Plate nut dimpling

rv8bill · Post by **rv8bill** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 8:12 pm

Riveting the plate nuts onto the trim reinforcement plate (left elevator skin) requires dimpling the plate nuts to accept the dimpled skin or countersinking the .032 skin. I would prefer dimpling, but the dimple die interferes with the plate nut in a manner that slightly distorts the plate nut. The nut plate can probably be easily straightened. Anyone have experience with this?

captain_john · Post by **captain_john** » Sat Sep 26, 2009 9:38 pm

I dimple platenuts all the time in my DRDT. I have a die set that has one side cut away to clear the threaded hub.

While the platenut is still in the DRDT, I just tweak it to straighten it out.

It works fine for me!

You are on the right track!

CJ

Post by **bullojm1** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 8:52 pm

I used just a squeezer to dimple plate nuts when needed.....HOWEVER...

The real solution is to order a bunch of reduced head rivets. This is basically a AN426AD3-x rivet, but the countersunk head is reduced. You can countersink the hole with about three turns of a deburring tool. A lot of RV builders do this. A 1/10th of a pound of each should be plenty for the build.

http://www.pegasusautoracing.com/produc ... NAS1097AD3

dons · Post by **dons** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 11:04 am

I didn't learn my lesson to use NAS1097AD3's to install platenuts until after I had done most of the tail. It is a lot less work and the skins stay flatter if you countersink instead of dimple. One important thing to remember is that the rivets are there to hold the platenut until the screw is torqued, they don't hold the structure together.

Here is another source:
http://www.wicksaircraft.com/catalog/product_cat.php/subid=10145/index.html