18-06 step 2, Flaperon skin to rib rivet interference

Hello,

I'm starting to rivet the skins to my flaperons and am having a rivet to rivet interference problem. This problem only effects the rivets nearest the trailing edge. After having installed a rivet on one surface, the rivet for the opposite surface will not go all the way in, it contacts the opposite rivet. I reasoned that while pulling the rivet it will get shorter allowing it to seat and this worked on the first attempt. While it does get shorter, it also gets fatter and the second and third rivets did not seat and had to be drilled out.

I have not been able to find where anyone else has had this problem. What am I doing wrong? Any solutions?

I had the same problem and figured, just like you did, that pushing while slowly(!) squeezing the opposite rivet would get the job done as it shortens in the process. That excludes the use of a pneumatic puller on those rivets. I pulled them by hand, very slowly with a distinctive force, pushing them down in the process. It worked on all but two rivets where I had to drill them out and repeat it.
You got the right idea, just pull them slowly and push down hard on them.

Tried that

Thanks for the reply mac but I tried that. I should have mentioned it in my post. (The first try was with a pneumatic squeezer) As I was slowly squeezing by hand, the rivet expanded and stuck in the hole before the head contacted the skin.

I guess I was lucky. I held my mouth just right, and done as Torsten stated. All of them shrunk and pulled down just fine.

Firm downward pressure and slow steady pull works. You may not be pressing down hard enough.

Problem solved.

I called Van's and talked to Gus. He suggested something I had not thought of. Run a #30 drill through the hole to open it up a little. This gives just enough clearance to put the rivet in at a slight angle which gets it to go past the opposing rivet just a little. As the rivet is pulled by hand, it of course starts to get shorter and it can be rotated perpendicular to the skin as it seats against the skin. The extra clearance also allows a little swelling of the shank as the rivet shortens and moves into the hole and seats before grabbing the hole. This is what happened to me on my first hand puller attempt, the rivet grabbed the hole and stuck before the head seated. Who would have thought a .0035" increase in the hole diameter would have made such a difference?
Movin' on!

clarification, please?

I'm lurking on various threads to learn as much as I can before I start bending expensive metal from my kit. This thread is the first where I've seen the verb "pulling" is used when discussing riveting. Is pulling a rivet another way of saying squeezing, or does it represent something else that I'm not familiar with?

Thanks in advance,
-dbh

Most of the rivets in the RV-12 are aircraft grade`pop' rivets and are set using a conventional hand riveter, or a pneumatic riveter, to grip and pull the mandrel until it snaps off. Conventional rivets as used in the other RV's, and also in a lot of places in the RV-12, are set using a hand squeezer, a pneumatic squeezer, or typically with a pneumatic hammer and bucking bar.