Riveting and rivet gun
 

Trying to make this job as painless as possible. Is an air gun best? what size rivets and where to get them. I'm being lazy I know but I'm getting tired of difficult jobs and decisions. :confused:

Oh yes and what about rivnuts ??

I use a lazy riviter, works well.

TT

I did all my rivets by hand, but my knuckles havent stopped aching for over a month now. :P

I also got a cheap ebay rivnut tool and its all bent out of shape now so I wish I had got a decent one. It would never have been able to do M8s as it claimed unless they were made from thorntons toffee.

Cheers
Stot

Yes get an air riveter you'll regret it if you don't! But you'll probably need a cheapo hand one for tight spots. I used 4.0x8mm aluminium rivets for the panels and pu adhesive, they won't be going anywhere in a hurry! :p

For rivnuts I can't recommend Memfast highly enough, a great tool and good prices on the actual nuts, not a bad website too. :)

HTH

I was able to borrow an air riveter otherwise It would have killed me :eek:
However you will need a hand tool for some places.

As I say, I used a lazy riviter and it was no hassle at all, worked realy easily with no need for compressor and pipework.

TT

Thanks for the replies, I think I can borrow a compressor and buy a gun. Do 99% of the job and sell the gun back on eBay. Failing that I'll get the lazy thinymajic. Thanks for all your opinions. Appreciated!

I agree with tt.

They are only £11 delivered from ebay. I got one of these and must have put in over 500 rivets by now.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PRO-HEAVY-...em1 c357bfa2c

I'm with TT, I used a hand riveter with 0.5 metre handles. I'd say drilling holes was by far the harder part of the job. Popping rivets was easy and fun.

http://i.imgur.com/vNWyu3e.jpg?1

Hmm yeah probably just get one of them then, do they do rivnut aswell?

No, just ordinary pop rivets.

I did my rivnuts with a longish (40-50 mm) M6 bolt and a nut. I would drill a hole, countersink it, then insert a sandwich: rivnut, washer, a piece of perforated steel band, washer, washer, nut, all threaded on the bolt. I would clamp the steel plate to the chassis and tighten the nut while holding the bolt steady. 8.8 grade nuts and bolts would hold for 2-4 rivnuts, then the thread would strip. Oiling everything did help a bit.

It wasn't as easy as popping ordinary rivets, but wasn't very bad either. Rivnut tools are more expensive than plain riveters, and I've heard that the hardened mandels in them are really easy to snap.

I've always wondered how to make a 'home made rivnut tool'!

I got a cheapo (£30) Rivnut Tool set for Christmas - apparently these are fairly easy to break if you are using stainless rivnuts, it came with aluminium ones which I assume are a lot softer - so place less strain on the tool. Haven't got far enough with the build to use it yet... :-(

My rivnut tool is a cheap one and it seems to work ok.

TT

this is the lazy riviter I use.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LAZY-TONGU...em5 8a32989fe

TT