Protruding rivet nails

Just got started on a 12 and notice that when I run my finger down a row of pop rivets there are a few with a sharp, small protrusion a little above the head of the rivet. It is the rivet nail being broken off to near the surface of the rivet. I use a high quality pneumatic rivet gun. Any one else with this problem and if so what did you do?

This is fairly normal, and will happen with just about any rivet gun on occasion. In section 5 of the manual, they mention that you can file this out if you'd like, or just leave it.

You have a few options: you could punch/pull out the mandrel, you could see if you could knock it down with a drill bit, or you could see if you could do it with some sort of fine rotary tool.

In addition to the above, make sure when you "pull" the rivet that the tool tip is level with the rivet. Pulling at at an angle will produce a "stick" almost everytime. Thats why you need to use some type of angled device when you are forced to pull rivets in corners etc.

hammerdown said:

Just got started on a 12 and notice that when I run my finger down a row of pop rivets there are a few with a sharp, small protrusion a little above the head of the rivet. It is the rivet nail being broken off to near the surface of the rivet. I use a high quality pneumatic rivet gun. Any one else with this problem and if so what did you do?

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I investigated carefully what gun to use in my rv12 construction --- i purchased a Avdel G1 genisis industrial lightweight gun. the Avdel is made in England by the same people that make the Avex rivet (used in rv-12 construction). there is NO--burr of any kind on any of my rivets. my friends who are also building the 12 are amazed at my rivets. i also have two cherry max , pop rivet prg-510 and two other quality riveters ---- none start to compare to the Avdel. there is no vibration and cycles instantly. as a bonus the avdel sucks the rivets into the nose piece and when pulled deposits the mandrels into the hopper. since getting the G1 i found a NG1 (latest model) so now have two. if you can obtain one of these it is a very good investment in a very high quality tool. both of mine were obtained on e-bay for around 100 dollars each. ---- best of luck----

hammerdown said:

Just got started on a 12 and notice that when I run my finger down a row of pop rivets there are a few with a sharp, small protrusion a little above the head of the rivet. It is the rivet nail being broken off to near the surface of the rivet. I use a high quality pneumatic rivet gun. Any one else with this problem and if so what did you do?

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Make sure what you feel isn't a sharp edge on the aluminum body part of the rivet. This is caused by using a tip with the wrong sized hole on the rivet puller tool. Some of the aluminum on the rivet head pulls into the hole under the setting pressure and leaves a small sharp edge. Make sure you use a tip with a hole that just barely fits the rivet stem diameter.

ErichKeane said:

You have a few options: you could punch/pull out the mandrel,

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I would recommend against this.
The steel stem trapped within the center of the rivet body provides some of the shear strength of the rivet. Not likely to be a big issue for just one rivet in a localized area, but not a good practice. A much better choice is to use a dremel tool with a small cutoff disc to remove the exposed portion of the stem.

Make sure the nose peice is the correct size for the rivet you're pulling, If it's to large it Will leave a burr.

Be advised if anyone uses the Taylor pneumatic rivet puller that Avery sells, they should not use the smallest tip on the puller even though it fits the rivet mandrels on the LP4-4 rivets.

I purchased the pneumatic puller after pulling only a few rivets by hand and realized I had 12,500 of these to do. The Taylor rivet puller that Avery Tools sells is good investment and makes the building experience fun not work.

When I recieved the puller I started using it right away. There were no instructions stating which tip to use so I used the tip that fit the rivet mandrels best. I immediately had problems getting the mandrels to release from the puller after the rivet was set. I called Bob Avery, as I heard he was very helpful on these matters. We tried adjustments to the internals and using silicone lubricant to no avail. Finally Bob sent me a new puller all set up and ready to use. When I recieved it I noticed it had the next larger tip on it. It has worked great ever since with only disassembly and lubrication on a few occasions. I use WD-40 as it seems to last longer than a silicone lube.

I met Bob at Sun-n'-Fun last year and thanked him for his help. We had never discussed the issue of using the right size tip on the puller, but it is important. The correct tip has a longer axial dimension than the smallest tip. This tends to push on and release the jaws from the mandrel when it cycles. The smallest tip does not and the jaws maintain a tight grip on the mandrel causing much frustration.

Now I'll get to the point. The correct tip has a loose fit on the mandrel. When you pull the rivet, sometimes a small amount of aluminum from the rivet head will migrate into this gap leaving a small burr and rarely the mandrel will break at the rivet head surface leaving a sharp point. This might lead you using the smaller tip, but as you can see from my experience, you will encounter bigger problems.

Rivet pullers from other manufacturers may not have an issue with the small tip, but the Taylor puller does. The aluminum burrs are easily removed with sand paper or a file. The mandrel burrs require a file or dremel tool. I have pulled over 12,000 rivets with the Taylor puller and it is still working great.

Art Pennanen

My experience was the opposite

from Art's I used the Avery puller to build the vertical stabilizer and has a fair number of mandrel ends stickinig out of the rivets. Filed them down OK, but then noticed the rivets were a very sloppy fit in the nosepiece. Selected the nosepiece that fit and have had no more protruding rivets. I did have a problem with the mandrels not releasing from the puller every few thousand rivets. Disassembling the puller and cleaning out the accumulated chips, then lubricating everthing well fixed that.

Wayne 120241/N143WM