[N546RV]

Yup, it's finally time for some skin riveting. Following the instructions, I cleco'd HS-707 to the topside of the skin and went to riveting. Everything went well until I got to the last one, which was the forwardmost rivet on the rib.

First problem here: once I removed that last cleco, the rib no longer wants to sit flush with the skin. So how to pull it into the skin? After some consideration, I decided to cleco the rib to the other side of the skin as well; as expected, that pulled the skin tight against the rib. Of course, the downside was that now there's veeeeery little room in there to hold a bucking bar.

So after some experimenting with positions and such, I finally felt like I had the setup right. A few quick burst with the gun, and the tail is starting to set, but it looks crooked. And one side of the manufactured head is poking out of the dimple as well.

I decided it was drill-out time. Yeah, that went well. Got the manufactured head off OK, but tweaked the hole a bit. Then came he really great part...I punched the rivet shaft a few times to knock it out, didn't seem to be working well. A peek inside the skin revealed why. Instead of the rivet turning loose of the rib, I'd just beat the flange into submission, bending it down fairly significantly.

(I really hope the neighbor's grandkids, who were playing out in their driveway, couldn't hear the ensuing language. It echoed nicely inside the garage...)

So I guess my questions are as follows: Is it normal to have this much difficulty pulling the rib tight against the skin? If so, is there a better way to go about pulling it tight than clecoing the opposite side of the skin? Preferably a method that gives me a little more room to hold the bucking bar in there...

 

[Andrew M]

Tricks

This is the nose rib? At any rate the tricks I use are:
Piece of plywood cut out with weather stripping to hold the skin tight. (like in the instructions show for a fixture).
My favorite, now that the rib is bent. Put a piece of weatherstripping on the bucking bar to act like a back rivet set until the rivet is swollen up enough to hold it together, then finish without the weather stripping. No need to poke a hole in the foam rubber. Just make sure it's JUST thick enough to hold everything tight.
Last thing, driving rivet shanks out is usually a bad idea in light dimpled structure. I go for the home made "flush cut" dykes to grab the tail. If I do drive tails out, I always "core" the rivet with an under size bit to relieve the internal stresses that hold in tight.This is especially true with dimples sheets as a rivet can swell some between the sheets adding to your difficulty. Sometimes it's best to drill. If you think a rivet might be going down bad, the sooner you commit to replacing it the easier its going to be.

 

[DaAV8R]

Then came he really great part...I punched the rivet shaft a few times to knock it out, didn't seem to be working well. A peek inside the skin revealed why. Instead of the rivet turning loose of the rib, I'd just beat the flange into submission, bending it down fairly significantly.

When you punch out a rivet shank, place a bucking bar on the inside just adjacent to the shop head. This will prevent bending the flange, take away most of the bounce and facilitate shank removal.