Pete
The bending was ok once we understood that we needed to increase the radius of the bending die with another piece of bent metal to keep it from cracking.
The rivets were the worst, not having ever done this before and not having the tools was a big disadvantage. First you order the rivets, then you find out that the washers that you need for the wood strips were not included. So now you order those, luckily you realize that you also need the rivet set tools (Wicks $31.00 you get five, you’ll only ever use one) for your new pneumatic rivet gun (Craftsman $35.00), so you order that too. Now you think you’re just ready to rivet the world together, thank God you can’t; we just don’t need to be that close to France!
Now you invite some one over who knows what there doing, the first thing they ask is: where is your “bucking bar”, of course your response is what the heck is a bucking bar?
Well it’s the thing you need for the other side of the rivets and I didn’t have it. So I happened to have a nice chunk of slightly rusty metal, not what you want for finish work but ok for trying it out. The next question was where are the “Cleco clips”; my response: what the heck is a Cleco clip (Wicks $.42 each or $38.00 per 100 then you need pliers to install them (Wicks $29.75))? Well it’s the little clip that clamps the hole next to the hole that you are riveting to keep the joint tight. For this app. A wood clamp worked fine, but Clecos would have been better. So after all this we start riveting, it was loud as hell and jumped all over the place leaving nice little rings on the aluminum, luckily it was just a test piece, which made him ask do you have a regulator on that beast? NOOP! (Regulator $15.00 home depot).
I never did buy the bucking bar, so I struggled with other inadequate items to get it done which were very painful to my fingers. Trying to reach the rivets in the center was a pain too, and if you plan to use the countersunk rivets because of the anti-rotation plates, you’re really in for some fun. Then if you hadn’t had enough fun yet just wait until you try to match the holes on the plywood to the holes on the box and keep the plywood straight!
Franzkait
Nice rings! While we were doing Jim’s I was wondering if we used a smaller pipe could we get away without heat. What size pipe did you use; if you don’t mind me asking? Thanks for the pic.
Ed