Problem with Olympic rivets

[Eagle & Bear]

I have been repairing and refinishing the outer shell. When I attempt to use an Olympic rivet (on two 0.032 sheets) the stem breaks inside of the rivet on the second squeze. There is no stem left sticking out. I am using a # 21 drill.

Anyone else have this problem? I have had the rivets sitting around for about two years. I doubt if they have an expiration date but was there a recall on the Olympics that I missed?

[arodriguez60]

I have had this problem before. I found that one of the legs that spread out hit an obstruction such as a rib. I just put another one in noting the orientation of the legs . I put the slit towards the obstruction and the problem was solved

[Minno]

I've also had the same problem, and the same fix as Anthony mentions above. Try drilling it out again, and changing the orientation of the slits or legs of the rivet by 1/4 to 1/3 of a rotation and try again. Might take a couple of tries to get it oriented correctly so the legs can expand inside.

[Aage]

Originally Posted by arodriguez60

I have had this problem before. I found that one of the legs that spread out hit an obstruction such as a rib. I just put another one in noting the orientation of the legs . I put the slit towards the obstruction and the problem was solved

Or if you can't orient the rivet to make it through, you can remove a leg to achieve that.

[Eagle & Bear]

I rotated the rivet about 1/8 turn. It woked!! Thanks everyone. I thought that somehow I had bought a set of defective rivets.

[ventport]

Now that's the kind of excellent information that you can only get here on Air Forums.

[Eagle & Bear]

...and fast too.