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Dear All,

I need to put back together the shock arm extensions on my 733. The two stamped sheet metal pieces are held together with solid rivets (see picture of very dirty arm).

I got the rivets from Fastenal.

What tools and/or techniques do I need to use them? In various google searches I found references to 'rivet sets', but further searching resulted in finding lots of info on pop rivets.

Any help or direction will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Tom

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While I haven't done any rivets quite that big I have done smaller ones on an aluminium boat. You need a heavy hunk of metal with a dished out portion to fit the head of the rivet( usually called a "buck"). You hold that buck against the rivet head and then smack the other side of the rivet with a hammer to upset the end. If you want to get real fancy you can make a small block with a dished out section for use on the upset end to give it a nicer looking appearance but that usually requires at least 3 hands to do.

When riveting iron or steel it is standard procedure to heat the rivet cherry red and peen it over. This swells the rivet body into the holes. Otherwise the slight clearence allows for breathing that only gets worse over just a few 1000 miles.

one alternative is to install good shoulder bolts with nuts or tap one side of the piece and screew them together.

Go to McMaster-Carr

http://www.mcmaster.com/

Search up "solid rivets" and "Solid Rivet tools" You need a Rivet set (or two), a vise and hammer and you don't have to heat them, they are mild steel and should expand nicely if you hole isn't too over-sized.

Scott

I believe you have to take into consideration what kind of load will be imposed before you decide if heat-shrunk riveting is required. If you are simply holding two halves of something together and there is no shearing action or significant other forces to separate the parts, then cold riveting may suffice but if there is any signifcant shearing force, I'd recommend hot riveting as has been suggested.

Brings back some of those wonderful old photos of shipyards and bridge builders where the tosser takes a hot rivet from the furnace and tosses it to the catcher who uses a leather mit and metal cup to catch and insert it. Before I finish my morning coffee Gusha will probably have a picture of same here.

Owens explanation is better. Go ahead and cold rivet the shhock link as long as it is not subject to any significant sheer or torsional stresses. It's difficult to tell from the pic what kind of forces are on the link or it's connstruction and i'm not familiar with this particular set up.

Unless originality is important for shows i would probably just use bolts.

Thank you all for the specific instructions. That was exactly what I needed. I am going to order a setter and will report on success of failure after my return from Thanksgiving travels.

To All, Happy Thanksgiving (whenever, and even if, it occurs in your location)!

Happy Thanksgiving, Tom. Travel safely and enjoy the holiday.

*Urp!* I get a sense of vertigo just looking at that pic of the catcher. My hat's off to the men who could work the high steel.