Van's Air Force
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Tip: Rivet Spacing on Tubes
- Thread starter Rick6a
- Start date
Dang Rick....every time I had to do one of those, I did the math....I LOVE simple ideas! (I've never had a fan rivet spacer...maybe now I have an excuse - for the NEXT project!
Paul
Paul
Rick6a
Well Known Member
Paul,
I found using fan spacers on the 6A to be a huge time saver since the builder has to lay out many hole patterns, especially along the fuselage. Sometimes I would cleco two or more fan spacers together to lay out especially long runs. At McDonnell, we were taught to use a scale and math to determine rivet spacing. Although I've never seen it, I'm told the Douglas guys in California actually used a flexible type of clear tape with small dots or holes in it. By stretching the tape out along the sheet, rivet spacing was automatic without having to do math......similiar in concept to using a fan spacer.
Maybe I'm missing something, but couldn't you just wrap a piece of paper around the tube. Mark the point where the paper meets its end. Remove the paper, fold in half (one end against the previous mark). Repeat until you have 8 folds. Rewrap the paper around the tube and transfer marks from the folds to the tube. Now you have 8 equally spaced marks.
Did this building model rockets back in the day, and probably did it on my plane.
Did this building model rockets back in the day, and probably did it on my plane.
Low Pass said:
Well...yeah...but what about when you only want 6 rivets?
I flunked origami....
alpinelakespilot2000
Well Known Member
Tape is a good idea. In lieu of the rivet fan, just measure the length of the tape, divide by the number of rivets you need. Pretty simple (and cheap!).
cytoxin
Well Known Member
i watched on myth busters that a piece of paper can only be folded in half seven times. not that it takes 8 folds to get 8 marks, just gee whiz.
@#$% those exponents
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Tube Spacing for rivets
One other way of doing it is C= pi x the diameter divided by the number of rivets. For example: 1.5" dia tube x 3.141592 = 4.712388 circumference divided by 8 = .5890 spacing. Put this on a piece of tape and put it on the tube. Ok, so I'm a nurd, but I really did it this way and a worked for me. ;-) Carl
One other way of doing it is C= pi x the diameter divided by the number of rivets. For example: 1.5" dia tube x 3.141592 = 4.712388 circumference divided by 8 = .5890 spacing. Put this on a piece of tape and put it on the tube. Ok, so I'm a nurd, but I really did it this way and a worked for me. ;-) Carl
Experimental Chaos
Well Known Member
6 of one 8 of another
I posted awhile back I posted an easy ways to do 6 holes using a 6 sided nut and a square in a V block in a drill press. It?s a simple a simple machinist trick; you just use the nut and square to index it 6 times. I?m getting ready to do the 8 hole push rod, and will use a square piece of metal with a hole in it trapped between 2 nuts, and use the square to locate 4 of the holes and use the 45◦ feature of my tri-square to locate the other 4 holes. I like to offset every other hole about 3/32 so as to not form a ?dotted line? around the end of the tube.
I posted awhile back I posted an easy ways to do 6 holes using a 6 sided nut and a square in a V block in a drill press. It?s a simple a simple machinist trick; you just use the nut and square to index it 6 times. I?m getting ready to do the 8 hole push rod, and will use a square piece of metal with a hole in it trapped between 2 nuts, and use the square to locate 4 of the holes and use the 45◦ feature of my tri-square to locate the other 4 holes. I like to offset every other hole about 3/32 so as to not form a ?dotted line? around the end of the tube.
Similar in concept to the McD-D tape solution. Use a rubber band. Just snugly and lightly wrap the band around the tube and mark a line for the start / end point. Remove the rubber band, cut it opposite and away from the marks. Now, between the marks, mark spacing at equal intervals, for 4, or 5, or 6, or 8, or whatever the number of rivets are called for. All of the periodic rivet locations just need to be located between the previously marked start / finish lines. The last task is to stretch the now cut rubber band until the first and last rivet marks line up, and all the others rivet mark locations will be equally spaced.
Flying Scotsman
Well Known Member
Hmmmm...I just use a strip of paper, measure it at the overlap point and divide by n, then mark it with either calipers set to the correct length or a steel rule laid along it (although I like the rivet fan method...have to try that next time).
How accurate are you all trying to get this spacing, anyway? I figure anything within 1/64" has to be "good enough"
How accurate are you all trying to get this spacing, anyway? I figure anything within 1/64" has to be "good enough"
