Details on my riveting blunder

[cjensen]

Here's the pics of my "little" boo boo over the weekend with the center section carry through. Again, I've already emailed pics to Van's and got the response to not worry about it, and move on.

Anyway, thought I'd post them to satisfy curiousity. Here's what happened...I bucked the first seat rib rivet just fine. When I set the gun down to pick up the next rivet, the regulator knob on the gun rubbed the table, and cranked up the pressure (don't know how much) excessively, especially for use with the tungsten bar. I pulled the trigger on the next rivet, and the gun and bar bounced all over the place, ruining the rivet, and putting what I thought was a killer blow in to the spar webbing...




I THOUGHT that I had actually ripped the metal with the bar, but that was not the case at all. Turned out to be a couple of minor dents and scratches that I sanded out. Funny how bad these things look when it happens. I drilled the rivet out and did this-



Replaced the rivet with a nice shop head on it-



Painted it, and moved on.



Lesson learned: Be sure your pressures are correct when using the tungsten bar and bucking solo.

All is well again.

[LooseNut]

oooooh that must have hurt I would have said a few big-boy words to myself

Thanks for posting the pictures and the story. It's really great when we can learn from eachother's experiences.

I'm sure glad it worked out for you. I would have been freakn' out and thinking the worst if I had seen only the first pictures. Ya know, the fix really looks OK.

BTW, does that Tungs-ton bucking bar have square corners?? I think most of my bars (all non-tungsten) have some sort of radius on the corners. Not that it would have avoided this problem ... but maybe could have helped a little.

[cjensen]

oooooh that must have hurt I would have said a few big-boy words to myself

Well, I said most all of the big-boy words out loud. I think most of my neighbors probably heard me as well...

Thanks for posting the pictures and the story. It's really great when we can learn from eachother's experiences.

I'm sure glad it worked out for you. I would have been freakn' out and thinking the worst if I had seen only the first pictures. Ya know, the fix really looks OK.

BTW, does that Tungs-ton bucking bar have square corners?? I think most of my bars (all non-tungsten) have some sort of radius on the corners. Not that it would have avoided this problem ... but maybe could have helped a little.

Well, that's what this part of the forum is for. I hope someone else can take this info and learn from it. I know I did. It never pays to be ashamed of a mistake. Just gotta get it out there and learn.

The corners on the bar do have a radius on them, so they are not sharp. They aren't exactly rounded, but not sharp.

[dons]

I was curiuos Chad, but I just knew you would post something when you got a chance.

As far as "Well, that's what this part of the forum is for", I have learned so much from reading these. In all fairness to all the great info on web sites out there (including yours Chad), a lot can be learned from what goes wrong when building. Seeing how something doesn't come out the way it might have been planned gives valuable insite into what to be careful with and really think about before making that cut/hole/whatever. A few pictures of things that didn't work out teaching me more than 10 pictures of something that comes out perfect because you normally have no idea what the person did to make it come out as planned.

Thanks for these tidbits, I know I'll make my own mistakes once I actually get some real building going. With only a few hundred rivets actually set, I have lots of potential for adding to this forum.

[LooseNut]

It never pays to be ashamed of a mistake. Just gotta get it out there and learn.

Ya got that right.

It's a lot easier to post a good story, so I had to send you some sympathy and thanks for your sad story.


Harold

[captain_john]

Chad, as you already know... that'll be fine.

CJ

[JohnR]

Boy, I'll bet that really got your attenton! It would have mine. Of course those type of thing always happen on the weekend so you can stew on it a couple of days before talking to Van's. Glad it is okay. The fix does look good.