Rivet Gun & Bucking Bar versus Squeezer

What is wrong with a good ole' bucking bar and rivet gun? I continuously hear about problems builders are having with hand squeezers, pneumatic squeezers and C-Frame riveters and think it is time to talk about getting back to the basics -- 101 Riveting!

Have you ever walked through an airplane factory? Listen. . . hear that. . . sounds like rivet guns pounding away. There is a reason that Cessna, Piper, Raytheon, Boeing and others use rivet guns and bucking bars -- quality. A rivet installed this way gives the strongest, tightest and best rivet. What amazes me is that it is also the easiest when one considers how many rivets installed with a hand squeezer must be drilled out and re-installed.

In a major production facility you will find automated rivet machines -- but these are no comparison to a hand squeezer many kit builders use. The only application you will find a hand squeezer use for in a production factory is where absolutely no other tool will reach. There are instances where production facilities use pneumatic squeezers, but when a rivet gun and bucking bar will fit it is the preferred method.

Try this -- instead of trying to use a hand squeezer or pneumatic squeezer to build your airplane use a rivet gun and bucking bar. If you absolutely cannot get these into an area and the squeezer will do the job then use it. You will find that you have very few bad rivets and you won't have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what you are doing wrong on a tool that really should have very little use when you build your airplane!

I expect Rosie the Riveter would tell you "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." After all, Rosie could have built a B-17 with the basic sheet metal kit like the one linked in the title above.