Riveting

[Lynn Eades]

I would like to see/hear about the riveting process assembly order of the U.C. The rivets are so neatly done and so many of them are in awkward places. how did they do them? What special gear did they use? ...Feedback please!

[chris vickery]

Lynn, in response to your question, riveting of this type is done with a pneumatic hammer and what is called a bucking bar. On the hammer side is an attachment that forms the head and the bucking bar has the opposite head form shape. The process is done either cold or hot . This technology is very old, steam locomotives, structural steel, boilers etc. all being done this way. You can still get the tools for the job, but may have to get in contact with a boiler maker or a good machinist whol can fabricate the tools. A small pneumatic hammer is probably sufficient for the job since carrier rivets are comparatively small. It is a two man job, one for the hammer and one for the bucking bar. Wear your ear plugs.

[Snowtractor]

the rivet has to be a fairly tight fit even before expanding and the plates should be clamped together tightly because the rivet most likely won't tighten a really loose joint.depending on the coling ratio of the rivet material. NIce article on replicating rivet jobs in a past MVPA mag, I'll get the number fo it if you want.
Sean

[herr-pear]

Rivets are, of course, widely used in the aircraft industry and tools are available from almost any aircraft supply house. I must have driven a zillion rivets on airplanes over the years. How big are carrier rivets (Diameter) anyway?

[Snowtractor]

Remember that carrier rivets or the rivets holding the frame members together on vehicles will be steel , not aluminium, and will be cherry red hot when placed and you have to be quick with the bucking bar and air hammer. An acetylene torch works fine for heating and apparently you can use mild steel rod stock for rivets and it works fine, though I don't know the original composition of the rivets. The chaps in the MVPA article used rod stock cut to proper length. I should add that they used an air hammer with the large round flat hammer head that he took to a machine shop and had the flat surface milled with a half round hole in the rivet head's dimensions. Also, he had several different holes milled into his heavy bucking bar so he could reach all locations.
I found button head bolts that used an allen key on the round end . If you used these and cut the inside bolt off flush with the nut, and then used epoxy putty to fill the allen key hole and sculpt a little round button over the nut end, with paint on it it is impossible to tell whether its a rivet or not.
Sean
Incidentally the rivets were 3/8" or 1/2" on the few I replaced

[chris vickery]

Original style rivets can be found through companies like Spaenaur in Kitchener ON or any good industrial fastener supply store. I obtained some for my CMP tailgate on the 12 cab when I reproduced it from Spaenaur.

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

On our Stuart Tank restoration one of our guys used coach bolts. He machined the head to the rivet head size, machined out the square on the underside of the bolt head and then just bolted into position.

Bob