Exterior Rivets

[Markinalaska]

In the aircraft industry we avoid them as well. If I can’t buck the tails on a solid rivet I would only use Cherrymax blind rivets. Structurally they can replace solids size for size.

Hey Oliver,
As usual the people on this site are a wealth of information. I’ve never heard of those rivets but will be looking into them now. I read up on their site and those appear to be a much more structurally sound rivet. Guess I will be ordering their gauge as well to make sure I get everything right. I don’t want to half a$$ any of this. When I do start my trip it will be thousands of miles and I want to ensure everything is up to it. Thanks for the info.

[Salty]

@78Silver28J Oliver, is there special tooling required for these rivets ie particular head, or can you get by with more common rivet guns?
Would there be a preference of steel stem vs CRES stem?
Based on the skin thickness on my 87 34V of 0.037, I put together a list of what would seem to me to be the most common sizes and part numbers. These are all universal (domed vs countersunk) heads. Your thoughts?

CRES shaft
1/8" rivets
CR3223-4-02 1/8 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #30
CR3223-4-03 1/8 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3223-4-04 1/8 rivet grip range .188-.250

5/32" rivets
CR3223-5-02 5/32 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #20
CR3223-5-03 5/32 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3223-5-04 5/32 rivet grip range .188-.250

3/16" rivets
CR3223-6-02 3/16 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #10
CR3223-6-03 3/16 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3223-6-04 3/16 rivet grip range .188-.250

oversize rivets

1/8" rivets oversized
CR3253-4-02 1/8 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #27
CR3253-4-03 1/8 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3253-4-04 1/8 rivet grip range .188-.250

5/32" rivets oversized
CR3253-5-02 5/32 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #16
CR3253-5-03 5/32 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3253-5-04 5/32 rivet grip range .188-.250

3/16" rivets oversized
CR3253-6-02 3/16 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #5
CR3253-6-03 3/16 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3253-6-04 3/16 rivet grip range .188-.250

Steel Shaft
1/8" rivets
CR3213-4-02 1/8 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #30
CR3213-4-03 1/8 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3213-4-04 1/8 rivet grip range .188-.250

5/32" rivets
CR3213-5-02 5/32 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #20
CR3213-5-03 5/32 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3213-5-04 5/32 rivet grip range .188-.250

3/16" rivets
CR3213-6-02 3/16 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #10
CR3213-6-03 3/16 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3213-6-04 3/16 rivet grip range .188-.250

oversize rivets

1/8" rivets oversized
CR3243-4-02 1/8 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #27
CR3243-4-03 1/8 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3243-4-04 1/8 rivet grip range .188-.250

5/32" rivets oversized
CR3243-5-02 5/32 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #16
CR3243-5-03 5/32 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3243-5-04 5/32 rivet grip range .188-.250

3/16" rivets oversized
CR3243-6-02 3/16 rivet grip range .063-.125 Drill size #5
CR3243-6-03 3/16 rivet grip range .126-.187
CR3243-6-04 3/16 rivet grip range .188-.250

[78Silver28J]

Salty, looks like you got it figured out nicely. You can pull them with a standard hand rivet puller. If you really want to go big, get a air powered puller from aircraft spruce and speacilty, the cheap one works great, I’ve pulled a lot of rivets with it. Setting them properly is key as the locking collar has to engage the stem. When you pull one you hear two clicks, one setting the collar and the next the stem breaking. The stem should break flush with the top of the sleeves bulbed head.

You can use the cres stem on the exterior where it may be subject to corrosion but if it was me doing it I would use standard alloy steel since I have them on hand and I’d put them in wet with parabond and put a small dab of it on the pulled head after setting it. Check out the pdf cherraerospace.com has on them for more reference and there are videos on on you tube on setting them from the Vans RV airplane guys that are good tutorials.

Oliver

[Salty]

I ordered up a few packs of these rivets and THEY ARE THE (INSERT POSITIVE PROFANE ADJECTIVE HERE).
Amazing. I did a test on a couple pieces of trimmed exterior skin I had and what a huge difference over normal pop rivets. I'll get up a pic later. If you need to rivet something, this is what you want.
@Justin comments from 78Silver28J are where you want to begin on the first page of this thread.

[Justin]

Awesome, thanks @Salty

[Salty]

pics as promised.
This is a test I did before venturing onto something more important. These two pieces were left over scraps I had laying about.

[Salty]

Regarding these rivets, before you you pull the trigger on that rivet gun, be absolutely certain what you are riveting is to be permanent. These do not remove easily.

[Justin]

A few posts up it is mentioned that these rivets work with a standard rivet gun. Is that not the case? Or are you just saying before we actually use those rivets we should think about how permanent the piece should be.

[Justin]

A few posts up it is mentioned that these rivets work with a standard rivet gun. Is that not the case? Or are you just saying before we actually use those rivets we should think about how permanent the piece should be.

[Salty]

How permanent. Think of it this way. Think three times, measure twice, rivet once.
To expand on that more, I had the mandrels on a couple of those aircraft rivets break off long, as rivets sometimes do. There was no removing them short of grinding. Now, that happened to two of them out of a dozen. As a precaution, I have since put new jaws in my rivet gun. Other than that, my opinion of aircraft rivets has not changed. They're awesome.