A Riveting Problem I Need Help to Solve

[Dan Jones]

Wrought iron is pretty soft stuff, it might work in this 'one time' application, try cruisin' the backside of the MOTEL 6 with a pair of red handled 'extra keys' or, do you have a metals dealer in the area? see if he'll let you dig in his scraps skid tub for something that would work better than soft iron. If you find something, give him $5 and he'll remember you next time.

I got a buddy with a welding shop, just that everything right now is under ten feet of snow!

[agent86]

I'd have to see a picture of a P-38 wing's structure before I could even imagine what they were up against, but there was some pretty bright guys back then designing that stuff.

The tool I'm making for that tab I think is going to be very simple but not what you would use for production. For the three or four I'll make I expect that it'll work out fine but I'd love to know what Boeing actually used. I do know that Consolidated employed midgets for bucking rivets in some of the PBY's structure. I remember I was happy camper the day I could no longer fit down the inside of a Twin Otter float to buck!

Mr.Jones,midget is no longer PC its little people.we nolonger have retards nor mongoloids either

[Second Air Force]

Dan,

Take your least favorite bucking bar that can be trimmed to fit inside the tab and simply weld (or drill and tap a hole) a long handle onto it made from redi-bolt or rebar or whatever is close at hand. Shooting from the middle to each end alternately, like I mentioned in the PM, will also help keep the deflection problem down. If you have helpers you could place the bar in the middle of two handles and your troops could run them from either side to maintain proper bucking pressure.

Scott

[John Dupre]

How did this work out?

[The Inspector]

Dan,
I was checking in with some friends @ KPAE a few weeks ago to see 'wassabi?' and found that they are working on an inherited project out of Colorado, a new build model 32 A6M, dude some of the almost microscopic places that rivets through letter slot wide gaps in the wings to rivet the skins to the ribs and frames made my head hurt trying to figure out how to access the tails to buck without seeing if your three year old grandson can hold a #4 bucking bar! A gazillion 1/8th holes and everyone dimpled/countersunk.

[Dan Jones]

It's funny you guys should post this today - just this afternoon I started playing with the tabs again after months of tripping over a ten foot long strip of specialty steel that I had to order in March to make the bucking strip out of. The tabs took a backseat to getting the seats finished and mounted, the bulk of the electrical system created and installed, and building an aileron jig for two decidedly weary ailerons. Long story short... I'll have an update for you shortly (provided it works!) If it doesn't work, I will be publishing a short list of what not to try.

Some years ago, well before it was finished, I saw the collection of Zero bits that Blayd Corp had in storage at their facility in Carmen. I was really, really impressed by how labor intensive building/rebuilding a Zero is. It seems like the whole thing was made up of tiny, little pieces all riveted together. It sure didn't look like it was designed for mass production.

[The Inspector]

Yeah, it's intense to be sure! And will be intense to do all the riveting, Merthiolate in a pump sprayer please. But it's from the same folks who historically do joinery that makes Quaker mortises look like two boards stuck together with a rock and a rusty nail!

I've been giving this some thought and I'll bet the originals were done with a very deep jawed 'C' squeeze mounted to a bench, you'd do half the rivets, flip the part end for end, and install the rest of the rivets

[Dan Jones]

I've been giving this some thought and I'll bet the originals were done with a very deep jawed 'C' squeeze mounted to a bench, you'd do half the rivets, flip the part end for end, and install the rest of the rivets

Maybe... Pretty shallow piece though for a squeezer. I think I have it figured out how to do it, so I should have an answer here in a day or two. Stay tuned.

[The Inspector]

As long as it don't sound like you're trying to get even with the anvil!

[hang the expense]

I have an idea how the part was riveted.Boeing had to buck the rivets inside of the spar tubes and carry throughs. The used a two part bucking bar with one piece sliding along the channel of the other.It has handles on both pieces.I bucked some rivets in the P-38 way back and that is what I used.It was in the corregation