Modified C Frame Riveter/Dimpler

[BobDz]

Necessity is the mother of invention.

I have an Avery C Frame with a ram for riveting. I don't have a ram that is drilled for dimple dies, or other rivet sets. I have an email into Cleveland to see if their drilled ram will fit my 30+ year old Avery. But I'm tired of stopping work to wait for stuff. Patience is a virtue that I do not have.

So...
How to adapt my dimple dies to my Avery. My final idea was a concentrically drilled dowel. Inside diameter is 3/16 to accept the dies, out side diameter is the same as the diameter of the ram. Now, how to I make the connection? Turned out to be extremely easy! I used a short piece of heat shrink to attach the dowel to the dimple die (Just so you know the shaft of the dimple die is about 1/32 proud of the dowel. This way, no force is exerted on the dowel.). Then I used another piece of heat shrink to attach that "sub-assembly" to the ram. In theory the heat shrink will/should shrink concentrically, so that the dies line up.

Works PERFECTLY!!

[Bryan Cotton]

Almost as good as having a friend with a lathe!

[BobDz]

Almost as good as having a friend with a lathe!

According to Google maps: 2 hours and 36 minutes.

Will your wife be upset when you tell her you have to move????

Since my original post, I've found a piece of 1/2" rod that should make a new ram. Since you live so far away, I've learned to be quite good at concentrically drilling round shafts on my drill press

[Bryan Cotton]

You should join our EAA Chapter and then you can fly down to use the lathe.

[BobDz]

You should join our EAA Chapter and then you can fly down to use the lathe.

But I need the lathe to fix the dimpler to finish the plane to fly down there so I can use the lathe.