Taylor pneumatic Pop Riveter

[Model 12]

Just getting ready to start on RV-12 ,I have been practicing with the pop riveter and was wondering what air pressure most people are using. My pop riveter says maximum of 90psi seems to work good from 50 to 90 Psi.
Robin

[rongawer]

I have an Ishram III riveter (planetools.com) and run it at 90psi, which is the recommended pressure. Unlike a solid rivet gun that should run at a pressure for the size rivet your using, blind rivets (aka pop rivets) will set and the stem will break at the rivet's rated tensil break point, so the riveter pressure is not as sensitive, although the unit may operate at pressures lower than rated, it won't pull as quickly.

I recommend running it at 90.

[videobobk]

We use both the red ones sold by Cleaveland, and the blue ones sold by Harbor Freight. We leave the air on 80-90 as we are using the air drills often, and they work best there. Never had a problem with either on several RV-12 builds. BTW, the HF unit is a great value!

Bob

[rv9builder]

I've been running mine at about 60 psi and it seems to pull the rivets just fine. Is there an advantage to running a higher pressure? Mine is rated up to 90 psi.

[rv9builder]

Originally Posted by videobobk

We use both the red ones sold by Cleaveland, and the blue ones sold by Harbor Freight. We leave the air on 80-90 as we are using the air drills often, and they work best there. Never had a problem with either on several RV-12 builds. BTW, the HF unit is a great value!

Bob

Do you see much difference in performance between the Cleaveland and Harbor Freight pullers? Although the stems always break cleanly and the pulled rivets come out perfectly, the stems often get stuck in the jaws of my Harbor Freight puller. I've developed a pretty good way to remove the stems manually, but it is annoying when they don't eject automatically. Do you have that problem with your pullers?

[RFSchaller]

My HF puller sometimes hold the stems. Usually it's because the nosepiece that holds the gripper jaws had backed off on its threads. Retightening and lubrication usually make it work.

[rvbuilder2002]

Originally Posted by rv9builder

I've been running mine at about 60 psi and it seems to pull the rivets just fine. Is there an advantage to running a higher pressure? Mine is rated up to 90 psi.

No

And after pulling many airplanes worth of rivets in our shop, we have found that when high pressures are used the stem on a rivet will occasionally break prematurely.
Using lower pressures causes the river to set slower and prevents this. It also helps prevent bouncing the tool when the stem breaks (can cause scratches or worse).
For this reason we use ~60 psi and recommend that to others as well.

[Model 12]

Well, Thanks a lot guys I think I will just leave my Taylor pneumatic Pop riveter at about 60 to 70 psi because I didn't see any difference at 90psi where it said in my manual is max. pressure. I have never used a pneumatic pop riveter so I wanted some feedback before just putting a hundred pop rivets in my rudder.

[Driftdown]

Originally Posted by rvbuilder2002

. . . "And after pulling many airplanes worth of rivets in our shop, we have found that when high pressures are used the stem on a rivet will occasionally break prematurely.
Using lower pressures causes the river to set slower and prevents this. It also helps prevent bouncing the tool when the stem breaks (can cause scratches or worse).
For this reason we use ~60 psi and recommend that to others as well." . . .

Excellent advice.
Thanks Scott.

[Alex Edwards]

I have the red one that came with a kit from Cleaveland. About 3/4 of the way through my rv-12 it started holding onto the rivet stems. I pulled it apart and cleaned it but also there is kind of a notch on the special spanner that came with the riveter for setting an adjustment inside the "nose" piece. Have a read of the instructions...

Once it was adjusted it was better than new. I suspect that over time something loosened and it went out of adjustment. I also suspect that it wasn't exactly right from new, close but not perfect....