Practice makes perfect

Tuesday 4th March 2008 1hr 40min

Used scrap to practice riveting using bucking bar and gun and pneumatic squeezer.

The rivet squeezer needs as much pressure as it is allowed (90psi), otherwise it can fail to squeeze the rivet at all. I also seem to need to set the gap between dies much tighter than the calculations would suggest if th eshop head is to be made within limits according to the rivet guage. I found the best way to do it is to place the cupped set on the manufactured (domed) head and hold it there with a finger while paying close attention to the flat die and watching it while the trigger is pressed, positioning the squeezer so that it is square and th eflat set will hit the rivet dead centre, otherwise the head will be angled.

bucking was easy enoubh, though the bucking bar did slip off once or twice creating an unacceptable shop head.