Hand rivet squeezer

[southwind32]

I've never used one, but considering buying one. How are they to use? Does it take a lot of pulling power to squeeze .-3 or -4 rivets? When pulling, is it hard to keep it stable on the rivet?
Thanks
Brian

[jiott]

I used the hand squeezer that came in the optional Kitfox tool kit. No problem to use. Pulling power required is well within normal hand effort. I don't think the kit has enough rivets to justify a more expensive power squeezer. I assume you are talking about a pop rivet "puller". If you are talking about a "squeezer" for solid rivets that's different. Again there are so few solid rivets to install that purchasing a squeezer is hardly justified. Try to borrow one from a fellow builder, or do what I did- use a pair of vise-grips with the jaw surfaces ground flat. Works really well.

[896tr]

Even a Harbor Freight rivet gun will work just fine, most tools today are made in China. Yes even some of the more expensive tools.

[t j]

The stainless steel rivets that hold the wing strut brackets onto the wing spars are pretty hard to squeeze. There's about 40 in each of the 4 brackets. I about wore my hands out on those. now that I'm old with arthritic hands I don't think I could do another 160 of those rivets.

[efwd]

I know I would not have been able to pull all those rivets mentioned above. I was so glad that I had paid something like $60 or less for the pneumatic puller from Harbor Freight. It makes all the rivet jobs as simple as the last. I like mine. I had a pretty good scare when I Hysol'd the strut mount and went to use my pneumatic gun and it didn't work. I then tried to quickly get these pulled before the Hysol got too hard. I got tired real quick. I hustled to figure out my problem and got it resolved thankfully. Working alone sometimes presents you with little predicaments like that.
Eddie

[Esser]

The stainless rivets are more difficult but for how few there are, get two pipes a foot long and increase your leverage.

[southwind32]

I should have clarified my message, I'm talking about solid rivets, not pop rivets. Sorry.
Brian

[efwd]

OK, I have those also. Luv em. Ive been squeezing rivets on my wing tip mounts/nutplates. Im not sure how your going to do it without a squeezer. I bet people are modifying vice grips and getting away with it since there arent many solid rivets. The tool is easy to use. Lots of power behind the handles. Very stable because with the small rivets you aren't straining whatsoever.
Eddie

[HighWing]

I have a solid rivet squeezer, in fact two. One I inherited after I finished helping the guy build the Lancair IV. I am a tinkered and use them all the time. The last time putting a splash guard in the water tank of low volume toilet. One of them has the longer jaws for greater reach. I find the occasional challenge when one of the hardened type rivets shows up in a batch of the more commonly used soft ones - can be a bit of a challenge.

[Av8r_Sed]

I did all my solid rivets with a hammer, punch and bucking bar of some sort. It was pretty easy for the relatively few rivets I had to do.

[Esser]

I borrowed my buddies for the roughly 100 total solid rivers on the project. Wing tip nut plates, camlocks and boot cowl I think is all. Easy to squeeze.

[Cherrybark]

For solid rivets, I bought a cheap Harbor Freight vice grip and used a bench grinder to smooth the face of the pliers. I'll bet a few strokes of a file would do the job almost as quickly.