Van's Air Force
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To wet set or not?
- Thread starter Brantel
- Start date
RV7Factory
Chief Obfuscation Officer
I started doing this early in my tank building process and gave up. It slowed the process down substantially and caused a few rivets to sit proud. I finished all the ribs and baffle on the tanks without doing this, and I had no leaks. Besides, if you butter up the parts with sealant, a bit will squeeze out the hole anyway making it somewhat redundant to put sealant in the dimple prior.
Just my $.02. YMMV.
Just my $.02. YMMV.
I used a stub of a broken off Q-Tip to put a little sealant in every dimple. No leaks. Was it necessary? Probably not. Did it help? Maybe.
You'll have sealant between the ribs and skin, so nothing can get thru there. When you are done riveting, you'll goop over the shop heads, so nothing should get thru there. So except for air bubbles or missed spots, there should be no pathway for the gas to escape. But sealing over the shop heads and getting a good job is not as easy as it seems like it should be. I checked mine with a flashlight and a mirror, one rivet at a time and found I had to touch up several spots.
But here is how we did my tanks. I had 2 helpers. One with RV experience manned the bucking bar, I ran the rivet gun and an inexperienced helper gooped the holes and stuck the rivets in. So the pattern was, gooper gooped the hole & stuck in the rivet, I hit it with the gun, bucker checked the rivet, I pulled the next cleco & gooper did his thing again. This was with the tank standing on end. The first tank took several hours to do the ribs, the second one took about 2-3. Regardless of whether we gooped the holes, it was really nice to have 3 people.
Richard Scott
RV-9A Wings
You'll have sealant between the ribs and skin, so nothing can get thru there. When you are done riveting, you'll goop over the shop heads, so nothing should get thru there. So except for air bubbles or missed spots, there should be no pathway for the gas to escape. But sealing over the shop heads and getting a good job is not as easy as it seems like it should be. I checked mine with a flashlight and a mirror, one rivet at a time and found I had to touch up several spots.
But here is how we did my tanks. I had 2 helpers. One with RV experience manned the bucking bar, I ran the rivet gun and an inexperienced helper gooped the holes and stuck the rivets in. So the pattern was, gooper gooped the hole & stuck in the rivet, I hit it with the gun, bucker checked the rivet, I pulled the next cleco & gooper did his thing again. This was with the tank standing on end. The first tank took several hours to do the ribs, the second one took about 2-3. Regardless of whether we gooped the holes, it was really nice to have 3 people.
Richard Scott
RV-9A Wings
jferraro17
Opulence, I has it...
I'd recommend the "fay sealing" technique you can search out on this forum.
I thought it worked great on my tanks, a lot less mess. I had only one leak, but it was a rea baffle, not a rib/rivet problem.
Good luck
Joe
I thought it worked great on my tanks, a lot less mess. I had only one leak, but it was a rea baffle, not a rib/rivet problem.
Good luck
Joe
bullojm1
Well Known Member
dan said:
Dan,
I did use the Cleaveland tank dimple dies on both the skin and ribs. After thinking about this a little more, I took a closer look at the tanks just now, I was mistaken about the proud rivets. The rivets are actually set deeper in the skin, which gave me the impression the rivets were set high when I ran my fingers across them.
So, I take back my last statement, I would wet set again with the tank dimple dies.
RV7Factory
Chief Obfuscation Officer
I should clarify too...
I too used the Tank dies, but my few proud rivets were when back-riveting the stiffeners and cap flange. The excess sealant that squeezed out past the rivet during riveting acted an uncompressible cushion between the skin and back riveting plate, causing a few rivets to sit slightly proud. In all but one case this was easily remedied by cleaning the excess sealant from the skin and giving the rivet one more hit.
Good luck!
I too used the Tank dies, but my few proud rivets were when back-riveting the stiffeners and cap flange. The excess sealant that squeezed out past the rivet during riveting acted an uncompressible cushion between the skin and back riveting plate, causing a few rivets to sit slightly proud. In all but one case this was easily remedied by cleaning the excess sealant from the skin and giving the rivet one more hit.
Good luck!
Brockster
Well Known Member
Not a fan of tank dimple dies
Since these dies allow the rivet to sit deeper they also enlarge the hole for the rivet. A friend of mine used them on one of his tanks and would never use them again because after bucking with a perfect shop head you could actually rotate some of the rivets. George Orendorff won't work on any tanks where tank dimple dies were used. I believe if you do a search for "tank dimple dies" you will find additional info.
My .02 worth.
Since these dies allow the rivet to sit deeper they also enlarge the hole for the rivet. A friend of mine used them on one of his tanks and would never use them again because after bucking with a perfect shop head you could actually rotate some of the rivets. George Orendorff won't work on any tanks where tank dimple dies were used. I believe if you do a search for "tank dimple dies" you will find additional info.
My .02 worth.
OldAndBold
Well Known Member
To wet seat or not?
"To wet seat or not?" -
was a question answered by an orthopedic surgeon who was also a private pilot speaking about how to reduce medical risks when making a forced landing.
I kid you not.
JCB
"To wet seat or not?" -
was a question answered by an orthopedic surgeon who was also a private pilot speaking about how to reduce medical risks when making a forced landing.
I kid you not.
JCB
Brantel
Well Known Member
Thanks guys,
Since there were hundreds of RV's built before "tank dies" and tons of them are flying with no leaks that did not "wet seat" the rivets and for the fact that 90% of the time some sealant squeezes out around the head of the rivet anyway,
I decided not to "wet set" mine. After doing this, I am sure it will never leak because there was sealant oozing as George would say around the head anyway.
Thanks for the help!
Since there were hundreds of RV's built before "tank dies" and tons of them are flying with no leaks that did not "wet seat" the rivets and for the fact that 90% of the time some sealant squeezes out around the head of the rivet anyway,
I decided not to "wet set" mine. After doing this, I am sure it will never leak because there was sealant oozing as George would say around the head anyway.
Thanks for the help!
