An oddball dimpling question

[XOverZero]

Chuck,

I'm in the same spot. I do have the drilled rivet set in rv7charlie's post, and just yesterday I drilled a bucking bar for the dimple die. Tried it on scrap of the same thickness (.040) and it works perfectly.

Now all I have to do is conscript a helper to crawl inside with the bucking bar. I couldn't help noticing how close we are to each other...just sayin'

[Lynnb]

I've used the dimpler cleavland sent you, actually have it for a #8 and #10, works well, but easy to mess up the threads on the allen bolt, probably why they give you three.

Originally Posted by cdeerinck

I reached out to Cleaveland Tool, and they sent me this link:

http://www.cleavelandtool.com/8-SCRE.../#.XKJP9qeZNSN

I agree that the nail puller didn't give such great results, but since this one is larger, I think it will do the trick.

I was going to go with Wirejock's recommendation and make bucking bars, but I can't figure out how to put the male die into my gun. I don't have any "junk" rivet gun heads.

After I use this tool from Cleaveland, I might give it a few taps with the gun to cleanly set the dimple.

[David Paule]

Originally Posted by rv7charlie

....I've found the nail-pulled dies to be my 'last resort' for dimpling; the nail will break before giving a good crisp edged dimple....

Cheap nails will break.

I got a pound of hardened finishing nails from Home Depot and they rarely break. I've only used a few.

What happens is that the puller grips the nail and leaves a serrated grip indentation. After a number of dimples, the serrations no longer let the nail to slide back out of the puller and I have to work it loose. Even then, I don't bother replacing the nail. Instead, I file down the serrations and it works fine again - I only do that one time, replacing the nail afterwards. I probably get a dozen excellent dimples per nail.

Dave

[MarkW]

Chuck,
I believe I used the chuck that came with my C-frame to hold the die in the gun.
It came with a short and long set that a dimple die fits into.