Solid rivets and nutplates

[Bryan Cotton]

I know most of you Sonexers are not into solid rivets but I thought I would share these two little tricks:

First off notice the rivet in the scissors. My rivet cutter could not cut rivets short enough. I took an old (read:heavy duty, quality) pair of scissors, opened them a little, and drilled a #40 hole near the pivot. Instant rivet shear.

The nifty tool I use for nutplates is a countersunk piece of scrap. The scrap holds the rivets in place, the screw pulls the nutplate down tight. I shortened the screw so it doesn't really get into the locking part of the nutplate. The squeezer goes on the scrap piece on one side, and sets the rivet on the other side.

I like the picture. See, polishing is useful. I saved a 100kb picture!

[avee8r]

Neat Tools Bryan!

Please send these to Charlie Becker at EAA, (cbecker@eaa.org) and share it with all us homebuilders.

Happy Landings
John
N50NX