Had a bit of trouble back-riveting last night. When riveting my elevator skins I was ?smearing" several rivets which would lead me to believe that either the work was moving or the rivet head was moving. I had the air pressure set at 20 psi. Any other ideas as to what I might be doing wrong?
I have limited time to work this weekend and, rather than practice, I decided to figure out another way to get the skins riveted. Additionally, I don?t have an offset back-riveting set and the rivet next to the long vertical flange of the E-1008B rib half was going to be a pain. I figured out how to kill 2 birds with one stone.
A buddy had loaned me his Avery C-Frame and showed me how it could be used to set rivets (unlike my DRDT-2). A little work the the table saw & belt sander and a little tape and I had a substitute back riveting jig! I?m pretty sure I?m not the first to use the C-Frame as substitute for a back-rivet plate but?
It worked remarkably well. With the Flush Squeezer set in the C-Frame as the ?back rivet plate?, a piece of 2x4 cut and sanded to the same height as the head with a channel cut through it for the cleco?s, and a couple supports on either side, I was able to get extremely consistent results. Using the jig, I was able to back rivet an elevator skin in about 30 minutes without hurrying and with dramatically better results than I?ve gotten from using a back-rivet plate and set.
Anyone see any downside from this method? I cover the flush rivet heads with scotch tape so no scratching the skin.
Back riveting trouble and a solution?
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