Picked the pneumatic squeezer over the manual one for a 737 flap job, glad I did

Had to decide between using the old hand squeezer or hauling out the pneumatic rig for installing 40 nutplates on a flap track bracket. Took the pneumatic even though it meant setting up the air hose and hunting down the right yoke, and it cut my time from probably 3 hours down to under 90 minutes. The hand tool would've wrecked my wrist too, especially after doing 15 of them the old way last month. Anyone else find themselves sticking to manual tools out of habit, even when the power option is right there?

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diana_bell7416d ago

Yeah the pneumatic was probably the right call for 40 nutplates, but 90 minutes still sounds slow for that setup unless you were fighting the yoke fit. I've seen guys burn more time fiddling with air pressure and swivel heads than they save, especially on small brackets where the hand squeezer just reaches better. Next time try the pneumatic on the flat runs and manual for the tight corners, that combo usually wins for me.