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Pneumatic Squeezer "Issues" / Problems

txaviator

txaviator

Well Known Member
It seems my pneumatic squeezer is "losing some squeeze"?

It worked great today for dimpling some ribs. Then I switched out my dies to squeeze the rivets in my vertical stabilizer rear spar. The rivets weren't huge: AN470AD4-5's. Despite how I adjust the depth, it just doesn't have enough 'ummf' to squeeze them at all. It worked great on my HS spar, so I am clueless? :confused:

Oh, and I bought it second-hand, but it appears to be like brand new.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.
 
Hi Gary

Couple of questions:

1) Is your pressure set high enough ? The squeezer I used would work anywhere from 80 - 100 lbs (or more), but I really needed that 100 lbs for the larger rivets.

2) Are the rivets long ? I had an issue where the squeezer wouldn't squeeze -5 and above rivets (especially 1/8" thick ones). I had to widen out the jaws and squeeze the rivet halfway (or so), then readjust the jaws to squeeze the rest of the way. Pain in the patootie, but it worked.

3) Is the squeezer well greased ? You might want to put some high pressure grease down in the plunger well.

That's all I can think of at the moment.

Cheers
 
Squeezer squeeze

I ran into the same problem at Griffin at the school. Wouldn't squeeze well enough. Fiddled with the air preesure, swapped hoses, regulators, and even tried different sueezers.

As it turned out, I had the setting down to tight for the rivet and apparantly the squeezer is smarter than us and won't squeeze the rivet if it is cranked down too hard....try that...

Hwood
 
Thanks for the replies!

Well, as other folks had pointed out, the squeezer was smarter than I am! :eek:

I had to go over to Avery's today for some other things, and I took the pneumatic squeezer along so that Bob Avery could take a look at it. He kind of chuckled, and said that he had already "had two calls of the same nature today"!

You guys were correct, and my mind was telling me something completely opposite of what looked like a proper setting. I was setting up dies in the squeezer, just as if I were setting up dimple dies to dimple. I was letting the two dies come together, and on a rivet? That doesn't work. When I used it on the HS, I guess I just got lucky. However, Bob gave me a 30-minute tutorial on squeezers today, and it was a lesson worth hearing!

I will try my best to explain the proper settings that I learned today (although it is tough to do in written print, rather than showing you in person):

Dimpling: Set the adjustable set so that the dies come together and touch with a little bit of pressure (everyone probably knew that one :D )

Setting Rivets: Say for example, you have a rivet that the shaft is 1/4", for sake of discussion. Initially set the gap between the two dies at 1/4". Take a test rivet and squeeze the rivet without any other structure; just the rivet in-between the dies. It may squeeze down just a fraction...run the dies out just a few turns so that they are closer together. Try the same test again. The rivet should set a little more this time....Make fine adjustments until you get the right depth. After doing this only a couple of times, you will "get to know your squeezer" and not have to waste rivets each time setting up the depth. You can just 'eyeball' a rivet up against the depth of each size rivet.

Why is this so, when your mind tells you that the depth does not look anywhere close enough to squeezing the rivet to the proper depth? It is all in the intregal parts of the squeezers themselves. There is a lobe inside the squeezer that doesn't exert full force until it peaks on the lobe. I know this is tough to explain/understand. Bob even went as far as taking apart a squeezer and showing me all the guts, and how it worked from a mechanical standpoint. Seeing it in person made perfect sense.

I hope this helps someone else out along the way. And I wish to send a HUGE "thank you" out to Bob Avery. He took 30-minutes out of his busy day to explain every facet of a pneumatic squeezer to me. MUCH-MUCH appreciated, and a fine establishment to do business with.

Take care,
 
Last edited:
Hey Gary--

Sounds Like Bob's been a busy guy lately. I was there Tuesday with my squeezer...it was leaking air (see earlier thread). Same great service. Bob dropped what he was doing, took me (and my wife) into his shop, tore it apart and basically did a complete overhaul in about 45 minutes while we stood there in awe of the inner workings of the squeezer. He replaced two O rings for the air problem; but then replaced a few small parts "just because", filed off some burs, re-greased, reamed out the quick change holes.... Unbelievable. Assuming I didn't put an eye out with one of the innner springs, I would have never gotten it back together the way he did, and not even approached the improved operation...the thing is like new.

I told him his reputation preceeded him, now I know why and his rep--while outstanding--probably doesn't do him justice. :) Unbelievable is all I can say.

As for the Cam/lobe inside the squeezer, I agree, hard to understand without seeing it. I thought he said it actually develops it's most power at the top of the stroke due to the shape of the cam, but he also demonstarted a point where it won't squeeze at all if the adjustable set isn't just so. Interesting and educational.

Bottom line, the guy's a prince, he's got a customer for life, and he's one of the nicest guys I've ever met.

Not sure why I'm surprised, Doug's been saying that would be the case with most RVaitors for as long as I've known about/been reading about RV's.

Joe
 
Joe...

Were you the gentleman who bought your squeezer off of eBay? Bob mentioned that he had extensively rebuilt one earlier in the week, that was purchased from eBay, and needed a rebuild. He did tell me it was "better than new now", if yours is the one I am thinking of?
 
Squeezer settings

If you have the adjustable set (which it sounds like you have) you can save some time, I found out that you can setup the squeezer for each length of rivet by running a test squeeze for each length and noting the number of turns of the adjustable set from full closed required to set the rivet to the right length. The procedure I use is to hold the trigger and close the dies until they just touch and then back of the correct number of turns, I use the wrench cutouts on the set as a measure for rotation. I then made a list for each length with the number of turns required so now I just look at the table for the rivet I am squeezing, adjust the set and squeeze, check the rivet and adjust slightly as required.
This has worked well for rivets up to -6, -7 and over are too long for my squeezer with the jaws that I have (i.e cant back off enough for the cam action to get enough leverage to set the rivet).
Hope this helps :)
 
Pneumatic Squeezer issues

I also have a nice thing to say about Bob Avery. My Avery pneumatic squeezer quit squeezing after about 4000 rivets (over two years). I sent it back to Bob and he rebuilt it free of change. What more can you possibly say about customer service? Bob called me when he replaced the O-rings and shipped it back FedEx. Wow! My squeezer is my favorite tool for building.

Russ Grell
RV9a Wings
ProSealing tanks
 
The Avery's are Great!! They set me up with all my tools, including my pneumatic squeezer. Fine, caring people.

Roberta
 
Yep, I love that place, and all the people that work there are GREAT. They seem to "take" a huge amount of my money, though :D

I went back again today, and bought a set of the Vice-Grip's with dies built-in...they work awesome. And I also bought my favorite purchase of ALL TIME.......

The no-hole yoke for my squeezer. Gosh, how did I get along without that tool up until now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!????????????????? I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Gary--

No, that wasn't me. Bob told me about that one too..that's why I commented about how busy he was...mine, yours and the one from eBay that proceeded both of us!

I'm just glad I'm local to Avery's, so when I really need some help, it will be a car ride away :)

Where would this group be without folks like this?

Joe
 
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