Separation During Riveting

[rv7charlie]

Originally Posted by MJarreau

Use a washer/piece of rubber/etc? Is this done so that the bar then strikes the rivet but simultaneously pushes the flange to the spar? TIA

Still learning how to use my hands,
Mike

The rubber should be *slightly* thicker than the exposed length of the rivet, in the assembly. With the bar against the rubber and over the rivet tip (the tip of the rivet will be almost touching the bar), drive with a short burst of the gun. The rubber, captured between flange and bar, will force the 2 flanges together when the gun strikes the rivet head. As the rubber compresses after forcing the flanges together, the bar will contact the tip of the rivet and begin to set the rivet, expanding it in the hole and locking the flanges while they are held together by the bar-rubber-flanges-rivet factory head-set stack.

Remove the rubber sheet and finish driving the rivet.

With softer rubber sheet, you could finish driving before removing the rubber, but it will last longer (more rivets) if you remove it prior to fully setting the rivet.

Do it once on a couple of scraps, and it will be instantly obvious what's happening.

Charlie

[Vantastic12]

If I understand the problem correctly, a simple solution that has worked for me to keep two parts together while riveting is to put a small rubber grommet (inside diameter of the grommet the same size of the rivet: example 1/8" ID grommet for an AD4 rivet) on the shop side of the rivet. Hold the bucking bar against the grommet. While shooting the rivet, the grommet will force the two parts together as the rivet sets and will generally just fall off after being shot, or is easily removed. The gap will usually be eliminated.

Hope this helps.

[MJarreau]

Thanks, Charlie and Vantastic12. I thought that was the case....

Best regards,
Michael