I probably spend too much time making tools and not enough making actual
airplane parts

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I've always assumed scratch-building airplanes WAS about making tools. The
airplane is simply the by-product and an inexpensive one at that.

Except for a couple of Dreadnaughts like Dave Long's Midget Mustang, the sheet
aluminum in most lightplanes only amounts to a couple hundred pounds at best.
Even purchased new it's hard to spend more than a thousand bucks for the
aluminum, assuming you buy from the distributor and not some retail outfit that
only handles aluminum as a sideline. Access to aerospace surplus sales yards
can reduce that amount to an average $2/lb, including rivets.

Different strokes an' all that.

-R.S.Hoover