Tip: Nutplates and Dental Floss

First, Drill a #40 hole where the center of the nutplate will be and cleco the nutplate in place on the surface. Use the nutplate as a guide to drill the mounting holes.


Now remove the clecos and feed both ends of the dental floss into the nutplate mounting holes which have been drilled into the surface.


With a long piece of tie wire fish out both ends of the dental floss.


Once you have fished out both ends run them through the nutplate mounting holes and tie the ends together. Be sure to orient the nutplate so when pulled into place it sits properly on the surface.


Pulling the dental floss snug the nutplate to the inside surface and insert a cleco in the center hole to hold it in place. Before doing this remember to enlarge the center hole to the proper diameter for the fastener planned.


Now remove the dental floss, install a second cleco in one of the outer mounting holes, remove the center cleco and install a pulled rivet.


Remove the last cleco and install the second pulled rivet.


Congratulations, you have installed an nutplate in a place you can't possibly reach...very handy.

That is extremely cool.

That said, I feel like I'm either missing something or just plain dumb, because I don't understand how that little silver cleco grips the center hole in the nutplate in this photo:


I mean, clearly it works, and thus the deficiency is in my head...someone enlighten me here.

You need a cleco sized to match the nutplate screw size.

Dental floss

I've used fishing line.
RV9A Bill

N546RV said:

That is extremely cool.

That said, I feel like I'm either missing something or just plain dumb, because I don't understand how that little silver cleco grips the center hole in the nutplate in this photo:

I mean, clearly it works, and thus the deficiency is in my head...someone enlighten me here.

Click to expand...

It holds b/c he only drilled a #40 hole in the center, which the cleco is grabbing. I assume that once the nutplate is installed, then he would enlarge the hole for the size of the screw. However, you could enlarge (and/or dimple or countersink) the hole beforehand as long as your cleco was sized appropriately.

A silver cleco will hold a #6 nutplate. A bronze cleco will hold a #8.

correct

Ironflight nailed it...in this case I was installing a #6.

Great tip!

That is truly inventive! Thanks for sharing!

You can also use insulated wire. #12 house wire works well for a #8. Push the wire through the screw hole, thread the nutplate on the wire's insulation, pull the nutplate back in, manipulate it to line up the holes, cleco, rivet, and unscrew the wire.

Paige

I use a piece of safety wire through the center hole. Push it through, fish it out and drop the nutplate over it, then bend the end of the wire in a loop that will capture the nut. Pull it back to the hole, rotate the wire until the outer holes line up, then cleco the ears. Pull hard on the wire and it comes free, pop rivet the ears, presto - done. Very similar to the floss method but I find safety wire can be pushed through blind areas easier because of its stiffness.

A wise man once told me that I should try and learn at least one new thing each day. Looks like today's taken care of.