hi there , l usually bolt them up with good quailty bolts for that area , but if you use a air hammer with the proper bit for the size of rivit and a heavy steel item for the back side it will work , have some else help you . hope this helps , mike

 

Please do not use an air hammer as it is not made to drive Rivets. With over 20 yrs of aircraft maintenance behind me...... You are better off using a "c" squeeze rivet tool and have the proper anvils in the jaws. If you buck the rivets with the Auto air Hammer, and you are not backing up the rivet properly, you can bend the rail and have woodpecker tracks all over..... looks like crap. I had a guy try to buck rivets on a tail of an Airbus 320 I was working on, and he created 8 hours of lost labor on a 50 million dollars aircraft...... just my .02

James B.

Duluth, Minnesota
(Military training in Phoenix, Az)

 

Yimmy do you think these guys are gonna have a 1000 + $ "C" squeeze laying around? Hell half the general aviation guys don't have them especially big enough to squeeze 3/16 steel rivets. A gun and bar will work just fine just control the gun and make sure your on the backside nice and straight it's not that hard.

 

$1000+? Heck I'll sell em for that all day long!

Just head down to your local farm supply store and get a riveting tool for replacing sickle mower knife sections. Or check out this link...
http://www.smithtoolinfo.com/r3030.htm
$70 and they're designed for installing 3/16" steel rivets.
Hit up a few farm auctions in hay country and you can usually get an old one for $10 or less.

BTW, if you hot-rivet them they install a lot easier, but they can be installed cold too.
And don't use an impact wrench on the tool...it's a really good way to see a chunk of cast iron explode!

Or...I can suggest using bolts too. I've done that before.

 

Yeah those aren't what we were talking about. They don't look deep enough to fit around there have you used them for this before?

 

I know what you're referring to, and I agree that there are very few people going to have one laying around their shop.

Those ones I linked to will get the job done. The older ones that we've got around the farm fit just fine. In particular to Doos, I've used that one my old '78 TNT and a couple of Blizzard/Everest skids. I've used it on non-yellow skids too.
You do need to have the rear idlers off of the axle and hyfax removed from the rails, then you can slide the tool up along the bottom of the rail to get at all the rivets along the rail assembly.

I don't like the sound of using a pneumatic hammer to buck the rivets, but if you're careful about backing the rivets really good I bet it would work too. Ideally those rivets should get a good spun head instead of a peened head...but as long as you get it bucked nice and tight the end result should be the same.

 

We shoot rivets pneumatically all day. It's not hard, and will not damage structure unless you just plain out beat the hell out of it.