Part of my RV-9 got airborne without an engine... guess why!
Sorry to revive this old post, but I have some news... parts of my RV-9 got airborne... without an engine... Back riveting is driving me nuts!!!
As mentioned in another post last week I am waiting for the rest of my kit to arrive. Finally, after almost 5 months! While waiting, I am still finalizing some things before I ready for a mandatory inspection (local regulation). Today I received an order with some tools. One of them was a new back rivet set... why did I order a new one? Long story.
I have done some back riveting on the rudder, and it went quiet well. But for some reason every attempt since then fails... I have probably searched for every little tip on back riveting, I am doing something wrong... for sure!
- pressure 37 psi for 3 - 3.5 rivet. Tried less and more pressure, no success.
- bought an air line swivel because I thought the weight of the air hose had anything to do with it, no success.
- filed one side of the plastic collar to be able to get closer in the bend of the stiffener, no success.
- tilted a bit more to the stiffener, no success.
- went away from it and try again, same results.
- no pressure on the rivet gun, let it set itself, same...
- took the rivet gun in the palm of my hand and triggered with my middle finger to avoid tilting, same...
- Placed a mirror and a light, same...
- locked the plastic collar between thumb and index finger, same issue.
- talked to other builders, sounds easy when the explain it, when I try it, it fails.
- replaced my back rivet set, no success.
Finally, I drilled out about 50 holes in two scrap sheets and tried over and over again. Some are good, most are not. Don't really understand what the magic it that makes them good or bad. It is just not consistent. Really frustrating!
The problem seems to be that they are or not even, or bend over. The most logical explanation for the bend is that the rivet is too long, but it are the standard 3.5 rivets VANS advices to use, probably 1000 builders already did so. It must be missing something...
Any advice for this frustrated back riveter?
How some parts got airborne? Well... I noticed that I still needed to put the plate nuts in the electric trim part, bad idea to start with that part after all the trouble with the back riveting... it got airborne.