This is why i follow you, thanks for sharing this knowledge through your experience. Not long ago i bought a 3X now wishing i had a 4X. Keep these coming please Donny
The onlt difference between you and me is I skin pin every 3rd hole but as the same if it is a complex shape then more pins and remove the skin pin to fit a rivet (note here in the UK / RAF we used skin pins more than Clecos). I used elastic bands around the dolly block in a lot of applications to stop marking. We did have some rivets that had to have rounded tails in some areas of the Victor cockpit, although they had counter sunk heads and the reaction block was just the same as your dolly for that, we also had a few more areas with counter sunk heads both sides (mainly trailing edges). "Set, rivet, touch, Next!"
@@donwtsn We even did plug rivets, they are a pain as you have to drill the hole to the right depth (spot on) then tap the hole, trim the rivet to the exact length, cook them / solution treat, then freeze them and you only have a very short time to use them once out of the freezer. Thank goodness they are only used on old aircraft designs that are out of production but I think there must be some poor chaps out there doing restoration work that might still have to deal with them and if you think putting them in is bad removing is even worse!! Thankfully I only did them during training and for a repair on a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster leading edge once after a bird strike had popped the heads off a few.
@@flyingkub oh boy they sound like a right pain! Glad I missed out on those. I did get to play around with DD rivets where we’d anneal them and put them in dry ice. We had about an hour or so to use them. We also had to use steel rivets on occasion. I can’t remember they type of material but you knew you were in trouble when there was a hole pre drilled into the tail of the rivet to get it to buck up. There was another type that was hard enough to punch a hole in the dolly if the hard facing had been compromised. It’s nice that the designs these days seem to have settled on more standard types of fasteners
Nice work and explanation Don. I still have nightmares about working right alongside the metalbashers on F-111s at 3AD hearing "draw!" brrrrrrttttt, then "touch!" brrrrrrrrtttt on that resonant aluminium...
Haha yep! I was one of those noisy buggers! I used to try and let everyone know I was about to make noise. Sometimes they’d just ignore me so I’d give a good burst with the gun, then call out “Riveting!” They’d leave soon after that!
Gday mate, I don’t have any 3 view or plans for Frankenstein. I have made videos as I progressed with building it about the design as I came up with at the time. Think Slepcev storch, crossed with a parasol wing like the Baking Deuce and aircamper, made out of sheet metal
Enjoyed the video, excellent! However, you didn’t talk about rivet length or stick out. Also, I don’t understand the rivet gun designations, 2x, 3x, 4x. What does this mean? BTW, hello from Idaho, USA!
Thanks mate. The rivet gun designations are related to their hitting power. A 2x has much lower hitting power than a 4x. I’ve used the 2x on small rivets like 3/32 and in tight areas, but it doesn’t really work on bigger rivets or harder materials like monel or E rivets. That’s where the 4x comes in. I prefer using a 4x as it has the hitting power to handle the different types of rivets a maintainer would come across on different aircraft. You just need to be a little careful riveting up small rivets with it though! As for rivet length, the usual goal is, before riveting, the tail should stick out about 1.5 times the diameter of the rivet. When it’s riveted, the dumped up tail should stick out about 0.5 the diameter and be about 1.5 diameter wide. I say about because that is the dimensions we aim for, but a little bit on either side is acceptable too. Sometimes I will have the rivet tail a bit longer to start with if the hole is a bit oversized when doing repairs. The rivet swells to fill the hole before dumping up. There are ‘go, no go’ gauges you can purchase from aircraft spruce and the like that give you a quick reference to rivet tails before and after dimensions available. And if you read anything about solid rivets in aircraft structures there will be a reference and diagrams about the desired lengths. Hope Idaho is treating you well mate
Trying to do some new 3/16 rivets on my Jon boat what rivet gun is that. I want one that hits slower than a air hammer so I don’t crack the hull and that one seems to hit slow. Or if you don’t know any recommendations that won’t break the bank ?
Gday mate, I’ve had my rivet gun for ages so I’m not sure how much they are now. Maybe a couple of hundred dollars I guess. This rivet gun is a 4x which I prefer over a 3x as it has a bit more hitting power and can handle the bigger rivets. If you are worried about cracks the hull, maybe you could make a steel block that fits the rivet head and bash the tail with a hammer and punch. You may be able to use a softer type rivet as well. Sometimes if a rivet is harder than the material it’s riveting, the rivet can actually swell the hole and fall out. Hope this helps mate
@@donwtsn maybe I’ll use a soft aluminum rivet that should be softer correct? What website do you recommend for quality rivets ? And maybe I’ll order a river gun and cut my PSI way back to slow it down ? That maybe work ?
I’m not sure about boat supplies, but you can look up aviation supplies like Aircraft Spruce for rivet guns and rivets. I guess you have the rivets. The rivet guns have a throttle instead of a trigger so you can vary the hitting power and speed. You can leave the pressure up to get the hitting power
I use aircraft grade rivets for the Frankenstein build like ms20470ad. I haven’t had to buy any as all of my stuff had been collected over the years thanks to leftovers from other jobs. If I went to buy rivets it’d probably be through Aircraft Spruce or some aviation dealers for them, mainly because I’d be wanting the aircraft grade. I’m not sure for boats. You might be able to search on the web for a store that supplies solid rivets and then choose a grade that would match the boat material. Or, if the holes are 3/16, you might be able to get away with using machine screws and nuts, or bolts? Put in with a sealant like sikaflex?
Haha I wish it was that simple! My budget is still very limited. I still have some wall art pieces available for sale at www.ripplehandmades.com.au . That would help a lot
I never got to do much sheet metal work in my aviation cereer but when I learn it is easy and a few years back i had to fix a fairing on a 172 it been repaired a few times and every 100 it cracked so the owner didnt want to buy a new one so I put a patch which wrapped around the fairing and its how you fix things as to how long it wil last my fix never cracker again the owner was of over the moon and the boss also I found the sheet metal work is a lot of fun and would like to be able to be this good and one day built an aircraft love the work your doing
I met a guy the other day in Melbourne who moved here from the middle east he was an engineer and is now delivering white goods and also teaches high school students and we were talking about ultralights and he is going to look into building one a school as a project so I said if you can I would volunteer my time to teach and help the students to build one and we can help getting the students basic flying lessons so hopefully they can be introduced to a great industry I will comment if he can get it approved they did this in the Gold Coast a couple of years back they built an affordaplane and than flew it
@@perrycorn2789 this is awesome stuff mate! I think a few schools around the place have done that in the past, and I wish more would do it now and in to the future
