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Good Rivet Gun and drill

T

TommyChilli

I'm New Here
Hello RV'rs

This has probably been asked many times......

What is a good rivet gun for the RV4 build, ordering the empennage soon and getting the toolkit ready.

Not many places to buy a gun here in Ireland, have seen them on ebay etc...anyone know a good ebay shop thats reliable or is that a silly question:)

Also what air drills are you guys using / recommend.

This site is great by the way.

Cheers.

Rick
 
cleveland, avery, brown, isham are all good retailers.

common tool makers of high repute are sioux, the avery cp copy, the taylor sold by cleveland. I have a sioux 3x and a taylor 2x they seem about the same to me. I haven't used them all that much though so i'm not the best to gauge if one is finer than the other

drills, i like the pan american, the sioux has the highest reputation that i know of
 
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I recommend you purchase a 3X gun. You'll need the power to efficiently smash the relatively few AD4 rivets found on RV's. If you find it too powerful for AD3 rivets, you can always regulate the air pressure downward.

I've accumulated many thousands of hours using an air drill in aircraft production work. That is because I HAD to. As for using a drill on RV's, I built two of them using cordless electric drills. Without a sometimes cumbersome air hose snaking around and over the assembly, a cordless drill much quieter than an air drill and easier on your compressor too.
 
Cordless Drills?

Rick would you mind sharing what worked for you?
It seems all the cordless drills are too heavy, slow or both?
Can we use a car batter on the floor.
Rick
 
Drills

I have always used air drills in my autobody business. and on my airframe as well. My father has always tried to get me to use a cordless drill, but I felt the battery wouldn't last long enough. For Christmas he bought me a Ridgid 18 volt...What a difference....you couldn't take that thing away from me without a fight....No hose in the way, and its very compact and light. With two batteries one in the drill and one on the charger....can't beat it.

Regards

Rich Denton
 
I prefer the air drill

I use a ten-foot-long light-weight hose with my air drill, which lets the heavy air hose and connector stay on the floor. I also have a swivel connector on the drill that lets the air line seek its own angle leaving the drill. With this set up, the light-weight hose is easy to keep out of the way and never bothers me.

I also use a quick-change chuck on the air drill with collet adapters for each of the required drill bits and the the stop countersink. Changing tools in the drill takes only seconds.

On the ohter hand, the battery powered electric drills I have are all significantly bigger and heavier than the air drill, with a big chuck that is not so quick to change. Electric drills can also be awkward to handle in close quarters.

Without question, my preference is for the air drill.
 
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I have two Chicago Pneumatic CP7300 palm drills, that I absolutely love. I bought one new, and then picked up a second well-used one later. Officially it's a single-speed air drill (2800 rpm), but I find that the trigger can be "teased" quite well to get holes started at low RPM before stepping up to full speed.

The Sioux rivet guns are quite nice, I have a 3x. I know many builders who have Avery, CP, and Taylor guns and all successfully built their airplanes, so clearly they work too.
 
Rivet gun and drill

I've heard good things about Sioux tools from a few people now....

Any one using Atlas Copco, I can get my hands on a 2x and 3x at reasonable money, think there the RRN series 18P and 24P.

Regarding the drills how many of you guys have different drills for different speeds and do you find it too difficult to use say a 3000rpm drill for your 30 and 40 drill bits, I'll get 2 or 3 drills if i need them but want to be sure it's a good idea.
 
Good Rivet Gun and Drill

I went looking for tools, both air and electric, that would last a lifetime and I didn't mind spending a bit (or a lot!) more to get them. I also wanted to buy from a manufacturer that had a full line of tools - didn't want orphans, and wanted to be able to buy parts for these if I ever needed to.
Electric:
-Bosch 1020VSR cord drill 0-2100 rpm
-Bosch 1587VS cord jigsaw with variable blade orbit
-Bosch 3615 cordless drill 14.4V 2 speed ranges 0-400 and 0-1200 rpm with 15 clutch settings for screws. This one is a few years old, originally given to my dad as a present, subsequently inherited from him.
Air:
-Powerdyne 3/8" 90 deg angle drill (no P/N). Reversible with full size chuck. First air tool I bought. Cheap at about $100. Broke drive spindle but was amazed that parts still available locally several years after purchase.
-Atlas Copco LBB34 H033 pistol grip 3/8" drill. 0-3300 rpm oilless.
-Atlas Copco LBV24 S032 90 degree angle drill. 0-3200 rpm oilless. Extremely small tip with collet type drive. A pain in the butt to change drill sizes, but we only really need 3 or 4 sizes. Didn't think I was going to use it much, but when I was finishing the wings it was invaluable.
-Atlas Copco RRH 04P-12 TS trigger start pistol grip rivet gun (2X). Has a very nice teasing trigger which rotates to control the air pressure. Very convenient, don't need an external regulator. First gun I bought and thought it would do for all my riveting as it listed 3/32 to 3/16 nominal capacity (aluminum rivets), but was disappointed in the performance on -4. Frequency is 66 Hz, energy/blow is 1.5 ft-lb. It gets hard to control with the high frequency on anything larger than -3. However it's great for -3.
-Atlas Copco RRH 06P TS trigger start pistol grip rivet gun (3X). Bigger brother to the RRH 04P with the same type of trigger. I bought this after I had trouble driving -4 rivets through the aileron brackets among other places. Frequency is 36 Hz, energy/blow is 4.4 lb ft. Listed as 5/32 to 1/4 nominal capacity (aluminum rivets). Much easier to control on -4 and larger rivets. In comparison with the RRH 04P the rivets almost seem to "flow" when driven with this gun. Both guns have an air damping piston which reduces the vibration transmitted to your hand. Atlas Copco also has spring dampened bucking bars which are excellent, but too expensive even for me. I use a tungsten bar almost exclusively now.
-Atlas Copco LSF 17S300-2 die grinder 0-30,000 rpm. Use with both die grinder bits and 2-1/2" fiber cutoff wheel
-Chicago Pneumatic CP 0214 compression riveter with several yokes.

I am totally satisfied with these tools with the exception of having to buy the second riveting gun. If I could only buy one, I would buy the RRH 06P (larger one), but I am glad I have both. The RRH 04P is 7" long and the RRH 06P is 9" long. Sometimes you need the smaller gun.
 
att: Terrye

So you find the Atlas guns good......that's good to hear as I am going ahead and buying the 2 Atlas guns, I seen those Atlas bucking bars...expensive.

Just need to sort the drills now.

Thanks for the input
 
here is my ATS 3x rivet gun.

1000524.jpg


I also use a cordless drill whenever possible so I don't have to turn the compressor on. Im on my second cordless drill and my second mains power drill so far with my build.
 
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