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Drilling out an AACQ4-4

SabreFlyr

Well Known Member
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Just installed my rudder cable guides (RV-14, page 10-21). One of the AACQ4-4 rivets pulled through the washer that was supposed to spread the load on inside of the nylon cable guide. It pulled just inside of the rivet hole. I haven't had to drill out a pulled rivet yet. Just a #30 bit and I'm done? Looking for any pointers you might care to share. Just guessing it might not be straight forward (seems I've heard of some pulled rivets just spinning with the bit in the hole).
 
sometimes they do spin

These rivets are really soft, and drill easily. I actually used a rivet drilling tool (the one for centring on a universal head) when I drilled these out of my tanks during assembly and that worked well. Typically though, I go a drill size or two down (say to 1/8") so it reduces potential damage. Punch out the mandrel first, that helps also.
 
Take care and make sure that it doesn't spin in the hole. A needle nose pliers to keep the "tail" from spinning as you drill out the head is sometimes necessary when drilling out pulled rivets.
 
Take care and make sure that it doesn't spin in the hole. A needle nose pliers to keep the "tail" from spinning as you drill out the head is sometimes necessary when drilling out pulled rivets.

Unfortunately, the tail pulled into the cable guide.
 
I had a similar problem with several of my AACQ4-4 rivets. The mandrel broke prematurely without pulling the rivet. On two others the mandrel broke with about a 1/4" protruding from the manufactured head. I'm using a hand tool and have never had a problem before. any ideas why this is happening on these specific rivets?

Eric
 
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