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Have I missed the boat?

ShortSnorter

Well Known Member
I’m about a 1/3 of the way through with my fuse kit (wing & empennage complete), and all of a sudden I *want* a pneumatic squeezer. I’ve gone this long without one, I can no doubt finish the kit with my hand squeezer. But if I were to get one, is there even enough left of the build to “enjoy” my new toy, I mean tool?

*I fully realize I’m asking the wrong crowd!
 
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Pneumatic

Building a 7a but I prefer gun and bar. I do use the pneumatic but could easily get by without. That said, some think it's the best thing since sliced bread. Kind of a personal thing.
 
Building a 7a but I prefer gun and bar. I do use the pneumatic but could easily get by without. That said, some think it's the best thing since sliced bread. Kind of a personal thing.

If you had to do it over again would you still buy a pneumatic squeezer?
 
Can't imagine building a plane without one, perfectly set rivets every time and much faster.

?x2. I used the pneumatic squeezer every chance I had, for the very reasons Walt mentioned. Whenever possible, I clamped the squeezer frame into my table vice, allowing me to use both my hands for proper part/rivet positioning before squeezing the rivet.

No, it's definitely not too late.
 
Of course its never too late to buy a tool - and I use my pneumatic squeezers all the time, well after my first airplane was completed. I used it on my second, and my third, and my fourth......
 
The pneumatic squeezer was my favorite tool. I bought it used on eBay & sold it here for the price I paid, once my build was complete. Works great on dimpling too.
 
Without question my pneumatic squeezer is hands down the best investment I made. I also bought about 4 different yolks for it too. I will ALWAYS try and squeeze a rivet first if it accessible.
 
It is not too late to buy a squeezer. Once you have the yolks and various die sets, you'll find many uses for it. It can squeeze in tight places where a bucking bar/gun can't. I choose the squeezer fist, then default to bucking bar/gun where the squeezer won't work. I've also used it to flatten a messed up dimple, smooth out a crease, partially press out a stuck rivet, etc.

Good tool to have on hand for repairs down the road, but if not, there are usually new builders looking to buy one used if you want to part with it.
 
Different

I have a slightly different opinion. I love the pneumatic squeezer for making dimples, but find it can be difficult to position and control on SOME rivets. I prefer to use Clevelands main squeeze for rivets since manually setting them gives me a lot more feel and control that is lost with the pneumatic. Especially when setting the first rivet since the squeezer length can many times need a little adjustment.
 
My arm has been twisted

It's funny how things come full circle. I started out with this project (as I'm sure most 1st time builders) with the mindset of save money throughout the project so I can pay for the expensive things at the end. Well....as the story goes, the planned build timeline and budget have gone out the window. It looks like I'll be adding another tool to the tools I said I didn't need.


BTW - I still use a C-Frame.
 
Used 2 or three different hand squeezers with half a dozen yokes for build and never used pneumatic sqeezer, even though I had one available. I thought pneumatic was too heavy and not as maneuverable to get square on the rivet. I liked the variety of hand squeezers and yokes that I had.

There, one against compared to all the other posters saying to go for it.
 
definitely glad i have one. a lot of good used ones for sale.
if you think ''a perfect rivet every time '' let me tell you you will be drilling out bad rivets in no time. learning curve.
 
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