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Need a magic rivet

S

sblack

Well Known Member
I have a dimple that is too deep on my turtle deck skin. The rivet sits just below the surface and it won't pull down. Does anyone have a clever trick, like some sort of shim under a rivet head, to make it stick proud, or a rivet with a slightly larger head? Or some new swear words that work better than the ones I am using?

thanks
 
sblack said:
I have a dimple that is too deep on my turtle deck skin. The rivet sits just below the surface and it won't pull down. Does anyone have a clever trick, like some sort of shim under a rivet head, to make it stick proud, or a rivet with a slightly larger head? Or some new swear words that work better than the ones I am using?

thanks
Click to expand...

A little more info would be helpful....
Since it is not really possible to dimple countersink too deep, is this a hole that you machine countersink? Was it done in an incorrect size (1/8" vs 3/32")?
Etc.
 
Easy to fix if you have access to a lathe. Chuck up a long -4 and machine it down to -3 with a larger head.
Stewart Willoughby, 6, FWF.
 
Raymo said:
What is meant by "won't pull down?"
Click to expand...

I'm sure he means that the rivet sits flush with the skin and won't drive down into the dimple. Since the rivet set stops at the skin surface, it won't push the rivet down below the surface.
 
It was dimpled, then I shimmed a poor fitting bulkhead with filled epoxy and used a counterskink to clean out the dimple. Sort of a liquid shim, which works very well. But I over did the cleaning out part. It really doesn't take much. a thou or 2 and the rivet sits too low. I could turn down a rivet I suppose. I have a lathe. But I was wondering if there were any other tricks of the trade out there.
 
It seems that an easy fix would be to drill it up to .128", shoot a #4 rivet in it, then shave the head flush to the surface. Most areas have sufficient edge distance (~.25") for a 4.
 
In this type of situation I have used a small shim close the the diam of the rivet head.
I have only done this setting a rivet with a squeezer but with care it would probably work with a gin also. I would tape the spacer in place.

An easy way to make the spacers is with a Whitney punch, if you have one or can borrow one. Use the punched out portion of a hole punched in some scrap .016 material.
 
Depends how much gap we are talking about but I'd be tempted to set the rivet wet EA9309.3NA adhesive.
 
EA9309.3NA ? Is there a plain English name for that?

Scott I like the shim idea. I will try that on some scrap.
 
I've used Scott's idea of a shim on top of the head; it works fine with a hand squeezer. I've probably done it with a gun, too, by taping the shim to the rivet head. But only a time or two, since I so rarely make mistakes........
 
sblack said:
I have a dimple that is too deep on my turtle deck skin. The rivet sits just below the surface and it won't pull down. Does anyone have a clever trick, like some sort of shim under a rivet head, to make it stick proud, or a rivet with a slightly larger head? Or some new swear words that work better than the ones I am using?

thanks
Click to expand...

I may be misunderstanding your situation and I'm not sure if it would work as you have a dimple instead of a counter sink but Genuine Aircraft Hardware carries countersunk repair washers/plugs. In my 2009 "ish" vintage catalog they are on page 214 part numbers starting with LS5931A71. You can find them on their website but I didn't find a picture there. The book has a drawing of what they look like.
 
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