SonexBuilders.net

Hey everyone,

I just became aware of this company on the Internet --

http://www.panamericantool.com/

I must have been living under a rock, or else they just popped up. They have a line of low priced aircraft tools. For example, their small air drills are pretty much equivalent in price to the Aircraft Tool Supply house brand. The difference between them and ATS seems to be that they have a full line of all tools and accessories, matching the product line of Sioux, but with yellow handles instead of red, and lower prices.

Has anyone ordered from them? What is their stuff like?

Kind regards,

Ihab

Where are their tools made? If the answer is China, then spend the money somewhere else and get american tools.

The Pan American air drill I had was adequate for the 1/8" holes we drill. It was nowhere near the power of the same sized but higher RPM Sioux drill I have, nor was its trigger action easy to control for soft slow starts and the chuck was not as good although looked much the same. If all you will be using it for is building one Sonex with many pre-drilled holes, it should suffice. If scratch building or making investment for future, get the Sioux. My Pan American drill met an untimely demise when knocked off table onto concrete floor cracking its case, now have 3,600 and 2,500 RPM Sioux drills.

David A. Sonex TD, CAMit 3300

Cool, thanks for the advice folks!

Ihab

I got quite a few tools from there, including clecoes (was the cheapest place I found online other than Ebay), drill bits, reamers and my 5400rpm air drill, which might be my favorite tool in the shop. I didn't know an air drill could be so quiet and the trigger so light and responsive. I'm quite satisfied with them, though they do tend to have a minimum purchase amount so I didn't order from them too many times.

I've placed one or two orders with Pan American and been happy with the results.

As for air-drills, I've found that the ATS Pro Palm drills (for $100 - $130) are the best bang-for-the-buck in terms of drilling speed, low-noise, and quality of construction.

I started out with cheap JET/Harbor Freight air drills, and the improvement in the experience of moving to these better drills is impressive! I still use HF for cheap/disposable clamps, my 1" scotchbrite-belt tool, and pneumatic rivet-puller though. The Sonex really doesn't require you to spend a ton on tools, thankfully!

--Noel
Sonex #1339
Center-stick, TD, Acro-ailerons, flush pulled rivets, Turbo Aerovee

NWade wrote:As for air-drills, I've found that the ATS Pro Palm drills (for $100 - $130) are the best bang-for-the-buck in terms of drilling speed, low-noise, and quality of construction.

I see it's 2600 rpm. Wouldn't you rather have a faster drill? At 250 fpm cutting speed (typical for aluminum) and with a 1/8" drill, you would run 8000 rpm. That's pretty extreme, but wouldn't you at least want one of the 4000 rpm drills?

Ihab