Today began pur first attempt at partner riveting. To this point, all of the riveting on the kit has been done solo by me. I've now done as much as I can by myslef and since I've opted not to back rivet, it's time to get my wife Toni involved as my riveting partner. She decided she'd rather shoot than buck so that's the direction we went. We had no significant issues. Had a few bad ones that had to drilled and re-shot. Of those, a couple needed "oops" rivets as the hole got enlarged enough that I felt a 3- rivet was too small. Anyway we banged away and got the remaining stiffeners riveted and began on the frames and bulkheads. We stopped when we got to the side-to-bottom radius and discovered the tabs on the frames would pull away from the skin once the cleco was pulled out. The easiest solution is to use a rubber washer a little thicker than the protruding shank of the rivet between the bucking bar and the rivet. The hole of the washer goes over the rivet shank. With the bucking bar in-place, the bar pushes against the washer which inturn pushes the tab back against the skin without touching the rivet. When the shooter is ready, the bucker can push real hard and get in contact with the rivet. A quick blurp sets the rivet enough that the washer can be removed while the tab is held in-place against the skin by the now partially set rivet. The rivet can then be finished being set normally. Sounds a little more complicated than it is. Problem was I didn't have any rubber washers in the house! So we decided to call it a day and a trip to the hardware store will have to made before starting up again.
