Loose cleco after dimples

Jalanci · #1 01-12-2007, 05:40 AM

Finished the horizontal stab and working on the vertical today. Alls well, except I'm finding a couple of loose cleco'sm when I prepare for riveting. I'm guessing the dimples stretched the hole some using a pneumatic squeezer. I drilled the two out that felt too loose to #30 and placed oops rivets instead. Any other suggestions, is this overkill?

Thanks in advance. Any advise on dimpling technique to prevent the hole stretch?

APilot4Fun · #2 01-12-2007, 06:24 AM

Hi Jeffery,

After dimpling I found the holes in the skins to be slightly larger than before. The thinner the material is that is dimpled, the larger the change in the hole size. Just wait until you do the rudder and elevator skins. They open up more then you've seen already. As long as you are using the correct die set, you should be good. I used a hand tool for the dimpling and had no trouble. Using reasonable pressure with a hand tool, you can't over dimple a hole. Once the die is fully closed it can't dimple more. I've never used an air dimpler but I can't imagine it can over dimple either.

I just don't know why this would be a condition that would cause only a few holes to be different from the others. Does the loosness feel the same with other clecos in the same hole or is the loosness from a cleco that is different from the rest?

When the rivet gets driven it fattens up slightly to fit the hole. So long as the hole isn't wacky big, I think you should be fine.

Jalanci · #3 01-12-2007, 06:42 AM

The issue was only a couple of rivet holes. I'm fairly sure that the AD3 would squash and fill the hole, but figured that if I replaced the rivets with the larger ones, I'd be sure of a good fit.

I used a couple of homemade washers to get a better grip on some of the cleco's. Two holes wouldn't grip at all so I chose a conservative route. Appreciate the insight though.

craigvince · #4 01-12-2007, 06:55 AM

It might be your clecos, not your dimpled holes.

I had the same problem, except that none of my cleclos would hold in place after I dimpled my skins. Needless to say, I panicked. My tech advisor came over and said the holes looked normal to him and couldn't see why the clecos wouldn't hold in them. I borrowed some of his clecos, and they all held just fine! For some reason, the clecos I had bought would not spread out quite as far as his clecos. We still haven't figured out why, but I've since sent all of my clecos back to US Industrial Tool. Mike Hill, their technical manager, is testing the clecos to try to figure it out. In the meantime, I'm using my tech advisor's clecos and everything is holding fine.

Bad Clecos?

Craig Vincent
RV-9A emp
N51CV
Stockton EAA

briand · #5 01-12-2007, 06:55 AM

Are all your clecos the same brand?

3/32" Clecoloc brand will not work after dimpling.

William Slaughter · #6 01-12-2007, 07:27 AM

I accidentally ended up with two different brands of cleoes, so I divided them up and use the smaller ones on the prepunched hole assemblies, where they go in much more easily, and the larger ones after things have been dimpled. No need to go all the way out to an oops rivet. Fortunately, the "little" ones have a plated shank and the others do not, so it's easy to tell them apart, at least in my case.

Jalanci · #7 01-12-2007, 07:48 AM

I do have two sets of cleco's from two sources. The last bunch I bought from Van's, hopefully, they will hold. I'll check the diameters and see if I find a difference.

Great help, THANKS!!!

RVbySDI · #8 01-12-2007, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by briand

Are all your clecos the same brand?

3/32" Clecoloc brand will not work after dimpling.

I have had the same problems with the Clecoloc brand. I cannot remember the brand name of the other type of fasteners I also have. I bought them at Oshkosh from Avery tools a couple of years ago. This other brand has a pewter (sp?) colored button rather than the silver color of the Cleco brand. Whenever I need to cleco a dimpled hole I use these to do the job.

mlw450802 · #9 01-12-2007, 11:52 AM

If you study the business end of your clecos you'll notice that different brands have slightly different spreader bar lengths. If the spreader is very short and the thicknes of the material too great, the two little gripper fingers don't get spread apart as the cleco spring is released.
Since the dimpled holes are now "thicker" than the undimpled sheets, apparently your clecos are not retracting enough to be spread apart and they fail to grip.

At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

-mike

craigvince · #10 01-12-2007, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by briand

Are all your clecos the same brand?

3/32" Clecoloc brand will not work after dimpling.

Yes, all of mine were Cleco-Loc brand.