[Paul Tuttle]

couple of weeks ago a friend and I were discussing rivet strength and when it is OK to keep one or replace it. He told me of a little test he did where he riveted a couple of pieces of aluminum together as poorly as he could and then did a distruction test on the sample. After reading a recent thread on whether to keep rivets or not , I decided to perform the same test on my own and photograph the results for anyone who may be interested.(These are really poorly done rivets)
My disclaimer here is that this is in no way a scientific test and I could be overlooking a number of facters regarding rivet failure. All I can say for sure is that I was making noises akin to a tackle for the Cowboys trying to tear this thing apart and had no failure of the rivets only the surrounding aluminum.

Oh and...I would like to inform the court that my aircraft does not have any rivets like these on it !!! so far at least.

RV 8 Fuselage

A little paint should hide that

 

[jferraro17]

WOW!

Anyway to test the sheer strength vice tensil? Or did you try to slide the pieces apart too?

Certianly instills a bit of confidence in some of my "less than perfect" rivets.

Thanks Paul!


Joe

 

[fodrv7]

Fatigue

The test does not take account of possible failure over time due to the greater likelyhood of fatigue induced by all the scratches, dints and sharp edges caused by poor setting of the rivets.

Pete.