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Aileron pushrod rivet method

FlyGuy65

Well Known Member
Hello,

Putting -12 rivets in the W-818 aileron to bellcrank pushrods. Used the C-frame on the first 4 rivets, with Ok results. Just curious what others have used, squeezers vs gun and bar (I’m not welding). May try -11 rivets, but same question.

It’s going on a 7, but guessing it’s an issue on other models as well.

Thanks
 
Gun and block

Hello,

Putting -12 rivets in the W-818 aileron to bellcrank pushrods. Used the C-frame on the first 4 rivets, with Ok results. Just curious what others have used, squeezers vs gun and bar (I’m not welding). May try -11 rivets, but same question.

It’s going on a 7, but guessing it’s an issue on other models as well.

Thanks

Many weld them.
I put one of my home made bars (check my blog) in the vise with the universal set.
Used the gun with a back rivet set to drive them while holding the tube with the other hand. Came out fine. They are not falling out. I had to drive them in before riveting.
 
Everything

I tried everything to rivet these, but eventually I just took the new parts (after mangling the old ones) to work and had the boilermaker weld them for me. I wasted a lot of time & money on this, when I should've just got them welded first up.
 
Well, I just now ended up going back to the C-frame and 2x gun. Was using a chart that called for 80 psi on -9 and longer rivets. Lowered it to 50 psi on this one and had very good results. Only thing I would do different is to clamp the C-frame to the workbench.
 
I got a set with the used wings I bought and wasn't happy with them. rivet tails wiped off to one side etc.

After thinking about it a while, I think what's happening is that the rivets are so long that when you start to squeeze them they have a tendency to bow in the middle, where they go through the hollow end fitting. When I made new ones, I filled the hollow space in the end fittings with JBweld before I cross drilled.

I squeezed them, but I honestly can't remember whether I used a hand squeezer or pneumatic. They're not perfect, but they came out better than the ones I inherited.
 
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