Tip: Rivet Spacing on Tubes

[Rick6a]

The plans call for 8 equally spaced rivets. The easiest way I know how to lay out 8 holes on a round tube with reasonable accuracy is by using a piece of tape cut to length and a fan spacer. The pictures should explain the process.

[Tom Navar]

Awesome idea. I myself had to go back to my high school book on trig to figure out sines, cosines, and tangents... at least it joggled some connectins upstairs..
TN
RV-8 QB

[Pirkka]

Too simple to be good... just kidding. Excellent - Tip of the month!

[PJSeipel]

Now I know how spoiled we are on the RV-10! The RV-10 plans have full sized templates that you cut out and tape to the tubes, basically the same idea as what you're doing.

PJ Seipel
RV-10 #40032

[Ironflight]

Dang Rick....every time I had to do one of those, I did the math....I LOVE simple ideas! (I've never had a fan rivet spacer...maybe now I have an excuse - for the NEXT project!

Paul

[Rick6a]

Ironflight........I've never had a fan rivet spacer...maybe now I have an excuse.....Paul

Paul,

I found using fan spacers on the 6A to be a huge time saver since the builder has to lay out many hole patterns, especially along the fuselage. Sometimes I would cleco two or more fan spacers together to lay out especially long runs. At McDonnell, we were taught to use a scale and math to determine rivet spacing. Although I've never seen it, I'm told the Douglas guys in California actually used a flexible type of clear tape with small dots or holes in it. By stretching the tape out along the sheet, rivet spacing was automatic without having to do math......similiar in concept to using a fan spacer.

[Low Pass]

Maybe I'm missing something, but couldn't you just wrap a piece of paper around the tube. Mark the point where the paper meets its end. Remove the paper, fold in half (one end against the previous mark). Repeat until you have 8 folds. Rewrap the paper around the tube and transfer marks from the folds to the tube. Now you have 8 equally spaced marks.

Did this building model rockets back in the day, and probably did it on my plane.

[Ironflight]

Originally Posted by Low Pass

Maybe I'm missing something, but couldn't you just wrap a piece of paper around the tube. Mark the point where the paper meets its end. Remove the paper, fold in half (one end against the previous mark). Repeat until you have 8 folds. Rewrap the paper around the tube and transfer marks from the folds to the tube. Now you have 8 equally spaced marks.

Well...yeah...but what about when you only want 6 rivets?

I flunked origami....

[mdoyle]

I don't have a fan rivet spacer, but I do have a set of dividers from my old drafting kit I used in college (I bet a lot of others have them tucked away somewhere). I use it a lot to step off spacing for rivets etc.

[Low Pass]

Originally Posted by Ironflight

Well...yeah...but what about when you only want 6 rivets?

I flunked origami....

Have done that - ala three-fin rockets! Gotta work the paper a bit for the 1/3 split. But it works too. Fold paper a second time for six!