I set my first rivets today. And not without problems and mistakes. I should have been much more careful. I was having a hell of a time trying to get the rivets to set right. I started with the AN470AD4 rivets to secure the rear VS spar to the stiffener. Several bent off to the side, but with LOTS of care I got most to set right. Then I moved on the the '426 countersunk rivets on the bottom. After 3 of 5 tries and turning out bad, and me getting angry and frustrated, I rechecked everything to make sure I was doing it right. I went to the riveting and rivet problem sheets that I have around from Avery and Vans. The 'bending over' problem was said to be caused by too long of rivets... The instructions call for -6 rivets and after measuring carefully and learning how to properly use the length tool from the Avery kit, I discovered I was using -7 rivets! Duh... I should have done this right at the beginning... Oh well. I had to drill out 6 or 7 bad rivets and try again, this time with the right size. I was careful not to enlarge the holes during the drilling (used a #40 bit and the small punch) and after using the right length, the rivets were super easy (relatively) to set. That's enough for today, since I don't need to screw anything else up :)
