#Rivnut pop rivet tool install

Because once you drill the hole there is almost no way to undo it for a second go, for most of us there is NO way.

#Rivnut pop rivet tool install

Trust me, drilling holes, mounting rivnuts and then going to install your whatever and the bolts don't line up is.the worst feeling. They will insure you find the center of almost any mounting hole for marking and punching your center point for your drill bit so it doesn't wonder off and mess up your bolt alignment/rivnut placement. Especially if you are having to have them be spot on for mounting things w/ multiple holes and alignment is critical. ***Side note, I highly recommend using transfer punches when possible and or appropriate when drilling the holes for the rivnuts. All my stuff would bounce and shift w/o it being tied down. I use those to secure gear and my cooler when I go to Moab to wheel and camp. Worked great, but I had room to work too. I put in four 4' sections on the floor, tailgate and the rail on the front of the bed. In your shoes, I'd get the rivnuts and try the nut-and-bolt method on some scrap, then decide whether a purpose-designed tool is needed.Īstro was what I got to mount a-track rails in my '04 taco bed for movable tie downs. Whatever you go with, buy plenty of the rivnuts and practice first. The nut-and-bolt method usually involves less effort than getting the 'correct' tool to the job, so is the one that gets used. For M8 steel and up to M12, I use a ratchet tool because I have it (bought for a site job where Risk Assessments and Method Statements were needed and the nut and bolt method wasn't going to be smiled upon).įor most of my site work, where there are only a small number of rivnuts needed. In the shop, I use the lever type occasionally up to M8 in Aluminium and M6 in steel or stainless. The Ratchet tools are excellent, but are essentially just a fancy nut and bolt. Lever type is quick and great when you have good access and a strong/stiff enough structure to tolerate the forces that you'll put into it when you pull the rivnut. It doesn't really mind whether you are in thin material that is easy to dent/deform when using the lever type. It also handles steel and stainless Rivnuts in any size you can get nuts and bolts for.

I highly recommend you drill a couple of practice holes in some sheet metal to get the feel of it, remember when using an Aluminium rivnut that if you just squeeze with the strength of the gods like you were doing a pop rivet you’ll rip the threads out, and it really will be like a pop rivet then, with a useless hole in the middle! Steel (zinc plated or stainless) won’t have that problem.Very limited experience here: I may have pulled a couple of thousand rivnuts over the last 35 years: an average of maybe one a week?īolt and nut works well and is cheap.

Yes there are other no-tool methods, but this is way easier, faster and more reliable. Two perfectly riveted M3 rivnuts with no special tools (except a pop riveter). Tie the headless screw to your rivet gun so you don’t lose it for next time. Now all that is left to do unscrew that headless screw, wiggle fingers, pliers, or that slot you cut into it with a flat bladed screwdriver. A very close fitting hole and thicker panel might help. Stainless Steel Rivnuts: These may not work, the rivet tends to be so hard that it actually bends the screw, and eventually said screw snaps in two. Zinc Plated Steel Rivnuts: Just squeeze the handles all the way, you won’t be ripping the threads out of them. If you squeeze all the way on an Aluminium rivnut you will easily rip the threads out of the nut! Insert the rivet into the hole you want to install it into and press the riveter tight against the surface like you would if you were about to insert a rivet.Īluminium (Aluminum) Rivnuts: Very carefully squeeze the handles, not all the way just until the rivnut is suitably secure, not wobbly. If it doesn’t easily insert, make sure the nozzle is screwed in all the way, or go up a size (even if it fits in the hole, the nozzle might be just short enough not to work). Take your pop riveter with probably the largest size nozzle, insert your assembled “rivet” into it.