A comparision of #32/#31/#30 and sonex/avery dimple results

[kevinh]

Hi ya'll,

I had some scrap aluminum so I did a test of various drill sizes for dimpled rivets (mostly to decide between #32 vs #31 for the rest of my project - I had previously been using #32). I also compared the avery dimple dies to the sonex pop rivet puller dimple die. In case it is useful here's the results:

Testing riveting a piece of scrap .025" to scrap .032".

• Drill size #30 sometimes had bits of the mandrel left proud of the surface (unsurprisingly)
• Drill size #31 seems just right
• Drill size #32 sometimes needed to be expanded after dimpling to #30 to fit rivets
• The avery dimple dies leave slightly crisper/nicer dimples than the sonex pulled die.

[marsolgp]

Kevin,
Another option is what I did when I built my Waiex with all flush rivets (CCC's) and that was the Cleaveland tool P/N DIENQ..... see their website, but basically you dimple a #40 hole then ream to #30.

[kevinh]

Thanks. That looks even better! I'll go with that.

[Bryan Cotton]

Kevin,
Good post, thanks for the share!