Tip Up - Side Rail Bucking

Anybody know of a creative way to buck the rivet in this picture? I am finding it difficult due to its angle near the F704 flange as well as the forward canopy side rail edge tucking under such that only about 1/4 inch is available in there..

Any creative ideas that worked for you?

(Sorry for bad picture, I should have removed the 704 cap)

Thx

I remember having a little consternation with those rivets and I left them empty for a while until I could come up with something. In the end I used a blind rivet.

Small tungsten bar

I used my small tungsten bar held with a couple of fingers on those...

[email protected] said:

I used my small tungsten bar held with a couple of fingers on those...

Click to expand...

That may very well work. When I was building no one was really selling/using the tungsten bars.

I used a 3/8" bolt as a bucking bar. I ground the threads off in a grinder until it would fit up in there and polished the end on the scotchbrite wheel. It will reach up in there quite nicely. The bolt alone doesn't have enough mass, so you can hold a regular bucking bar under the other end of the bolt to give it the mass you need. It can be tricky, but it worked great for me. Take your time and you'll be fine. It may pay to get another set of hands to help you but I managed to do it solo. I posted more discussion and pictures on my web log page here:

August 8, 2010

Special bucking bar

I made this special bucking bar (the piece on the right). The little tab fits in the gap over the flange of the side of the F-704 bulkhead. Worked great. Let me know if you need to borrow it.



FYI, we cut that with a hacksaw. Took two of us 30 minutes of trading back and forth on the saw. Whew!

Thanks for the replies guys.. Hey Mike, you won't be at Oshkosh this year will you ? I am going the first two days and could grab it from you then. Alternatively I might try to source Stephens mini tungsten bucking bar as he is local. ;-)

Let me know, we can work it out in Private Mail.

Thx

Back Riveting Plate

I just did those. For those in that tight space, I used the side of my back riveting plate.

Doug
RV-7 Fuselage

Tungsten bar with a little 'helper'

You need quite a heavy bar for those canopy deck rivets, (7s IIRC). I bought a length of 1/4 inch by 1 inch solid mild steel bar at my nearest 'big box' DIY store. They sell 1m lengths very cheaply from a display rack. I cut off a 6 inch piece, polished the cut end and duct- taped it side by side with the tungsten bar to provide mass. The mild steel protruded about 2 inches beyond the tungsten, and was the ideal size to reach up to all of those difficult rivets along there. I also incorporated a 1 inch piece of waste longeron angle material wrapped around the bottom of the mild steel and overlapping the end of the tungsten bar. The thought was to limit movement of the two pieces relative to each other within the duct-tape wrapping. It is probably not necessary for that reason but it helped in keeping the combined tool straight by resting it against the inside of the side skin. It worked perfectly.

I have pics at home if the above is not entirely clear.