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"Domed" Blind Rivets

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BAYJK

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I have a question for all of you "amateur experts" that know a whole lot more than I about building airplanes. I am building the empennage of the RV-12 and in building the vertical stabilizer, there is a whole row on each side of the rear-most vertical member (almost a "spar") of blind-rivets that my rivet puller, actually, my 3 rivet pullers, cannot get in close enough to the material because of the flange to make a good finished rivet. I located a very small brass knurled nut of some sort at the hardware store that has a small hole thru it that, if placed over the rivet shaft before placing the rivet shaft into the rivet puller, it allows me to get the rivet flush with the work, ending up with a nice finished rivet. Question: The finished rivet comes out "domed" rather than flat, very much like a solid AN470 rivet, only with a hole running thru it. The dome is the result of the bottom-side of the brass piece that I am using as a spacer so that my rivet puller can stay 1/4 inch away from my work, and still pull the rivet while keeping the rivet flush with the work. Is this "domed" rivet going to be acceptable, or must they all be "flat" like the rest of the blind-rivets. The "domed" rivet actually looks better and "beefier" than the standard flat blind-rivets. If these "domed" rivets are acceptable, I might assemble the entire airplane using this "domed technique." They actually look a whole lot more refined than the standard "flat" blind-rivet. Any opinions?
 
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Domed rivets

If I understand you correctly, because of the flange on the rear spar, the puller does not sit flush on rivet. One of the first steps was to make short wedges out of trailing edge stock. This is where you use them to give you enough room to angle the puller away from the flange but still keep the rivet flush. Hope this helps.
 
Use a wedge

You should have received a piece AEX wedge that came with the kit that you can drill a hole through. for the shaft of the rivet to pass through.

To use the wedge, the mandrel of the rivet is slightly bent then passed through the hole in the wedge. This allows the rivet puller to be at an angle to the work gaining the necessary clearance needed to get the rivet puller onto the rivet.

The wedge will then sit flat on the head of the rivet while the mandrel is being pulled. Also, the close quarters rivet puller is almost a must for tight work because the head on it is smaller to begin with. Below is a photo of what I'm talking about.
DSC03984.JPG


Happy Building,
 
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If you are doing something that causes the rivet head shape to be changed substantially, it is possible that it is compromising the rivet strength.

Chapter 5.4 of Section 5 of in the construction manual shows details regarding how to use the little wedge tool for rivets that have tight clearance.
 
As a followup, I have the close quarter rivet puller mentioned above and can tell you from first hand experience that there a hand full of locations on the RV-12 that even it can't get square onto the heads of the rivets and it is necessary to use either the AEX wedge or the tool Rick showed the link for. I have both and depending on the location will choose one method or the other along with the close quarter rivet puller.

I have two other rivet pullers a swivel head and fixed head and neither of them work in the tight spots found on the RV-12. The close quarter rivet puller is a must have tool for the tight spots used in conjunction with some sort of a wedge.

Happy building,
 
The Cleaveland tool works really well.

Make sure the nose of your mandrel is smooth and polished and is the correct size for the rivet otherwise it pulls up a sharp bit of aluminum

That angled thingy works really well on all tight spots and also helps to ram in the odd tight rivet.
 
You're absolutely correct. I manufactured these "wedges" as the first step in starting to build the empennage, but I thought that if I used these in this application, that the rivets would turn out looking angled. I chose not to use these wedges. I was almost hoping that no one would have responded to my question, because I was going to delete the entire question. In my heart, I know that anything "different" from what Van's recommends is NOT going to pass muster with any FAA examiner (or designated examiner) when the time comes that I finish and I am trying to get my airworthiness certificate. I guess I was just looking for some support in my dilemma. With this in mind, even before anyone responded to my question, today, I drilled out all 64 blind-rivets and re-riveted the entire vertical spar (not really a spar, but it is the beefiest piece in the entire vertical stabilizer, so it acts like a spar). I went to the local hardware store and bought a piece of steel stock, about 1" long and 1/4" by 1/4" square. On my drill press, I drilled a 5/64" hole, one just large enough for the blind-rivet shaft to pass thru. I then used this solid "block" as a spacer between the head of the blind-rivet and my puller. Worked perfect! Actually, it worked better than using just the puller alone. Using the puller alone leaves small imperfections on the head of the blind-rivet because of the nose of the puller. Using this "spacer-block", the nose of the puller never makes contact with the rivet head, and the finished produce has no imperfections whatsoever! So, to make a long story short (I know... TOO LATE!) looks like I answered my own question!
 
I just ordered one of those "close quarter" tools from Cleaveland Tool. Thanks everybody. This is why I joined this great site, to learn from YOU EXPERTS!!!
 
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