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Inboard rear spar wing skin rivets

sbalmos

sbalmos

Well Known Member
A question a week from me. I'm on a roll. :)

This past weekend, my dad, a family friend, and I were riveting the inboard wing skins. All was well, until I got to the inboard rear spar rivets, where the doubler fork and plate is already riveted to the spar with universal-head rivets. The thickness of the doublers and rivet heads was enough to interfere with trying to set the skin-to-spar rivets.

I'm still drilling out other rivets. But these ones worry me the most about how to set them. You can see how they literally were half-set. One I tried back-riveting, the other I tried with my squeezer. I'm not even sure my tungsten bar would be thin enough to fit between the unset tail and the edge of the doubler plate if I were to try flush riveting.

How'd the rest of you do these?

IMG_20130917_210828_zpsd94bd9f8.jpg
 
I ran into the same thing on my -7. I used an old wood chisel. I laid the wing on the work bench with some carpet under it to prevent scratches. Then I slid the trailing edge about 6" off the edge of the carpet and used Styrofoam blocks to raise the leading edge so the trailing edge was flat against the carpet - and my back riveting plate. I laid the chisel down against the rivet shanks and used it as a flat set. I hit it with the rivet gun with a real flat set. It worked fine, I didn't even have to drill out the ones that had the shanks half-smashed like yours, they set pretty nice and flat.

Hope this helps. I couldn't even wedge the angled face of my tungsten bar under there to get the last half dozen or so, but the chisel worked like a charm.
 
Hrm. I like that idea Dale. Dad's an ex-woodshop teacher, so plenty of old dull chisels sitting around. :) I'll have him bring some for this weekend's work session. The rest of the rear spar rivets I'm going to squeeze once my 4" yoke comes in from Avery later this week.

Thanks!
 
Yup - wood chisel would probably work, I used a big flat blade screwdriver with the tungsten bucking bar behind it, and the gun on the factory head.
 
make a tool

A lot of the building fun is making/modifying tools. I believe I used a no-hole yoke in my squeezer. I ground (grinded?) the top and sides of the yoke so it would fit in the space available.
 
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