Never countersink if the top skin is not thick enough to fully contain the countersink. You will note that in the above description of setting rivets with a rivet gun, the impact of the rivet gun set was always directed at the factory head of the rivet. This is opposed to the manufactured head that should remain unchanged. Remove the second rivet snap and, using the flat end of the ball-pein hammer, strike the pin (tail) end of the rivet. Place the head of the rivet inside the dome hole of the rivet snap so the pin is facing upwards. Rivet squeezers come in a variety of types. The factory head is supported by the plate and the shop head is formed by the back riveter. Avoid overdriving the rivet on initial taps. A solid rivet is a good way to attach two pieces of metal together without the use of welding. Universal head rivets can also be back riveted with a special bucking bar, but the process is much less common. The downside is that they are rather expensive. // Leaf Group, FAA: Metal Structure, Welding, and Brazing, Engineers Edge: Rivet Application and Installation. Cookies are required for this site to operate correctly. Drill the rivet holes. suggestions. Two riveting procedures have evolved. If any rivets are loose or move around too easily, you will need to give them another punch with the air hammer. As stated, the rivet gun employs an impact force to set the rivet. Once the holes are all drilled, you can then begin to insert the rivets. Rivets that didnt come out so well will need to be removed. Make sure the rivet, die and gun are all aligned. All rights reserved worldwide. Space between materials of the joint. The more popular C type is shown here. Insert a drill bit sized for the rivets into a drill. With the rivet hole properly drilled and deburred (and countersunk if necessary), it is time to install a rivet. It's a good idea to drill the rivet holes through all the pieces that will be attached at once, if they can be clamped securely together, and if the rivet holes can be drilled without damaging any surrounding structure. By tickling the trigger action on the gun. It should be round, flat and centered on the rivet. These installations can be removed or uninstalled, but this has to be done with a drill, not a screwdriver or ratchet, as with screws or bolts. Best practices will entail doing this correctly, with the correct rivets installed at the correct spacing and edge clearance. Once the head is shaped, the material is fixed together. When this happens, the rivet will have a stronghold. Lengths and diameters are shown in the suffix, with the first number being the diameter in 1/32 inch and the second number being the grip length in 1/16 inch. Hold the drill steady and straight and do not countersink too deep. This part of the riveting process takes the most skill and practice, but most anyone can learn it with some instruction and a little patience. If the forces applied to the rivet during setting are not axial the material pieces of the joint will tend to move relative to each other. Hold pieces together with clamps once youre certain youre set so you can move onto the next step. Therefore in my world my choice would follow this hierarchy: With patience and practice, all of the above methods will give excellent results. Place the shaft of the first rivet snap into the jaws of the vice. A constructive strategy is to lay out 20 rivet holes in scrap materials and drive these 20 rivets each day for 10 days. Many builders like to tape rivets into place with riveting tape or blue masking tape. They are easily identified by the small dimple found in the center of their heads. Place a rivet of the correct diameter and length in the hole. Pneumatic rivet squeezers come in two types. If you actually have more than a very few 5/32-inch rivets to drive, you really need a 4X gun, but this would not be likely for most amateur airplane builders. Damaged rivet head or material due to the rivet gun set being allowed to come-away from the rivet during the setting process. When driving or squeezing rivets, always keep the tool square with the rivet. In many cases the choice or method will be decided for you by the physical restrictions or conditions of the joint. He will hold a heavy metal bucking bar against the tail of the rivet and signal you to start riveting. A good gun will allow you to control small tap, tap, taps, with a small trigger deflection, and then you can increase the impact by further increases on the trigger pressure. Since we covered blind rivets in a previous article, we will focus on solid aircraft rivets in this article. An alternative to the squeezer is the rivet frame. A pneumatic rivet gun with a number of different rivet sets for different applications. A back-riveting plate set in a carpeted tabletop. These include a rivet frame and dead blow hammer, a hand rivet squeezer, or a pneumatic rivet squeezer. Drill a hole (same size as the original) into the head of the rivet, using the rivet dimple to help locate the center. Learn how your comment data is processed. This axial force must be applied to the rivet in order to mushroom the shop head concentrically. There is no need to be in any hurry to start your scrap pile with real kit parts. Portions of the website, including membership login, join, renewal, shopping, and AirVenture ticketing may be unavailable at that time. Repeat the process for each pair of holes. The builders of these aircraft will have literally thousands of rivets to drive, buck, replace, and in many instances pull. The rivet squeezer is a compression type of tool that applies a continuous axial force to the rivet, deforming the shop head. Normally this would apply to flush (AN426) rivets, but universal head (AN470) rivets can also be driven in this manner by drilling a hole into the back plate and inserting the correct universal head die into this hole. A signal system must be derived between the gun operator and the person holding the bucking bar. Kitplanes.com and the Kitplanes logo are protected properties under international copyright law. To ensure our content is always up-to-date with current information, best practices, and professional advice, articles are routinely reviewed by industry experts with years of hands-on experience. Do not attempt to anneal or in any other way heat treat AD rivets. (See tapping code in Figure 6.). Insert a pin punch into the hole and pry off the head. It is easier to see the rivets with rivet tape, but blue masking tape is cheaper and works well enough. In the riveting process, the rivet will expand to fill the hole, and the excess length of the rivet will flatten to make its formed head. This one uses a lever with an over-center design. Reverse the hammer and used the ball end to tap the expanded pin. A typical metal airplane kit will include rivets of many different lengths. Deburr the holes with a debburing tool. Repeat the installation process. When you install rivets into metal, they are slid through a hole that is already there, so you have to make these holes yourself. Monel has a melting point of about 2400F, versus aluminum at 1040F. Tap the rivet snap several times to shape the head of the rivet, giving it a professional finish. The EAA website is currently undergoing maintenance. It must completely fail -- break -- or be drilled before it will come out. The tricks are, one, to drill straight into the rivet head, and two, to stop drilling before you get into the stem of the rivet where you will start to enlarge the original hole. He holds a master's degree in education from Lesley University. Finally, the components cannot be allowed to move relative to each other during the setting, or the rivet or the forces applied to the rivet will tend to deform the material and not the rivet. DoItYourself.com, founded in 1995, is the leading independent If you are having trouble logging in, please do not reset your password, but try again later. This squeezer is useful for -3 rivets and can also be used for -4 rivets, but most people will find the large hand forces for a -4 rivet are difficult to achieve. If the hole becomes too big, redrill it with a #30 drill and install one of these oops rivets. Keep the drill perpendicular to the material being drilled, and hold the drill steady so that the holes do not become oval-shaped or elongated. For support, place a scrap piece of wood underneath the materialto prevent possible break-out as the drill bit emerges on the bottom side of the lower workpiece. They should be spaced every couple of inches for the best holding power. To install solid rivets you will need the following tools; a drill press, drill bit, two drilling machine work grips, a vice, two rivet snaps and a ball-pein hammer. With this method the bucking bar or bucking surface is applied to the manufactured head, and the rivet set pounds on the tail of the rivet. They are particularly popular for dimpling fuselage and wingskins prior to installation of flush rivets. Rivet dies for countersunk rivets will be flat, while protruding-head rivet dies will be concave. Using the rivet gun to set rivets is the most demanding of all. View our Privacy Policy here. The classic riveting tools are the pneumatic rivet gun and the bucking bar, but there are several other options, at least in certain situations. Insert an appropriate rivet into a hole. The rivet can never unscrew. The metal plate embedded in his workbench top makes this work well. huck bobtail Monel universal head rivets carry the designation MS20615. This will keep things in proper alignment and avoid buckling that could occur if you simply started at one end and kept going. Preferred browsers: Google Chrome, FireFox, or Microsoft Edge. Michael Signal began writing professionally in 2010, with his work appearing on eHow. Again, it is very important that the operation begins with the rivet set holding the factory head tightly to the material and that the bucking bar pressure on the rivet be increased as the rivet is set. The rivet installation is so strong because the rivet is actually flattened around the back of the rivet hole during the riveting process. The rivet length protruding through the joint should be 1.5 times the rivet diameter. Monel rivets will be harder to drive and buck than aluminum rivets due to their higher strength and tendency to work harden. Drill only through the head (either universal or flush). The one in the gun and most of the others are for universal head rivets, and the one opposite the gun is for flush rivets. Soft rivets, made from pure aluminum, are called A rivets and have no such dimple. The process is very loud. For this reason the rivet gun method should be considered a two-person operation; one operating the gun and the other holding the bucking bar. A variation of the hand squeezer uses a compound action that increases forces to the rivet as the squeezing motion reaches the latter part of its travel, allowing the setting of a -4 rivet with relative ease. At one end of the snap there is a hole and an internal dome (concave) shape, while at the the other end is a flat surface for striking with the hammer. Our next column will consider the use of blind rivets in the construction of amateur-built aircraft. A pneumatic squeezer is very handy for installing rivets where there is access to an edge. Pneumatic rivet squeezers (Figure 3) are similar to hand squeezers but rely on a pneumatic air cylinder to provide the forces required to set the rivet. Your browser is not compatible with this website. When he isnt building something, he shares his love of aviation with others by flying Young Eagles or volunteering as an EAA Technical Counselor. Install an appropriate rivet die into a rivet gun. Clamping forces must be applied to the joint during the setting process. To use the rivet squeezer, the correct rivet die (universal or flush) is installed on the factory side of the rivet squeezer, and an anvil (or flush) die is installed on the shop head side of the squeezer (Figure 1). The most common aircraft rivets, known as AD rivets, are made from a hard aluminum alloy. Besides rivet guns and rivet squeezers, you will also need various rivet sets and dimple dies. All rights reserved. Solid rivets come in many different metals and alloys, but the ones most commonly used by Experimental builders are made of aluminum or Monel. The rivet frame can be activated with a dead blow hammer or a pneumatic rivet gun.