Thanks, Steve. One of the best things I did years ago was to enroll in a local community college Aircraft & Powerplant mechanics course. I had no intention of getting an A & P license-- it was just to get the knowledge & experience that seemed to be useful in working on race cars. It has paid off many times over!
Rivets are an interesting subject since there are so many types and each has its advantages in certain applications. My rivet collection has been built up over the years by trolling surplus stores and eBay. You can never have too many but a variety of sizes, grip lengths, and materials is more helpful.
For fiberglass or moderate strength applications, I like the Avex 5052 aluminum body with a steel pin. These have an unusually wide grip range and still retain the pin which helps their shear strength. Many fastener distributors carry them and Aircraft Spruce is always a good source. They are available in both dome head and flush head. I find that 1/8" and 3/16" Avex rivets to be the most useful.
Stepping up in both price & performance are the aerospace variety-- CherryLock or the equivalent Huck or All Fast blind rivets. These also retain their pins but have better vibration resistance than Avex. They are available in more exotic alloys so their strength varies accordingly. Monel (a cupro-nickel alloy) has pretty good high temperature performance and strength, plus it doesn't rust. A really high strength rivet material is A286, a stainless superalloy. For low strength applications, aluminum/aluminum rivets are also available.
Aerospace rivets are great but buying them retail costs $$$$$$$$$$$$ so I usually find bags of 100 on eBay for around $10 to $15. The key to knowing what the rivets are is to decode their part number. This tells you the material, diameter, grip range, etc. Google the part number and you may find a brochure from Cherry that has the part number breakdown. Even if you get a really good deal on something like a 1/8" rivet with a grip range of 0.500" to 0.560", ask yourself where would ever use such a wierd size. Try to concentrate on usable sizes. One caution: aerospace rivets have a rather narrow range of acceptable hole sizes and grip ranges so the Avex is more of a "universal" blind rivet.
When buying surplus aerospace rivets, watch out for "oversize" rivets. These are designed with slightly larger diameter bodies so they can repair a structure that has had the old rivet drilled out and a slightly larger drill used to enlarge and clean up the hole. There is nothing wrong with using oversize rivets but once you use them, there is no slightly larger one if a repair is necessary. Of course the next larger size can be used.
Rivet sizes are expressed as thirty-seconds of an inch. A -4 rivet would be 4/32" or 1/8", a -5 is 5/32", and a -6 is 3/16" diameter. The grip range is the second number, also in thirty-seconds of an inch. For example, a -5-6 would be a 5/32" diameter rivet with a nominal grip range of 3/16".
A hand tool is OK for small rivets but for large ones, high-strength varieties, or for setting more than just a few, a pneumatic gun is almost a necessity. My favorite one is a small pneumatic/hydraulic gun but they are hard to find.
I don't use solid rivets but they are still around. Driving solid rivets requires some skill and quite a collection of pneumatic tools.
Regards, Neil Tucson, AZ
