Large Back Rivet Plate Recomendations

[skyfrog]

I did it again, I can't believe it. I misplaced my small back rivet plate and ruined my elevator skin. Time to place another order to Van's.

In the mean time, I think I'll order a much larger back rivet plate, something extra large, huge, I mean the size of my workbench would be nice. Oh, and inexpensive would be good too. What company sells the largest? Or would I be better getting some scrap or welding shop steel plate?

Any ideas are appreciated. I'm tired of ruining skins.

Thanks

[flytoboat]

John,
I went to a local metal shop and got a plate 6" x 18" x 1/4" out of their scrap bin for $5.00. Used a pad sander to smooth one side. Cut a piece of carpet to fit around it and rivet away...

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Or go to Lowes/Home Depot, buy a piece of sheet steel and then take it to your local machine shop and ask them to "grain" it. Ended up costing me about $20 total for a plate twice the size of that from the a/c tool companies.

[Norman CYYJ]

What ever size you use mark where it is on your work bench and use extension lines out past the size of your work. This will prevent you from working too close to the edge of it and wrecking yet another skin. Also if you make your own plate put a slight bevel on all the edges and corners to prevent marking the skins that you are working on.

[Adam Oke]

I just picked one up locally. Called Mill Shops, Machine Shops, Auto Body Shops, Steel Shops, Scrap Shops, Tool Shops, Welding Shops ...... every shop you can think of. Finally Toolrite Engineering solved my woe.

Flip open the yellow pages and start dialing. General consensus around here is cold rolled steel I guess.

[Mike S]

16" X24" x3/8".

Got it at a scrap metal place.

Buffed it with a DA.

[skyfrog]

Thanks for all the suggestions...

I went to the local welding shop and picked out a nice piece of steel for $10. Then I went to the Home Depot Aviation Department and got a piece of plywood to embed the plate. The plywood worked out better than particle board because my router cut down to one layer, which became easy to cut out. What a mess however.

The bad part was that I HAD to buy another tool. I purchased a grinder to smooth out the steel. As you see in the picture, I need to smooth it out a bit more.

I bought some cheap red and green spray paint to highlight the areas outside the riveting area. OK, so I got carried away. Someday, someone will look into my workshop and say, "what the heck is that thing?".

The idea was to move the skin over the plate as needed. I'm wondering if I should instead cut the panel down and move the plate?

Last weekend I finally got back to working on the other elevator. I figure I better work on that first before ordering the replacement, just in case I need to re-order BOTH elevators.

Anyway, here's a picture of the monstrosity.