alright so im gonna start making my first kit. i would like to see a full list of a the tools for building a plane from the gules to heat gun and everything else thanks

Dude, I have been a toolmaker for over 20 years and building airplanes for 5 and I will tell you you NEVER get them all

Dont know about all the tools but I can suggest several:
A BOX of single edge razorblades. Cant have enough.
A BOX of Xacto blades and the proper handle. I want to say #11 but I am not sure. Once again, cant have enough.
A fine toothed back saw.
5 minute, 10 or 12 minute, 30 minute epoxy.
A building board of some type. I use one of the Great Planes boards but you can also use ceiling tile, the 4X8' stuff.
Push pins, either "T" pins or those eastern euro pins that Hobby Lobby sells. Those are very slim and much better than "T" pins IMHO.
T-bar sanding blocks, I would have 3 minumum and coarse, medium, and fine sandpaper. The stuff that comes on rolls is great. Check Tower Hobbies.
Plans protector, comes on a roll. Great Planes makes some.
Thick, medium, and thin CA.
Sigment (made by Sig) glue is great for glueing sheeting together and is SANDABLE.
If you are going to keep building kits, a Dremel tool is indespensible. Hell, it is handy as hell for ARF's too. Nothing better for carving cowls.
A grip of clamps of some kind spring loaded is preferable. I bought two tubes (22 per tube) from OSH a couple of weeks ago, each contains various sizes.
A good set of hex drivers. Heck, two sets, one for home one for the flight box.
Popsicle sticks.
Etc, Etc, Etc, no matter what you see listed in this forum, you will find you will need something not mentioned.
I could sit here all night with suggestions and keep thinking up new ones such as steel rulers, long straight edges, squares, pencils, pens, sharpie markers, Great Planes iron on stripe maker (love that tool!), Heat gun, iron, trim iron, hot sock, hot glove, lots and lots of razor blades (yeah, bears repeating), Dead Center engine mount marker, hinge slotting tools, etc.
I am sure the next guy will add at least as many items as I have listed here and not duplicate a one!
As long as you build kits, you will add tools to your collection of "Must Have" items for building.

If you need squares for holding the vertical fin in place, go to Home Depot and pick up two of the yellow plastic framing triangles. They're perfect, cheap, and one leg has a "foot" for standing it upright. Then, take a wood saw or razor saw and cut off the square corner at a 45 degree angle. This keeps it away from any glue or fuse parts that might get in the way.

Here's a quick-and-dirty sketch of what I'm talking about.

-Jeff

a drill for holes in the fire wall , engine mounts, ect...
have to rap tape around smaller bits for horns or smaller screws when using a dremal
asorted drill bits of course..
forget the size of most wing bolt, a tap or dy to make them threads is nice to have

screws drivers for verious screws..horns, servos,ect

an asorted allen drive set metric and standard for wheel collars, engine mount screws
spinners, and etc.

couple of pliers..to bend the control rods or twist on the cleves or get a z bender

a solidering gun have make repairs...mostly the flight box EQ.
them bananaananana jacks always breaks on me.
sometimes you might need to soilder control rods.

a long solid straight edge to makesure the TE of wing gets glue nice and straight.

c-clamps, masking tape, rubber bands, pins...you only have to hands and some building
require more.lol

wieght to wight stuff down

strings..to makesure the wing gets aligned and for pulling servo lines, fuel lines, and ect.

i have 1/4 hooks...i mount it to the center wing , to help me balance the wing of course

a badana..saw dust not too healthy for the lungs.
CA dose this to me..[sm=spinnyeyes.gif]
have sure your work area has good air flow.

a use a piece of glass to cut film on.
a sharp shear helps a lot also

the best place ive been to so far for affordable building materials are the doller stores,popsicle sticks 200 in a bag $100,acid brushes 50 in a box $100.local hobby stores sell them 5 for a doller..........also the metal clamps butterfly type and cloths pins,christmas wrapping paper makes for a good dropcloth turned on its backside.paint brushes ect.im not cheap but when i can find the same thing for pennies go for it.try to find most of your ca;s and epoxies in the hardware stores also white glue and fiberglass cloth and resins.some things can only be bought in hobbyshops,but half of the building materials they sell can be found at hardware and doller stores ect.even the art supply stores have good deals expecially for exacto knife blades,you can find heat sencitive vinals there and a slew of decals.there are a few basic tools i wouldnt scrimp on like a good dremel tool set a decent monocoat iron,and exacto knife handles,i have been building balsa models for 30 years and lerned the hard way on the how to's.read read read the instructions on your building materals and paints.join a decent rc club that is the best resorce for tips.when i got into rc we didnt have places like rc universe.i lern something new everytime i read these posts,the good bad and controverisal posts will make me think,so heres a thank you to the novice and experts.....

Many years ago (when I was poor) I designed and scratch-built a 2 meter sailplane using:

1 A Razor Blade (From a razor)
2 Some Drill Bits (Note: no drill, just twisted bits by hand)
3 Sandpaper
4 White Glue and epoxy
5 A clothes Iron (For the covering)

So those are the "Essentials", but I wouldn't recommend it (Unless you're poor )

Here's what I would recommend:

Essential:

Hobby Knife w/ #11 blade
Medium CA
Thin CA
30-Minute epoxy
Drills
Basic hand tools (Pliers, screwdrivers etc)
Allen Wrenches
Pins
Clothespins (For clamps)
Sandpaper

Extras which are very good to have:

Razor saw
Clamps
CA Accelerator (Use sparingly)
Dremel Tool

Other important things (that you will need, but for the short time you will need them, you could borrow them from another flier):

Incidence Meter
Covering Iron
Heat Gun

And finally, the three most important things:

Cigarettes
Beer
A Divorce Lawyer

If you get a Dremel or similar tool (love my Ryobi. Sold that POS Dremel. But I digress...) you'll increase its usefulness 100 times by replacing the collet assembly with a $10.00 keyless chuck.

I'm still useing my grandfathers carpenters tools. they may not be the glitzy chrome plated junk you buy today. the old tools hold an edge that you can hone very sharp over and over again, try that with the new stuff. the basics do the job, the rest are for show and tell, of how many $$$ you have invested. spend your $$ on plans, balsa, cement and covering . am an old timer, modeling since 1930's and still producing giant size, one of a kind models. dick

Hey Doggscube..Your right, there are called rafter squares, they are plastic, sell for under 2.00 and cutting off the corner is a very good idea. As for tools, look in any good book on building and start there, then improvise and invent once you are into it, then buy more, improvise, invent more, then buy more....yada,yada,yada. Its the journey, not the destination. Good luck.

Good hobby knife, #11 blades; single-edge razor blades; razor saw and mini-miter box, heavy scissors(like an upholsterer would have), small scissor with fine tips (surgical iris scissor), and something in between; good metal straight-edge, 1-foot and 3-foot; Jewelers file set; good pair of forceps (Flea markets are great places to find used surgical instruments); small hammer; small carpenter square or combo square, variety of small clamps, needle nose pliers; good ABSOLUTELY FLAT building board (a lauan veneer hollow core closet door works great- you can push pins through the veneer, or put a 2 x 4 ceiling tile on it or get a roll of 3/16 cork ang glue it on) The door costs about $20 at any Home Depot; 5-min. and 30 min epoxy, fast med and slow Ca, TiteBond; screwdrivers asst sizes from tiny to std, straight and Phillips, Ball tip hex wrenches, std. and metric;tape measure. And a couple of million other things, but that's a start. Oh, yeah, Dremel Tool, variable speed, cordless is great but not required, SST is right, get a keyless chuck.

there is ONE indispensabe item everyone has neglected to add "THE KITCHEN SINK", which you will need to store all of the fancy, unnecessary tools that they have recommended for you as a beginner. Start with the basics and then add a few at a time. its hard to store and have available the hardware store. the most important is a building board, straight pins, CA thin and thick, razor knife with various blades. sandpaper, time and temper. go to the flying field and ask the guys for help... old time sctratch builder. dick

All the tools listed are good to have. I will add one thing, and this depends more on the kit that you are building: variable speed scroll saw. I say it depends on the kit you are building because I am building a Sig Kadet Sr. Lots of parts are stamped on wood that you have to cut out, bevel, sand, etc. I am all for spending some money to save me some time. When I build my Tiger 2, I did not need the saw. But with the Kadet it is definitely nice to have.

My advice:
Start with T pins (bought mine at a craft store)
wax paper
#11 exacto blade and handle
fine tooth razor saw and handle (Mine is exacto also)
some sandpaper, small bottles of CA, 30 min epoxy.

Then as you are building, make a list of what tools you think you need, what would be nice to have, etc.

Just a suggestion. When you get your kit in the instructions will be a list of tools you will need. This holds true for the big kit MFG'rs. SIG, Goldberg, Great Planes and such all have a list in them. These are the minimum tools needed to build the kit. As someone else said "You cannot have enough tools", I know I fix cars for a living. I have over 30 grand worth and am always buying more. Just be sure you have the minimum for your kit. I am not sure but if none suggested it you will need a covering iron. For the bucks the 21St Century iron is hard to beat.

Mark Shuman

Cliff,
As well as everything that everybody else has suggested, I'll suggest another - weights.
I have a box full of 2 - 8 inch lengths of steel square, angle and flat stock. I use them for just about every conceiveable thing from holding plans flat to keeping an entire wing assembly aligned. Some guys use bags full of shot or sand as well. Good luck!

papermache