Pull Rivet "Tip"

[clipwingcub]

take the jaws out of your puller and make sure you aren't missing the bottom on one of them. i've seen the jaws wear more there and break off. try another puller first if you have one.

[rlinford]

Mitch - thanks for the dimensions. I checked my #30 bit with a micrometer and it was .122 Drilled them out to .129 and they popped in OK. Also the tension adjustment was a bit loose on the Marson puller but the teeth were fine - I'm thinking it was mostly the hole size. Touchey little buggers.

Thanks for all the advice, after that frustration I think I'm going to go have a rum and eggnog now and order some more rivets. Merry Christmas!

[DRL]

Mitch - thanks for the dimensions. I checked my #30 bit with a micrometer and it was .122 Drilled them out to .129 and they popped in OK. Also the tension adjustment was a bit loose on the Marson puller but the teeth were fine - I'm thinking it was mostly the hole size. Touchey little buggers.

Thanks for all the advice, after that frustration I think I'm going to go have a rum and eggnog now and order some more rivets. Merry Christmas!

Our solution to this problem was to modify the head on a pneumatic rivet puller so that it would fit tight and absolutely square to the cherrymax before we pulled the rivet. We ground the nose piece about 15-20 degrees and shaved the sides until it fit into the space and was tight to the rivet head. We also bent the rivet stem by putting it in a spare head on the handle of a manual puller and slightly bending it with a thumb. As Mitch suggested, we tried drilling the hole slightly larger (with a #29) which may help, but it seems being tight and square to the head was the key for success.

We were not able to pull these cherrymax with the hand riveter, probably because of the force required to squeeze the handles, we would come off the rivet as we pulled. This would either prematurely break the stem or not pull the rivet completely.

[rlinford]

My final solution (after the rum and eggnog) was to go on eBay and buy a used Cherrymax puller with three heads including an offset (and a case and some parts). It was $900 but I should be able to sell it to the next guy that builds one of these and then they can pass it along after that. So the real cost won't be that much.

The Cherrymax rivets are marginal to pull with a hand riveter when they are accesable but when they are in a tight spot they are a beast. The investment is well worth it considering the stakes are a destroyed spar or worse a poorly set rivet that comes apart at an inconvenient time.

Modifying the tip of the pneumatic puller was a good idea though if you have one you think is tough enough to pull these.