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Putting tiny rivets in tiny holes

kreidljj

Active Member
I am sure some have already figured this out, but I thought I would share in hopes of helping someone. As I get older my hands hurt more and more and handling the tiny rivets for the skins is hard. What I found is that if I ‘sprinkle’ a line of rivets over the holes, I can just use my finger tip to slide the rivet into place. The countersink helps the rivet just sort of tip into the hole. This doesn’t seem to work very well on vertical surfaces for some reason ;) Just sharing in hopes of easing someone else’s pain a bit too. - Jason Kreidler
 

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Rivets

After you insert the rivets, do you use Rivet Tape to keep them in the holes? Wonderful product and speeds up riveting.
 
I am sure some have already figured this out, but I thought I would share in hopes of helping someone. As I get older my hands hurt more and more and handling the tiny rivets for the skins is hard. What I found is that if I ‘sprinkle’ a line of rivets over the holes, I can just use my finger tip to slide the rivet into place. The countersink helps the rivet just sort of tip into the hole. This doesn’t seem to work very well on vertical surfaces for some reason ;) Just sharing in hopes of easing someone else’s pain a bit too. - Jason Kreidler

Nice work Jason.

After dimpling, use the one hole de-burr tool and give the dimple one or two turns -- compare how the rivet sits.

Keep it up.
 
Good question

I do tape over the rivets, but not usually with rivet tape. I usually use double sided scotch tape. This keeps the rivet in the holes, but it also really helps to hold the rivet gun in place. That makes riveting solo a bunch easier. I used to be able to find double sided removable scotch tape at a reasonable price, that was even better. I know some use the removable blue masking tape, but I don’t like the small bits of tape left behind. - Jason (RV-10 flying, RV-14 wings)

After you insert the rivets, do you use Rivet Tape to keep them in the holes? Wonderful product and speeds up riveting.
 
Clarification needed

Are you saying in the rivet dimple? I have done that from time to time on thicker material, but with good dimple dies I have not found that was needed on skins. Was there something in the picture that caught your eye? - Jason

Nice work Jason.

After dimpling, use the one hole de-burr tool and give the dimple one or two turns -- compare how the rivet sits.

Keep it up.
 
Are you saying in the rivet dimple? I have done that from time to time on thicker material, but with good dimple dies I have not found that was needed on skins. Was there something in the picture that caught your eye? - Jason

The dimples all look really good, but a couple of rivet heads looked like they could catch a fingernail, hence my suggestion.
 

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After you insert the rivets, do you use Rivet Tape to keep them in the holes? Wonderful product and speeds up riveting.

Not OP, but FWIW I've been using Scotch 811 as suggested in the handbook, pretty pleased with it so far. It's basically good old magic tape but with weak adhesive. It holds rivets just fine, comes off clean, is somewhat reusable, doesn't fragment like painters tape, and costs 1/6 as much as 685 rivet tape.
 
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