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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on February 23, 2014 at 7:11pm

I plan to drive the big rivets with a gun when I do the upgrade. A "normal" rivet gun (3X or so)  does not have enough power to reliably drive those big rivets in the spar. Some folks have reported good results with a 5X gun, but I have not been able to locate one to borrow and do not want to buy one for such limited use. I helped a friend drive some big rivets for an RV and we used my automotive mechanic type air chisel. You know, the kind that is used to rip open exhaust pipes and stuff with cutting tools in it. The air chisel is the same structure and principle as a rivet gun, just big and beefy, and it also takes the same .401 shank tool size as rivet gun setting tools. We put a rivet setting tool into my air chisel and it did a fabulous job of driving the big rivets. That is my plan for setting my wing upgrade rivets. I expect you should be able to find an air chisel to borrow fairly easily if you know many backyard mechanics. By the way, you want to use a pretty heavy bucking bar when driving those big rivets. We used a trailer hitch drawbar for a few of the ones we drove, nice and heavy. For most of them we used a five pound bucking bar. Any massive hard object with a flat smooth face will do.

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Permalink Reply by joseph aloof on February 23, 2014 at 7:36pm

hi bob thx for you info, i did the first wing a 3x is not enough, i did it but you have to hold the gun to long thats when things get damaged thx   joe in fl  

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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on February 24, 2014 at 10:07pm

Yup, 3x is not enough, for sure. A 5x gun does the job well -- and so does an air chisel.

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