[eodinert]

I bought a cheap-ass air hammer at Harbor Freight today. I already had a tool to hammer the rivets in the air gun (it's a chisel with the point cut off, and a rivet shaped divot on the tip).

I put a buck behind my rivet, and went to hammerin', and precisely nothing happened (it did round the straight end of the rivet out a bit, and shined it up nice and pretty). Obviously, I bought too girly of an air hammer to do my rivets.

What size harbor freight air hammer to I need to properly hammer rivets?

Thanks..

 

[CANDYMAN]

mine was the 1 on sale at hf was like 10.99

look on the bottom by the air inlet theres an adjustment
prolly just need to turn it up

 

[Kalashnikox]

What Candyman said. Welcome to the boards, both of you!

 

[eodinert]

..I just had an epiphany... I think I need to turn the air up on the regulator coming out of the compressor. I had already dialed the input adjust, to no avail.

Thanks, all!!

 

[moose]

the air hammer doesn't screw up the round head of the rivet??

 

[CANDYMAN]

the air hammer doesn't screw up the round head of the rivet??

like anythang it takes alittle skill (not alot)
the nice thang is if do smiley your rivet you can usally fix it with a diff position on your airhammer

squeezers are still the best
but i do use my airhammer to seat them

 

[bulletslap]

The biggest risk with an Airhammer is putting the smiley's in your recievr, ask me how I know this ? :goof:

 

[Guest]

I used an airhammer (high dollar Mac tools) for the trigger guard rivets. I made the tool with the dimples for the exposed side, and hammered the insides flat. It took me about 1 second to smash em to 1/16th thick.

 

[Speedfreak]

Smileys

The biggest risk with an Airhammer is putting the smiley's in your recievr, ask me how I know this ? :goof:

I know OOH, OOH, Mista Carrteer, Youse Lifted dat ayyah hammah, befoowah youse let up onna trigga , owwa you let da hammah get down onna recievah :grin:
That was my best horseshack, Cause thats who I felt like when I did it :neutral:

 

[HOPSTER]

Best bet if you want to pound rivets is a rivet gun, not an air hammer.
There are lots of clones of the Chigago Pneumatic 3X and 4X out there cheap, but not $10.99 cheap.
Rivet guns give you precise control with the trigger, from a slow "tap tap" to a zipper fast beat. It's called a "teasing trigger". Air hammers suck for any kind of riveting work.
Best deal for the money is a rivet squeezer made from bolt cutters.

 

[eodinert]

Rivet sqeezers don't seat countersink rivets so well.

 

[Guest]

Rivet sqeezers don't seat countersink rivets so well.

They dont sink them at all! i guess a guy would need to smak the sheet metal with a tapered punch to make the indent first if he was going to use the bolt cutters on them.

 

[BigAL]

i use an air hammer on the trigger guard. i've used them on trunnions before, but i don't think they give a good squish..

 

[Mbsk01]

I still find it hard to believe nobody has found/made a correct rivet set, yet. I work with more than enough people who hammer rivets daily that I would be confident in their skill, if only they had the right set and a good way to buck the rivets.

 

[HOPSTER]

The correct sets are available from the larger aircraft tool supply houses.
These are for the old style AN round head rivets instead of the AN470 brazier head rivets in current use. They fit a standard .401 shank aircraft rivet gun. A controlled squeeze such as a plinker jig or the squeezers made from bolt cutters would always give the best results. Squeezing or hammering you gotta work fast as the steel work hardens as soon as you deform it. If you have to zap it a second or third time with a rivet gun, you would be making it more difficult each time (as the steel becomes tempered from the hammering). Another advantage of squeezing is that the bucking bar needed for the heavy steel rivets, if small enough to fit into the reciever, wont have enough weight where you need it. That increases the chances of dimpling the reciever around the rivet - when the rivet set pushes the sidewall along with the rivet. Squeezing the rivets eliminates that risk.