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distracted riveting

Greenley

Well Known Member
We hear all the time about the dangers of distracted driving. Maybe that "driving" also means driving rivets. I was showing the shop to some company and in a true moment of brilliance thought I would demo some riveting. I had this fuselage part ready for attaching platenuts, so I plugged in the rivet squeezer and went to work. Rivets, check, platenut, check, squeezer set, check, squeeze, see how easy that is. It is quick too, I can immediately squeeze the next rivets. Is there supposed to be one of those screw things on those rivets too? Uh..... Yes? So, I get to add a demonstration of how to drill out rivets. Talk about embarrasing. So this is my confession, I have officially joined the dumb stunt club.

missedPlatenut.jpg

They were beautifully squeezed :)
 
"Well, *ahem* sometimes it is important to test fit the rivets and make certain that they are being squeezed properly before actually joining parts. Of course I'll drill these out and replace them with the permanent rivets later.":rolleyes:
 
Been there done that. Thats the step back and scratch your head moment where you say..."something just doesn't look right."
It won't be the last time. By the way...nice looking rivets.
 
I think its nice to hear I am not the only one. It sure left me wondering how on earth I could do such a thing. I only wish all my mistakes were as easily and cheaply fixed.
 
Just this afternoon I drilled out a half-dozen rivets that I set more than 2 years ago during a "less-than-fully-aware" moment....
 
Drilling out rivets? My experience came at the rudder redo step of the project! O, that was not part of the build process?
 
I am a "repeat offender". More than once I put two clecos in the aluminum but had one miss one hole in the nutplate. Pull the 'bad' cleco, rivet, pull the good cleco.....what was that noise? How can the nutplate have fallen out?
 
I am a "repeat offender". More than once I put two clecos in the aluminum but had one miss one hole in the nutplate. Pull the 'bad' cleco, rivet, pull the good cleco.....what was that noise? How can the nutplate have fallen out?

:D

Hahaha! I've never done that!

Not that I'm going to admit, anyway... :cool:
 
Bill, the one thing that is important to remember is - never tell anyone that doesn't know if you made a mistake that you made a mistake. Lets just say I am pretty good at drilling out rivets. I like the idea that they were "test" rivets. I will remember that one!

Im changing a fuselage from a tail wheel to nose wheel so I feel like all I am doing is fixing! I just finished putting the steps in - which involved drilling out the baggage floor covers and side panels. The main gear were not that much fun either, but they are in.
 
I was very pleased with the rivets I set (backriveted) in one of my aileron skins for the stiffeners. Beautiful! And it went fast too. Then I saw the pile of stiffeners off to the side. And that is when I realized my aileron skin had beautiful rivets but no stiffeners.

Welcome to the club. I was feeling kinda lonely. ;-)
 
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