Electric bucking rivet gun

Is there such a thing?

Never seen one, doesn't mean there isn't one out there somewhere...

I recall several years back someone writing about having used a battery powered nail hammer for driving rivets with some success. Not sure this was the exact product, but something like this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f1k1BmEjKwY

No personal experience with it, and it may have been user modified somewhat to accommodate rivets, not sure.

Erich

My personal opinion is that if you try to use a hammer or air chisel of any kind to drive a few thousand rivets into really fragile airplane parts, you're going to be spending more money to replace parts you've destroyed that you would by just buying a good compressor and the proper tools for the job.

Think of it this way. You can hang a picture with the little hammer that came in a kit from the the craft store, but if you try to use it for framing a house, it's going to be an unpleasant experience on a lot of different fronts.

I have the standard tools in my shop. Problem is my shop is pretty far from where I live and I could do some of the smaller parts in my house. The compressor is the limiting factor for me working remotely.

I’m going to reply to my own question with a point that might be helpful.

The biggest piece of equipment I use on a regular basis is my big compressor. This makes portability of my build tough. If I get a pancake compressor to run a rivet gun, then use an electric drill I can do most things I need. I just need a toolbox to carry my tools back and forth and a solid table to work on at my home.

Should work for smaller parts.

or...

Check out the local craigslist, marketplace, buy sell trade, etc...

You can often find air compressors for $100 or less. Put one at home and one remote...

So I don't know what your budget or space constraints are, but I have a Lowes Kobalt "Quite Tech" 26 gal. vertical compressor in the corner of my garage and it's awesome.

Not loud at all, even though it's oil-less, and because it's vertical it's total footprint is only around 18". keeps up with everything except a die grinder.

I live in an apartment in Brooklyn NY. You can imagine that space is an issue. I would do the work on the roof which is usable. No way will i do anything inside.

nohoflyer said:

I’m going to reply to my own question with a point that might be helpful.

The biggest piece of equipment I use on a regular basis is my big compressor. This makes portability of my build tough. If I get a pancake compressor to run a rivet gun, then use an electric drill I can do most things I need. I just need a toolbox to carry my tools back and forth and a solid table to work on at my home.

Should work for smaller parts.

Click to expand...

I'm sort of in a similar position, in that I live about 30 minutes from my hangar/workshop. In the hangar, I purchased a pretty small California Air Compressors (from Amazon). It's a little 8 gallon, and has been fine with the tail kit so far. I'll get a handful of squeezes with the Numatx before the compressor kicks on. Same with the gun.

I'll probably end up upgrading to a larger one when I get to really riveting a lot. But this thing is stupid quiet - and I'd have no problem running it in my garage without worrying about the noise (from the compressor, at least).

Once I begin building the wings, I figured I'd bring home a bunch of parts to debur during the week, and bring them out to the workshop for final assembly. I'd at least be able to be make some progress on parts prep during the week.