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Wild rivet

wirejock

wirejock

Well Known Member
I was finishing up the details on the empennage fairing today. Installing nutplates, drilling rivets, tapping holes and filling unused holes. I was feeling around and looking to make sure the rivet holes I picked wouldn't cause a problem with some other structure inside. While touching shop heads, a 470 rivet flew out of the aft deck. Talk about a startle. That bugger never got set. It never fell out despite the canoe rotating on the rotisserie probably a hundred times. Numerous rivets driven with the fuse upside down. Lots of vibration. That rivet just sat there waiting for my finger to touch it and it flew out. Needless to say, I checked all the others with a mirror and set the wild one. This is the stuff that gives me nightmares. I'm a little OCD. When I do a job, I check the shop heads with a mirror and flashlight and usually check every shop head with a gauge. That one gets a name for surviving so long. I think his name will be "Murphy". I expect some really bizarre dreams tonight.
:LOL:
 
I recall I had one hole that didn't get riveted until much later when I finally noticed it...don't recall where it was, it was nealry 15 years ago now. Same thing happened to one or two of my buddies during their build.

Quite a surprise to see an empty rivet hole suddenly appear out of nowhere :).
 
wirejock said:
I was finishing up the details on the empennage fairing today. Installing nutplates, drilling rivets, tapping holes and filling unused holes. I was feeling around and looking to make sure the rivet holes I picked wouldn't cause a problem with some other structure inside. While touching shop heads, a 470 rivet flew out of the aft deck. Talk about a startle. That bugger never got set. It never fell out despite the canoe rotating on the rotisserie probably a hundred times. Numerous rivets driven with the fuse upside down. Lots of vibration. That rivet just sat there waiting for my finger to touch it and it flew out. Needless to say, I checked all the others with a mirror and set the wild one. This is the stuff that gives me nightmares. I'm a little OCD. When I do a job, I check the shop heads with a mirror and flashlight and usually check every shop head with a gauge. That one gets a name for surviving so long. I think his name will be "Murphy". I expect some really bizarre dreams tonight.
:LOL:
Click to expand...

I found one in final assembly (after paint). Luckily (?) it was on a doubler on the rear spar and in a position where I could drive a solid rivet. If you look closely at the rear spar on on my -10, you'll notice one gold colored rivet. That's the one.
 
Found a missing rivet on my first annual. Watch a youtube video by Fly8ma where he drills out a ton of rivets from a wing and watch how well it holds up. Not too worried. haha
 
wirejock said:
I was finishing up the details on the empennage fairing today. Installing nutplates, drilling rivets, tapping holes and filling unused holes. I was feeling around and looking to make sure the rivet holes I picked wouldn't cause a problem with some other structure inside. While touching shop heads, a 470 rivet flew out of the aft deck. Talk about a startle. That bugger never got set. It never fell out despite the canoe rotating on the rotisserie probably a hundred times. Numerous rivets driven with the fuse upside down. Lots of vibration. That rivet just sat there waiting for my finger to touch it and it flew out. Needless to say, I checked all the others with a mirror and set the wild one. This is the stuff that gives me nightmares. I'm a little OCD. When I do a job, I check the shop heads with a mirror and flashlight and usually check every shop head with a gauge. That one gets a name for surviving so long. I think his name will be "Murphy". I expect some really bizarre dreams tonight.
:LOL:
Click to expand...
Nice find wire jock...better now than later!
 
About a month after finishing my ER tank upgrade I found a missing rivet holding the splice plate to the outer leading edge skin.
I suspect it was the same. Rivet put in, but missed with the squeezer.
The planes not painted yet so Im keen to hear suggestions that don’t involve removing the tank - again!
 
Hey Larry, don't sweat it. Stuff like that happens because humans aren't perfect. Not Ideal, but not a catastrophe either. You'll look closer next time.
 
I keep telling myself a single "off" rivet won’t bring down a plane. So I’m counting that I’ve only made a SINGLE error on my build!

Cross myself and a “Our Father” on every engine start should work. 😇
 
I visited a kit company to fly their airplane once, and saw pictures of their ground test airframe being twisted and weighted to destruction - but it was intentionally built with every other rivet left out of the structure. It passed to 9 G’s, and rivet spacing was about what I’d call normal for a metal aircraft of our experience. So I wouldn’t worry about one bad rivet, not in the least…. ;)
 
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