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Rivet callouts on 10-13 bottom skin - check your lengths before setting!

ryane67

Active Member
Maybe it belongs in the Wiki, Im not sure..

on page 10-13 it states AN426AD3-3.5 rivets for all of those bottom skin holes.

Thing is, the page has been modified to include the SB shear clips, which adds another .025 thickness and there's no way you properly set a 3.5 rivet through that much aluminum... well, no way Im going to properly set it. I ended up messing these holes up kind of bad and went with 1097 4-4.

Just be sure to check the length of these 4 rivets before you set them and have to make a mess yourself.
 

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There are more than a few areas where this is the case. The manual tells you how to do it and tells you the rivet length, but you should always go with what is appropriate. If you don't have one get a rivet gauge that you can measure the length of the rivet before you set it. You can make the determination of what length to use. Skin to skin or skin on stringer, yeah, that's not going to change, but when you add clips, then that may change. Your eyeball gets pretty good at seeing what is acceptable and whats not. Sometimes when it's not clear if you should go with a longer or shorter rivet then you have to decide, is it closer to the long one or short one? If you set a shorter one will you have a big enough shop head, if you set a longer one can you do it without clinching it?

Sounds harder than it is, but in the end you have to decide. When you get more experience you'll just use the next size longer and move on.
 
Rivet cutter

Also, buy a rivet cutter. Easy to clip a long rivet to the perfect size. All the extra parts also take up some aluminum so a longer rivet might actually work better when it swells to fill all that space.
 
Have found this to be the case on several rivets so far. Cutter and upsizing seems to be the perfect solution.
 
Good idea to remember: The length of the rivet should be equal to the thickness of both objects you are fastening, plus 1.5 times the diameter of the rivet's stem.
 
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Extra long rivet set?

My daughter and I are just starting our RV-14A build. We are inventorying our first kit and trying to get set up. I know we'll need some extra rivets along the way. Thinking about ordering extra-long rivets and a cutter to make all of the lengths we will need instead of buying a bunch of different lengths.

Any suggestions on the max length we should buy?
Just -3 & 4s? Or will we need some 5 & 6s?
Hard and soft?
 
Good call, Stew. I did exactly what Wirejock has suggested. Buy a good quality rivet cutter. I also make a .032 shim to make half sizes (takes all of 3 minutes to make a really nice one). It isn't that often that you need to cut a rivet or make an exact size, but when you need to do it, long rivets, a cutter, and a shim are nice to have.

You need to make sure the rivets you buy are long enough to allow for a nice cut with the cutter. I purchased 8's. It's expensive and you don't get nearly as many per pound, but it's worked out nicely.

Regarding soft rivets, I know of only 4 in my -14 and I'm nearly done riveting.

Fred
 
Using a longer river clipped to length is probably always the right answer, though how do people take this note from section 5 on 5-04?

“NOTE: There are times when the correct rivet length is not available. Depending on the application a shorter rivet can be used or a longer rivet cut to the proper length. Using a longer rivet, as is, can result in the shank being bent over like a nail. We have chosen to use a rivet that may seem too short in some places, but will do the job adequately.”
 
My daughter and I are just starting our RV-14A build. We are inventorying our first kit and trying to get set up. I know we'll need some extra rivets along the way. Thinking about ordering extra-long rivets and a cutter to make all of the lengths we will need instead of buying a bunch of different lengths.

While a rivet cutter and a bunch of long rivets sounds good, you will find this to be a real pain.

Rivets are dirt cheap. You will find you have far too many 3-3.5 rivets and not enough 3-4, 3-4.5, 3-5 and 3-6 rivets. Order a couple of ounces of each (only one ounce of 3-6) from Van’s, put them in your bins and build on.

The 1/8” rivets in the kit call outs tend to run closer to proper fit, but even here a few extra of various lengths are good to have. I suggest you use what you have, then get an ounce or so of sizes you run short on.

An ounce translates to a lot of rivets!

Carl
 
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