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Squeezing rivets between rear spar and ribs

guidoism

Member
Is there a trick to squeezing the rivets between the rear spar and the ribs?

I can get some of them, but with the angles involved I can't get them all. Am I going to have to break down and buy a longer yoke for this? Or am I going to need to buck it with an offset set?

I have a 3" yoke on The Main Squeeze. If a new yoke is required, would a longer yoke be better, or one with a curve in (flange-nose yoke I think)?

Sorry for this potentially stupid question, I search the forum and couldn't find an answer. And being the only one having this problem makes me feel especially stupid. I assume I'm just being dense.
 
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Drive rivets

Exactly why I prefer my gun and bar. If memory serves, I think I used a longeron yoke but got frustrated and switched to gun/bar.
 
Just did this the other day on my -14. Longeron yoke for some and offset rivet set and bucking bar for the rest
 
Both gents here are correct. If I may, I can add some tips. I built the standard build wings. So I know this process extremely well. When you get to riveting the leading edge ribs to the front spar, hit me up. I can help you knock those out of the park and do it exactly like the drawing and MIL spec says. Search a post on here by me, "Those pesky leading edge rivets".
Anyways, on these rear spar -4 rivets, yes the Longeron Yoke is the trick. But I have to say squeezing all these about broke me. And I lift weights constantly. Hand squeezing these was hard as ****. And if you do hand squeeze these. the ABSOLUTEL ONLY way you will get good squeeze and MIL spec shop heads is to be sure to use rubber grommets on the shop head side. Absolutely must.
Now all this said, there are about two or three -4 rivets that ABSOLUTELY HAD to be bucked around the aileron brackets. Trick here is use the tungsten long 1" x 5/8" x 4" particularly near where you're bucking. Don't let that spar wiggle, shimmy, waggle or nudge!
Tips: 1. Take your **** time on these...meaning be slow and steady, and ensure squeezer alignment is well. 2. Use painters tape on the Manufactured heads. 3. Use the Longeron yoke no matter if you hand squeeze or pneumatic squeeze. 4. If in doubt with Longeron, then mark that one for Bucking. 5. Use rubber Grommets around shop head. 6. Again I say, LOL, use rubber grommets around the shop head.

I might have some photos of my method on this if you wish. But if you wish to talk through it, please feel free to reach out and I shoot you my cell.
 
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I can't get a photo I have to upload. My dropbox is not working.
I have one photo that shows what I did. If you want to see it. PM me and I'll email it to you.
 
Oh, and another big tip. Put manufactured head on the rib side and shop head on rear spar side. Essentially rivet protruding aft. Remember the rule of thumb (guideline only) is to always put manufactured head on thinnest part. Thats the Ribs in this task.
But reason for this post is particularly for those rivets on the W-707G rear spar reinforcement fork! That fork is THICK! I squeezed those the other way...and wasn't to happy I did. Not a big deal since the rubber grommet trick saved my rear. But Best is to again install those rivets with manufactured head on rib and protruding aft. Trust me on this one.
 
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I just got past this stage of the build. I squeezed the rivets I could get to. The rest I just used the rivet gun. I followed Van's recommendation to put the shop heads on the rib side but looking back now, it would be easier to rivet with the shop heads on the rear spar side and it would not hurt part.
 
I just got past this stage of the build. I squeezed the rivets I could get to. The rest I just used the rivet gun. I followed Van's recommendation to put the shop heads on the rib side but looking back now, it would be easier to rivet with the shop heads on the rear spar side and it would not hurt part.


If you ever need to drill those rivets out, you will want the manufactured side on the outside. Installing the SB for the rear spar cracks comes to mind.
 
I used the gun and an offset rivet set. You can remove the retaining spring to allow you to get the gun to sit closer to the rib, and use some tape to hold the set in the gun instead. Using tape also means the offset rivet set doesn't tend to rotate as you're driving.

I hung the wing skeleton vertically from the main spar in such a way that I could sit the bucking bar on the floor and then support the rear spar on some dense foam to space it off the bucking bar slightly so that I could rivet from the top without having to hold the bar. I hope that makes sense? It only took a few minutes of setup but meant that I had both hands free to control the gun.

I agonised over these rivets (after reading stories on here) but in the end it was a non-event and didn't require special tools.
 
Thank you

Alright, I'm hitting a rhythm, I have the structure on my wing stand. I am laying, without my glasses on so I can focus, and bucking from below. It's taking time to set myself up on each rivet but they are looking nice. It seems so much more important to see the bucking bar than the rivet gun. Is that other people's experience too?
 
Bar or gun

Alright, I'm hitting a rhythm, I have the structure on my wing stand. I am laying, without my glasses on so I can focus, and bucking from below. It's taking time to set myself up on each rivet but they are looking nice. It seems so much more important to see the bucking bar than the rivet gun. Is that other people's experience too?

Not me. Always worked better the opposite. I place the face of the bar on the part adjacent to the shank. Memorize the feel for perfectly square. Move it without changing orientation to the shank and bang. Lots of rivets on the fuse where you're totally blind to the shop side.
That said, someone posted one of my favorite tricks. Build a platform for the bar so you're basically back riveting.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7hyZ-sKQmtrU3JKbDQwMW1xc2M
 
Alright, I'm hitting a rhythm, I have the structure on my wing stand. I am laying, without my glasses on so I can focus, and bucking from below. It's taking time to set myself up on each rivet but they are looking nice. It seems so much more important to see the bucking bar than the rivet gun. Is that other people's experience too?

I find it better to concentrate at the shop head especially when riveting the 470 type rivet to prevent the rivet gun from jumping and causing smiley indentations.
 
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