HS-404/405 to front spar rivets.

I had a lot of trouble getting my yoke in there to squeeze the rivets in the corner near the angle brackets. I had to drill out one rivet and I have two that are slightly crooked. How did everyone else set these rivets? Would the longeron yoke have helped?

You can see the area I am talking about on tonights log entry on my webpage .

Yup, I had to drill these out a number of times. When the holes get bigger, if they do, take the next size longer rivet, gently squeeze it in your squeezer with the rivet very straight, up and down, and it will slowly grow fatter. Keep testing the diameter until it just fits through the hole. Now go ahead and squeeze it in the hole normally. If you get really ticked off, just use your rivet gun and do some serious damage. Then when all else fails, use a pop rivet and walk away from it. LOL
Cheers, Pete

Hs-404 / 405

I don't remember having trouble with these particular rivets. I checked my builder?s log and it did not mention a problem. I do remember having problems with the AD47AD4's when using my squeezer. Sometimes these larger rivets can be hard to squeeze while holding the squeezer in perfect alignment with the rivet. If the squeezer were positioned at an angle to the rivet, I would get a crooked rivet. I often buck these size rivets.

I'll pass along a tip my Tech advisor gave me. He told me not to be afraid (I still am though) to bend a part to get it riveted. If one can SLIGHTLY bend a part to help get the rivet gun or squeezer in position it should not hurt the part. The key word here is SLIGHTLY. Obviously one would not want to bend a part to the point of it breaking or deforming it permanently.

I did look at your web site, nice site by the way. Your work looks as good as any I've seen on these web pages.

My two cents.
Happy building!!

I'll pass along a tip my Tech advisor gave me. He told me not to be afraid (I still am though) to bend a part to get it riveted. If one can SLIGHTLY bend a part to help get the rivet gun or squeezer in position it should not hurt the part. The key word here is SLIGHTLY. Obviously one would not want to bend a part to the point of it breaking or deforming it permanently.

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I did bend the two ribs slightly to get a better angle on the rivets. It was really only the bottoms ones that I had much trouble with as the angle bracket is wider and gets in the way of my yoke. I may just try and grind a little of the yoke off to make it fit better.

I did look at your web site, nice site by the way. Your work looks as good as any I've seen on these web pages.

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Thanks I have been inspired by all that have come before me. I spent a significant amount of time looking through builders sites before jumping in and purchasing the tail kit. I have to say that these builder sites are the best advertising Vans has. Dan Checkoway, Sam Buchanan, and many others. I wanted to created a website that could help new builders as much as these guys helped me with their webpages.

Anyway, I am just glad to be here building this plane and among this community.

Looking back in my log, it looks like I had a little trouble there as well. I have a longeron yoke, so I might have used that. Sometimes you have to juggle yokes and dies to make tight spots work. Also, don't be afraid to whip out the rivet gun. Setting AD4 rivets is really not that bad with the rivet gun and a bucking bar, even solo. Some other general advice is to make sure to keep the part you're riveting secured. Put it in a vise, even when using the squeezer. That's helped me a lot.

Dave

Then when all else fails, use a pop rivet and walk away from it. LOL

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Ok I give up. I kept looking at on rivet in the corner and I just don't like the way it looks. The hole has gotten a little enlarged. What size pop rivet should I use?

I started out trying to set these rivets with an offset set in the gun, but a couple of cleated rivets and a smiley put me off that approach. I drilled a couple of bad ones out and found that I could get in there with the squeezer using the standard yoke, but only just. I think a longeron yoke would make short work of it. I found it essential to clamp the work down and keep a close eye on the shop head while squeezing, with a bit of repositioning of the squeezer set required to keep them squashing straight.