[Tim Cronin]

Yesterday I was installing the Passenger floor and foot box. I had the floor finished and had assembled the footbox with silicone and clecos. A few rivets into the inner panel and the rivet tool locked up on the pin of a rivet and would not spit it out. A brief moment of panic then filled all of the rivet holes with clecos. I then dissambled the rivet tool, figured out how to get it back together and removed the clecos replacing them with rivets. Fortunately the silicone had not set up and I was able squeeze out a fair amount as the rivets were placed.

Can't figure out why the tool jammmed like that but the timing really sucked!
Alls well now
TEC

 

[Ozona]

POS Harbor Freight tool?

 

[oldsnake]

I've done most of my riviting using the clecos. Put everything together with silicone in place and cleco it together and let it set up. Come back later and remove one cleco at a time, replacing it with a rivit! No panic fiddling with the rivit gun! ...enjoy! ..

 

[Tim Cronin]

Actually one I've had laying around for years. Not expensive (read cheap).
TEC

 

[Larry N. Johnson]

Tim,

I saw your process and it looked like you used a removable rivet system to be replaced by the permanent one after the fit is good, the wrinkles are our, and the drillings are out from under the panel. So if I read this thread right, others are getting everything ready using temp rivets, then remove panel, then silicone, then temp rivets again, then setup, then remove temps, then final rivet.

Is that the alternative process to your panic jam situation? Is it time-effective?

PS What is the brand name on the removable rivet gun you have? Is that Clecos?

LNJ

 

[Ozona]

Again, the Harbor Freight $50.00 riveter is a POS.

It works fine, but you need to clear the throat after every rivet or it WILL jam. You can do this by tipping the gun back before inserting the next rivet.

Also, if you're using SS rivets, they are a little tough to pop by hand, but not impossible.

You'll want to closely control the pneumatic riveter, as it will scratch your panels when it pops the rivet and drifts off if you're not payin attention to it.

 

[Tim Cronin]

Larry
The temp. rivets are the Clecos. They install with a fairly foolproof pair of pliars I had applied the silicone and put a few clecos in to align and was trying to place the permanent rivets when my cheapo hand held riveter failed me. I ended up putting clecos in all holes to pull everything together in case I couldn't fix the riveter problem. I don't think it's very efficient to put all the clecos in and then pull them one at a time to rivet. A few to align everything then on to the permanent rivets. Of course I showed how that can bone you!
Interestingly since I fixed the riveter quickly I did put the rivets before the silicone set up in and was surprised that I extruded out a fair amount of silicone. The permanent rivets apparently pull things a bit tighter than the clecos. I doubt it would make any difference in the long run though
Tim