A fellow Chapter member came over this afternoon and we riveted the baggage skins to the fuselage. Mike, has a beautiful RV-9A, completed close to a year ago. He took a look at the assembly, placed the squeezer over the bulkhead flange and said we could squeeze the rivets as opposed to using the gun, offset set and a bucking bar. It came out very nice. Nice, tight flanges and good rivets.
We used the squeezer with the cupped die. The instructions suggest using two flat sets, but, I tried it on a sample and it flattens the AN470 head. With the bulkhead horizontal, we placed two large spring clamps on either side of the rivet location. To center the squeezer you have to bend the skin downward. When I first tried, I was a bit hesitant to bend it down to gain clearance for the squeezer, because the gap opened. Mike bent the baggage skin down, centered the squeezer on the rivet, then, he pushed on the squeezer horizontally with a bit of force forcing the rivet in the hole and closing the baggage floor flange gap as I pressed on the other side of the bulkhead. Squeezed it and we moved on to the next.
Took us about 30 minutes to set all of them. Gave us a very respectable result. There is no gap between the bulkhead and the baggage floor skin flange.
To squeeze the rivets this way, it most definitely requires two people. Also don't forget to put some painters tape on the skin near the flange. I scratched mine, cause I forgot it. The area will get painted with the interior.
Thanks, Mike!! Meetings tonight at the high school. Adam starts high school next year.
Time - 1 hour
