I do not think you need steel rivets, but I have no test data to back that up. They last about 3 seasons and then you have to get new ones.Īttached is our gun in action on a previous robot. We use a pneumatic rivet gun from Harbor freight. I challenge anyone using a nut and bolt to disassemble and reassemble your bolted joint to beat my students in a timed race with us using rivets. We have approximately 2,500 rivets on our robot this year. We are not using any steel rivets this year. We have used a total of 20 of these “high load” rivets in the last 3 years (2005, 2006, and 2007). We also use 3/16" alimunim rivets with steel mandrels in certain high load areas. We use 5/32" and 3/16" aluminum rivets with aluminum mandrels. Even items that need to be disassembled quickly are held together with rivets. We use rivets (pop rivets) on every joint on our robot that connects to sheet metal. We’ll be building our drivetrain over the next week (maybe this Saturday if the AndyMark order gets in, which we’re doubting) we’ll know more about how they hold up as build season rolls on. With all the rivets in place, the frame feels fine–maybe even better than last year’s with the absence of all the little wiggling that happens with bolts. We started with steel rivets, but a bit of consultation with some folks (along with worries as to whether it was the rivets that were causing our riveter issues with the Harbor Freight unit) led us to switch to Grainger part 4Y031, aluminum rivets with an aluminum mandrel and grip range right up to. The Grainger part number is 4Y128 on McMaster-Carr, it’s 90239A510. That riveter runs about $100, but it’s some of the best money the team has spent all season. It’s so smooth and easy to work with, it made me genuinely giddy. After struggling through two riveters’ worth of jams and stripped threads and frustrations, we switched to the Marson Big Daddy Riveter (the name of which has already become a running joke within the team) today, and knocked it out in about a half-hour. It failed the riveter could not reliably hold onto the mandrel when we needed it to and release when we needed it to. Alright, a bit of an update on the matter.
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