2 questions about riveting.

[tvlawyer]

1. I squeezed my first rivets this week on the VS rear spar. Sometimes, when I check the squeezed rivet, the shop head diameter is right on, but the height may be a little too much. Since I'm using the rivet called out in the plan, I'm thinking this is OK. Am I doing something wrong?

2. After drilling out a bad AN470, I found myself with an slightly enlarged and elongated hole. Can I use the same size rivet again or must I use something else?

Getting ready to rivet VS skin to skeleton this weekend!

[Guy Prevost]

Howdy,

Question 1: As long as the diameter of the shop head is larger than the diameter gauge and the shop head is taller than the height gauge, the rivet is good. If the shop head is shorter than the height gauge, then the rivet is overdriven. If it's overdriven, and the shop head does still not have the proper diameter then the rivet is too short. I will sometimes use rivets that are very slightly too short (i.e. the shop head is the proper diameter, but it is a TINY BIT shorter than the minimum height gauge) because it is my belief that a well set slightly short rivet is much better than a poorly set longer rivet.

Question 2: If the hole is visibly elongated, you're probably not going to get good results the second time. You can try drilling the hole very slightly larger so that it is round and then squeeze the rivet you are going to put in there with a hand squeezer to "fatten" it a bit. Once you squeeze the rivet to the right diameter, you should be able to put it in the hole and set it with good results. Once again, a rivet that is less than perfect is probably better than the rivet that you're going to have to put in the enlarged hole after a botched drill job.

Disclaimer: I'm an idiot. You will get as many different opinions about how to handle these problems as there are respondents. You will have to digest all of the information presented and make up your own mind about how to deal with things like this.

Guy

[G-force]

Buy yourself a copy of Standard Aircraft Handbook, it has all the informatin your asking about. Or at least, check out http://www.eaa72.org/tech/rivet_a.htm
Which has alot of usefull information. While 1.5 dia. is the the normal standard for rivet upset diameter, the mil spec is 1.3 dia. So on the places that Vans calls out what seems too short of a rivet, I prefer to squeeze it to achieve the minimum height, then check to see if the width is between 1.3 and 1.5 of the dia. 1.3 dia will seem really sloppy if you using an Avery gauge as they are 1.5 dia. Use some dial caliper to measure the width, or even better make some of your own rivet gauges with 1.3 dia holes in them. There is a max heigth spec, but I bet it is pretty diffucult to sat a rivet that is really long, they tend to want to club over. If you can set it straight and to a 1.5 dia., I wouldnt worry if its a bit hight. As for sloppy holes, it depends on how sloppy. The specs say a 470AD-4 hole can be up to .135" If the hole is beat up and not round, I would just go up to the next size -5 rivet

[johngoodman]

Originally Posted by G-force

As for sloppy holes, it depends on how sloppy. The specs say a 470AD-4 hole can be up to .135" If the hole is beat up and not round, I would just go up to the next size -5 rivet

That's what I've done. I bought a bag of -5 rivets in a long length and cut them to the right size. Just redrill the buggered hole for a -5 and you're back in business. You won't even be able to tell the difference without a really close look.

[az_gila]

Originally Posted by G-force

Buy yourself a copy of Standard Aircraft Handbook, it has all the informatin your asking about. Or at least, check out http://www.eaa72.org/tech/rivet_a.htm

My original scan and translate is formatted a little better....

http://home.earthlink.net/~gilalex

Same information, just fit's easier on the screen....
They even ripped off our figures, which didn't scan well from the original document....
Pity they couldn't even get the HTML formatting right...

gil in Tucson