Enlarged Universal Rivet Hole

I was riveting the front spar and middle ribs on the VS together. There was a rather large gap between the front middle rib and the front spar on one of the holes (about .012). I thought maybe I missed deburring or something, so I drilled out all 3 holes and deburred again, but now the hole is so large that clecos won't even stay in. If they were 426 rivets, I'd use an oops rivet, but they don't seem to make those for 470 rivets. Any ideas?

Rivets

vsavatar said:

I was riveting the front spar and middle ribs on the VS together. There was a rather large gap between the front middle rib and the front spar on one of the holes (about .012). I thought maybe I missed deburring or something, so I drilled out all 3 holes and deburred again, but now the hole is so large that clecos won't even stay in. If they were 426 rivets, I'd use an oops rivet, but they don't seem to make those for 470 rivets. Any ideas?

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Call Vans tomorrow morning and ask about using a mid size CherryMax. They come in 4.5 sizes.

NAS 1242AD(D)-(L) 1/2 Oversize Rivets/Universal Head

These rivets are .015" oversize from standard, i.e., for a -4 rivet which has a nominal diameter of .125", the 1242's have a diameter of .140".

So, if the hole(s) you are concerned with (either now or in the future - oh yes, there will be a "future") is(are) not large enough for a standard -5, then these might be a viable option.

You can look up their specs in the Genuine Aircraft Hardware Catalog, Pg. 213, Solid Rivets, Oversize Shank.

HFS

From the looks of it, I'm probably going to need a -5 rivet. The cleco won't even stay in there loosely. Granted, a gold cleco won't go into the hole, so that's a good sign, but I think a black one would. I put a 426 oops rivet into the hole just to get an idea of how much space it was going to have, and it was fairly significant. I should have just left it alone. In retrospect, I probably did more damage by drilling them out than if I had just left the rib and spar spacing at .012. Live and learn, I guess.

Another option you could try is to take a rivet that is one size longer than the call out. Put it in your squeezer and squeeze it slightly to plump it up. Then insert it in the hole and set the shop head. That works sometimes if the hole isn't big enough for the next size rivet, but too big for the call out. I'd measure the holes though and compare them to the mil-specs. You probably don't want all three done that way if they're all out of spec. YMMV

Also practice drilling out rivets per the Van's instructions. When you do it right, the drill bit never goes into the hole, and never touches the airframe aluminum.