Aluminum Rivets

[silverslayer]

Hello everyone. My name is Tim Hansen and I own an upholstery shop. I have a boat in the shop for carpet replacement. The problem is that some of the fixtures are riveted directly to the side of the boat. (It's a 15' Alumacraft by the way) These are the solid type rivets. Not the kind any Joe Smoe can get at the local hardware store. I will not be able to get the carpeted wood planks out with out removing the fixtures. Finally my question is, If I grind the rivets off to get the fixtures out, Could I replace them with the appropriate size joe smoe rivet. Would they leak? Would they be structurally sound? Some of the rivets are quite low on the hull. Any help or thoughts would be appreciated, Thanks.

[Jimbo1490]

Blind or 'pop' rivets (Pop is a brand of rivet but has become synonymous with *cheap* blind rivets) will leak unless sealed with a marine grade sealant. Even the best blind rivets costing a buck a piece are still structurally inferior to solid rivets. So hardware store blind rivets don't even begin to compare in strength to solid rivets.

So your first task is to try to make a determination if there is any structural significance to these rivets. If not, then you can safely substitute blind rivets and put up with their potential leak problems down the road.

Solid rivets are easy to get any where in the US, so availability should not be any problem (especially anywhere near Oshkosk ). Installing them is another story altogether. You will need a special air powered rivet gun, a bucking bar or dolly, a helper and practice. If the rivets are located near (within about 3") of the edge of the panel, then you can use a special 'squeezer' instead of a rivet gun. But for this to be practical, ALL of the rivets would need to be so situated. Else you would still need to buck those few that were not so located and then you might as well buck them all rather than buy two separate and somewhat redundant installation tools.

[silverslayer]

Thank you for the advise. It was a stretch but, I found the rivets here in town. A tractor trailer service place had them. Though they were not for sale I managed to con them out of a few. The only place in town. As far as installation I haven't tried yet. I have an air hammer and dolly. I figure I can make a bit to install them. I cant see buying a special tool to do it if I can improvise something. I'll now after the first one,lol. Thanks Jimbo.

[Meanz Beanz]

Monel Pop Rivets might be an option, a lot stronger than aluminium and will not corrode with the aluminum. They would still need to be sealed (sika?) and should rival the strength of the solid aluminium. A decent chandlery or rivet supplier should handle them.

[Jimbo1490]

No, monel blind rivets are nowhere near as strong as hard aluminum solid rivets. But he may not need the strength, anyway. The thing is solid rivets are less than a penny each so always make more sense in a production setting. So there could be two different reasons that a factory might choose solid rivets: cost or strength. If you can rule out strength, then substitution with blinds is OK. Otherwise, not.

[Meanz Beanz]

Size for size that surprises me. Shear strength or out right holding power (tensile)? Where do you get that sort of info anyway?

Interesting read...

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=15349&page=5

[Jimbo1490]

Both ways, and even a third; longevity. We face the problem all the time in the aircraft biz; airplanes all put together at the factory with solid rivets, tempting to do repairs (at least sometimes) with blinds when you can't get to the back side or at least it's a major PITA to get there. AC 4313-1A covers the subject as does literature from the premier maker of 'high-end' blind rivets that are nearly as strong as solids, Textron-Cherry. They still get loose, however. Solids rarely do that. Have to be periodically inspected where solids do not.

[silverslayer]

Well as I said, I went with solid rivets because that is what was in there. I was not sure what size they were. So I got them big. I thought, I could always drill them bigger. But then after thinking about it, that fore thought bothered me (a Lot). So I went back and got the right size. In the future, If for some unknown reason they had to repair this area, some one else might need to go bigger. I do not, I got all the rivets out clean. I just like to do things as right as I can. In most cases it doesn't take any more time to do a job right then it does to mess it over. Some of the rivets are structural tying the sides together and making everything in there stiffer. Again thanks for the advise, from all.

Tim Hansen