MartySantic

MartySantic

Well Known Member
Page 21-02, Step 2. I have probably been thinking way too much about this after unsuccessfully trying to position the squeezer. I just cannot seem to get the squeezer positioned in-line with the shop head of the AN470 rivet to get a nice flat shop head. If I press on the baggage floor skin, an unacceptable gap appears between the baggage floor flange and the bulkhead. I am looking for any suggestions. If all else fails, I am going to have to call upon my local Chapter builders and buck these rivets. There must be something I am not considering. The plans tell you to use two thin flush sets in the squeezer. I'd like to give the squeezer approach one more chance.

This step is pretty challanging.

Looking for any ideas or something novel that has worked for you.
 
forget it ...

Forget giving the hand squeezers one last chance... Call your friends at the EAA. It'll take them a few minutes to buck those rivets and it'll look good! That's the way I handled it. By the way ... there will still be a very slight gap between the areas between the baggage floor flanges and the bulkhead.
 
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Baggage floor rivets

The squeezers work fine. It just takes a little work. Bend the baggage floor flange back from the 90 degree point some, say 10 degrees so it 100 instead of 90 degrees. Then put blue painter tape from lowes or the depot on the floor so you dont scratch it. Set you main bulkhead on a table and block it up so the baggage floor is angled down and away from the bulkhead so you can easily reach the bulkhead with the squeezers. Your flange is now bent 100 degrees so it will naturally want to do this anyways. Adjust your squeezers so that when you start you squeeze the handles are not very far apart, you dont have to complete the entire squeeze in one movement. After you compress the rivet some it will lock in place and then you can reajust the squeezers some more and compress the rivet all the way on the second squeeze. You want the nonajustable part of the squeezers in the channel of the bulkhead. Good Luck. J
 
Jetguy,

Thanks. The plans tell you to use two flush sets in the squeezer. Work OK w/o damaging the AN470 head?
 
Flush heads

No don't use flush heads on both sides. I forgot about that. With a 470 rivet use the correct concave head for that size rivet in the squeezers on the baggage floor side. Make sure the squeezers are lined up so that the concave head contacts the rivet head straight on. J
 
Baggage Skins Attached!!

A fellow Chapter member came over this afternoon and we riveted the baggage skins to the fuselage. Mike, has a beautiful RV-9A, completed close to a year ago. He took a look at the assembly, placed the squeezer over the bulkhead flange and said we could squeeze the rivets as opposed to using the gun, offset set and a bucking bar. It came out very nice. Nice, tight flanges and good rivets.

We used the squeezer with the cupped die. The instructions suggest using two flat sets, but, I tried it on a sample and it flattens the AN470 head. With the bulkhead horizontal, we placed two large spring clamps on either side of the rivet location. To center the squeezer you have to bend the skin downward. When I first tried, I was a bit hesitant to bend it down to gain clearance for the squeezer, because the gap opened. Mike bent the baggage skin down, centered the squeezer on the rivet, then, he pushed on the squeezer horizontally with a bit of force forcing the rivet in the hole and closing the baggage floor flange gap as I pressed on the other side of the bulkhead. Squeezed it and we moved on to the next.

Took us about 30 minutes to set all of them. Gave us a very respectable result. There is no gap between the bulkhead and the baggage floor skin flange.

Thanks, Mike!! And thanks to those that responded.
 
Jetguy said:
No don't use flush heads on both sides. I forgot about that. With a 470 rivet use the correct concave head for that size rivet in the squeezers on the baggage floor side. Make sure the squeezers are lined up so that the concave head contacts the rivet head straight on. J
Click to expand...

It is totally acceptable to use flush sets on both sides of a AN470 rivet.
Read this Mil-Spec. http://www.vansaircraft.com/public/Specs.htm

The two flush sets were specified for a reason. Because the rivets are quite close to the face of the baggage floor it is more difficult to center a cupped set on the manufactured rivet head. The flush set allows you to be off set just slightly but still form a totally acceptable shop head.
 
Thanks Scott. I did not realize it would be OK to use the two flush sets. Read the specification and understand. That would have been a tad bit easier, but, got it accomplished using the cupped set. This is a challenging step in the build process. Onward! BTW, when can we expect the finishing kit?
 
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