Air Riveter

[dylanp]

I will soon need to start some major riveting on my Marlin 5Exi and everyone seems to think that Air Riveter is a must have!?

Amongst you kit-car builders, is there anyone that wants to sell a kit? (compressor & air riveter)?

Alternatively, where is a good place to buy one (as I'll only use it once don't really fancy spending too much)?

Cheers,
Dylan

[anonymous-user]

If you're not expecting to want to use it again, I'd take a look around the local plant hire places. Even if you can only rent a compressor and have to by a riviter, that'll only set you back a fraction of the cost of the whole caboodle.

[busa_rush]

HSS hire shops have an electric riveter for hire, I'd never want to hand rivet the floor of a kit car again ! Well worth the money - in fact it's probably worth twice the hire cost if you've got a lot to do.

[dylanp]

Thanks for that!

I think HSS sounds like a good bet...

But what is the difference between an Air Riveter and a 'Cordless Riveter'?

Is cordless good enough for what I need to do?

Cheers,
Dylan

[davefiddes]

Are you sure you need an air riveter? I've found when building my Ultima that an elcheapo £11 Halfords hand riveter made pretty short work of the circa 2k rivets on the car. When I was panelling the car putting in 1.5k rivets in less than 2 weeks proved to be a lot less masochistic than I feared. No aches, pains or blisters at all just a much firmer handshake!

The big advantage of hand riveters is that they seem to be able to get into all of the difficult corners that are useless for air tools. If I were to do it again then a rivet gun with an indexing head would probably be a better idea.

Stainless steel rivets are absolutely murder to do with a wimpy rivet gun built for aluminium rivets. No vast numbers of them on the Ultima tho.

[busa_rush]

I think the cordless is probably the electric riviter, bit like a cordless drill. Give 'em a ring.

[Spyderman]

If you can't rent an air riveter then get yourself a "Lazy Tongue Riveter". I think that is the name!
They are like a big concertina affair, but make light work of riveting and don't punish your joints like the cheap hand riveters!

[dylanp]

Cheers guys for all the replies!

I'll give HHS 'cordless' riveter a go and keep you posted how easy/difficult that was to do...

Dylan

[Locoblade]

I used one of the HSS cordless electric ones when doing my car, worked a treat and lasted for over 500 rivets on a full charge. The only problem is that its bulky (like a cordless drill) so you'll still need a hand rivetter to get into the awkward corners etc.

Chris