Solid rivet setter12/29/2023 However, if later you expect to spray paint your own airplane, be advised that the typical spray gun can use a lot of air. It doesn't take much of a compressor to operate either an air drill or a rivet gun. That means you will need an air compressor. Of course, to operate any air tool (rivet gun, air drill, paint spray gun, etc.) you must have an adequate supply of compressed air. (Guns can, typically, produce up to 2000 to 2500 blows per minute.) Install an air tool regulator (they are inexpensive), and it can help you with the control of the rivet gun. 401 shank diameter tools and that it has an easy working throttle (trigger), one that allows positive control over the gun's impact rate. A still heavier 4X gun would be needed to drive 1/4" rivets.īe sure the rivet gun you select takes the standard. A more powerful 3X rivet gun has a designated capacity for handling rivet diameters up to 3/16". A 2X gun should be able to drive your 3/32" and 1/8" rivets with ease. The numbered "X rating" gives you a fair indication of the size rivets a particular gun can readily drive. For example, most aircraft rivet guns are rated as 2X, 3X or 4X. Other identifying information to look for is the size or capacity of the rivet gun. Sometimes a rivet gun will have the term "riveter" embossed on the side of its barrel or housing, but not always. It's hard to tell one type of gun from the other by appearance alone. If you try using it as a rivet gun, you will stand a good chance of denting and damaging the soft aluminum skin around the rivet you are attempting to drive (set).Ī rivet gun's blows, on the other hand, are typically slower and you can exercise far better trigger control over its impact rate. The problem with an air hammer is that it simply hits too hard and too fast. Although the thing might look like a rivet gun, and sound much like one, too, a rivet gun it ain't. Don't goof and be fooled into buying an air hammer or air chisel just because the price is enticing. Be sure you get the type of gun you need. If you don't already own a suitable rivet gun and are in the market for one, check around with other builders before you buy. This must be done not only to seal out moisture and corrosion, but also to improve overall appearance. Another disadvantage, pop rivets, being hollow, also introduces the need for sealing each of the holes in the installed rivet heads. Futhermore, pop rivets are more likely to loosen under prolonged vibration. There can be no doubt that such an assembly, riveted together with solid rivets, is more reliable, and generally stronger than one similarly put together with pop rivets.Īlthough pop rivets are easier to install, they are complex to manufacture and, as you might expect, are more expensive to use than the solid type rivets. Properly set, the compressed rivet solidly locks the riveted parts together permanently. Then, as the blows (impacts on the rivet) continue, the shank end of the rivet becomes compressed and flattened, forming what is known as a "shophead". The net effect of this coordinated hammering and bucking action causes the rivet to swell, filling its hole tightly. (A solid rivet can also be "set" with a rivet squeezer.) Then, and only then, the other end - the one with the manufactured head - can be "driven", or "set", by impacts from a rivet gun fitted with the correct rivet set, or by the hammering blows of a hand wielded ball peen hammer. To drive (set/upset) a solid rivet after it has been inserted in a rivet hole, the protruding stem (shank end) of the rivet must be backed up or bucked by a "bucking bar". A rivet gun, a bucking bar and a rivet set. Furthermore, you will have to become proficient in the use of a few special tools. You do not enjoy the luxury of that pop rivet "blind" feature because you absolutely must have access to both sides of the parts being riveted. Unfortunately, it's quite different with solid rivets. even if you don't have access to the back side of the parts being riveted together. For one thing, you can install those hollow-core pop rivets working alone with only a simple hand operated pop riveter. Installing solid rivets in an aircraft structure requires considerably more know-how and skill than does working with pop rivets.
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