OK guys i am ready to admit defeat when it comes to getting this 1919 riveted.
I have been reading this board for many years now but have not paid close attention until i was ready to start building lately, therefore i am not sure if i am blind and/or stupid. This is my first experience with riveting as i have mostly done work on M16/M4/AR15s and USGI WWII guns until now.
I got me a set of drill bits, countersinks, and rivet tool from a nice gentlemen here on the board and a set of Black Bear rivets from another board member.
I inserted the LSP into the bottom plate and lined it up, inserted the rivets, placed it on a hard surface, heated one of the rivets with a propane torch, and beat the living day lights out of the rivet with the rivet tool and a ~3lb hammer. After almost an entire can of propane and alot of hammer swinging the rivet barely has a slight roundness at the very top of the rivet.
So back to the site i came to look for what i was doing wrong, and i realized there isn't alot of great detail about how to do the riveting (either that or i can't find it). The build tutorial by loboslanding (which has been a huge help) says to use a rivet tool in a pneumatic muffle gun or a really big hammer, and then skips to "rivets should be as uniform as possible."
Doing a search for rivets on the forum i found mostly talk about folks using big pneumatic muffler guns or multi-ton presses to form the rivets. However i do not have access to either at the moment (local machine shops here in MA that i know of are gun friendly).
Is it possible to do the rivets without a muffler gun or a press? If so what am i doing wrong? I am looking to do this as inexpensive as possible as i only have two kits to build and don't plan to buy anymore.
Sorry for the long post and i appreciate any advice you folks can give.
Thanks
Adam
I have been reading this board for many years now but have not paid close attention until i was ready to start building lately, therefore i am not sure if i am blind and/or stupid. This is my first experience with riveting as i have mostly done work on M16/M4/AR15s and USGI WWII guns until now.
I got me a set of drill bits, countersinks, and rivet tool from a nice gentlemen here on the board and a set of Black Bear rivets from another board member.
I inserted the LSP into the bottom plate and lined it up, inserted the rivets, placed it on a hard surface, heated one of the rivets with a propane torch, and beat the living day lights out of the rivet with the rivet tool and a ~3lb hammer. After almost an entire can of propane and alot of hammer swinging the rivet barely has a slight roundness at the very top of the rivet.
So back to the site i came to look for what i was doing wrong, and i realized there isn't alot of great detail about how to do the riveting (either that or i can't find it). The build tutorial by loboslanding (which has been a huge help) says to use a rivet tool in a pneumatic muffle gun or a really big hammer, and then skips to "rivets should be as uniform as possible."
Doing a search for rivets on the forum i found mostly talk about folks using big pneumatic muffler guns or multi-ton presses to form the rivets. However i do not have access to either at the moment (local machine shops here in MA that i know of are gun friendly).
Is it possible to do the rivets without a muffler gun or a press? If so what am i doing wrong? I am looking to do this as inexpensive as possible as i only have two kits to build and don't plan to buy anymore.
Sorry for the long post and i appreciate any advice you folks can give.
Thanks
Adam