  The old motor averaged 100dB while the Nova averaged only 78dB!