Finally Finished My HS

[330Jock]

I can't believe how much "life" gets in the way of building! Drove the last rivet today, boy did that feel good. The learning curve is still pretty steep, but I believe I am getting better. Am I crazy , or is bucking rivets so much easier than squeezing rivets? All the rivets that had to be drilled out were squeezed. I seem to have so much more control over the rivet gun, but not the squeezer. If the squeezer is not perfect, it boogers the rivet. Gun much more forgiving. Or it might just be that I'm an idiot!!
Moving on to VS tomorrow!

[grayforge]

I find it's the reverse for me. I much prefer to squeeze a rivet than use the rivet gun on it. I use a Hydro-Pneumatic squeezer:
http://numatx-tools.com/

[david.perl]

me too, i think the HP squeezer was one of the best investments in my ever expanding RV tool box.

[DDUCH]

I don't have a pneumatic but it's on my short list..cleveland tools with all the attachments.

[Dbro172]

Much simpler and consistent to squeeze a rivet than buck it. Even more so when it can be done with a pneumatic squeezer. ( essential tool in IMHO )

If it is simpler for you to buck rivets on the HS you are probably referring to the AD-4 size. Fortunately the HS provide reasonable access to buck those, I just finished my wings, and found it much simpler to squeeze every -4 rivet I could up til now. If I recall the worst ones to buck (which is the only option) was the leading edge ribs to the main, forward wing spar.

[tkatc]

Pneumatic is the BEST! But you should master the art of teasing the trigger on rivets that are in tight spaces.

[WingsOnWheels]

I think it depends on the squeezer. I have a lot of trouble squeezing rivets. I finally realized that my squeezer flexes out of allignment under load. These days I only use the sqeeze for dimpling.

[Hawkeye7A]

I second Colin's remark on dimpling. I prefer to squeezing rivets where ever they can be reached. But the real beauty of the squeezer is when you have the wings framed and can just walk along the holes in a rib and dimple the holes at the rate of one every couple/three seconds without having to concern yourself with the handles of a hand squeezer being perpendicular to the rib flange.

[BSwayze]

Originally Posted by grayforge

I find it's the reverse for me. I much prefer to squeeze a rivet than use the rivet gun on it. I use a Hydro-Pneumatic squeezer:
http://numatx-tools.com/

I clicked on the link and looked at these squeezers. Wow! I've never seen any like these. I have a regular pneumatic squeezer that I dearly love, but these things are incredible. If I wasn't nearly finished with all my riveting, it would be very tempting to consider one of them. I didn't see any prices on their website, though. Care to share with us how much one might cost?

[JurgenRoeland]

Allow me to repeat a remark I made earlier.

Buy a pneumatic squeezer ! Irrelevant of the cost, you need it !

I started of - just like everybody else I guess - thinking that a pneumatic squeezer was an unnecessary and luxury option when building my plane. That I was not too lazy to use some arm fat to squeeze and dimple those suckers in.

After three months in the build, (I think it was after rivetting the vertical stabilo), I developed a inflamation in the muscles of my elbow (the so-called 'tennis elbow'). The source was simple, continuous overstressing the elbow.
I spent multiple visits at the docter, got cortizone shots, spend an awefull lot of time at a fysiotherapist and worked with pain for over a year and a half.
Yes, read it again... a year and a half...
How much do you think this would have costed compared to the squeezer you're about to buy ? I don't even dare to make the sum but I guess I could have bought 10 squeezers by now.

One remarks might be that the squeezer is heavy and that it is also a load on your limbs. Well... all depends on how smart you are when using it. I personally like this setup in many cases of dimpling and use it whenever possible.


Another killer for your elbows -> the C-Frame dimpler. But not much you can do about that unless you get one of those Cleaveland DRDT's.

I do admit that my condition may have come from the Avery squeezer which truly sucks big time. But how little did I know at that time. In the meanwhile, I have worked with the Cleaveland squeezer and it is much better but still. It's a lot of dimpling and squeezing to be done by hand.

For sure, getting more tools and options will drive you further away from the irrealistic cost estimation that the Vans calculator has given you. But in the end, let's admit, we knew that upfront...

So conclusion, save your heatlh, work with fun and buy that squeezer.