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Rivnut tools

Nimrod

Degenerate Jeeper
NAXJA Member
Location
Duck River
I've got two projects in the works that'll require rivnuts, and I've decided that its long past time I buy a proper rivnut installation tool and stop screwing around with the bolt and nut method. I chose one on Amazon and was about to buy it when I thought to check the reviews. Yikes! It seems some of these tools are pretty crappy and don't last long. Any suggestions for a well-made and reliable rivnut installation tool would be appreciated, particularly if the tool does not cost a fortune. I'm also open to advice, especially if based on experience, whether to go with a simple mechanical hand tool, a pneumatic tool, or one I saw that is powered by a drill. (I am strongly leaning toward the plain old hand tool because I don't expect to use it very often.) Thanks.
 
I was right where you are when I worked on my quarter panel armor. I had enough riv-nuts to set that I wanted something better. I bought one of those cheap Chinesium tools. It worked. Sort of. It does not provide great control for keeping the riv-nuts centered as they compress. I suspect the battle is against burrs on the back side of the hole. If you could deburr the back side things would automatically be straight. But if you had access to deburr the back side you probably would not be using a riv-nut in the first place. As a consequence, some of my riv-nuts ended up being not quite centered in the holes they need to be. I think I wound up drilling several out so I could do them over again.

Then a few years back I needed to set some longer riv-nuts (had to go through plywood in the walls of my cargo trailer). The Chinesium tool did not offer long enough mandrels to manage the longer riv-nuts. I broke down and bought a pneumatic tool as that was the only thing I could find to do that job. The pneumatic tool is far superior. Of course, it cost far more.

The tool I have is an "Air Pull-Setter" from Hanson Rivet and Supply Co. One of the benefits is that the mandrel part of the tool is simply a standard Allen head capscrew. That means replacements for the most likely worn component are available at your local hardware store, and you can easily adapt it to a different length riv-nut with a different length capscrew (again, readily available). On the down side, the mandrel driver is specifically sized to that Allen head (in this case 5/16") so I can't switch over to a differently threaded riv-nut (in this case 1/4-20) (actually, 5/16" being about equal to 6mm I could probably run M6 riv-nuts if I wanted, but that doesn't make for much of a difference).

I have not looked into trying to convert the pneumatic tool over to a different size, like say 3/8-16. I suspect it would be substantially more work than what is required to swap sizes on the cheap Chinesium tool. That would be why the pneumatic tools are sold as a size specific tool.

All that said, the pneumatic tool is far superior. It provides more control for putting the rivets in such that they are kept straight. If you have developed the muscle memory to keep a hand drill straight then you already have the motor skills in place to keep this tool straight. If I had a bunch of riv-nuts to install in a different thread pitch I would seriously consider buying another pneumatic tool.
 
I think I bought my hand operated tool at McMaster-Carr.
 
I believe this is the one I bought a few years ago, worked pretty well. I used it for fender flare mounts on the mj, so around 40 nuts installed??
I'll be using it again soon for the same purpose on an xj.

Astro Pneumatic Tool 1442 13" Hand Rivet Nut Setter Kit - Metric & SAE W/ 60pc Rivnuts https://a.co/d/dIVI6XL
 
Pretty sure that the one I bought is the Astro that JohnX posted years ago.
Haven't used it a real lot but it has done what I needed it to do so far.
I do vaguely remember it not coming with a size I thought it should, thinking 3/8" (don't recall the thread pitch at all), and bought it separately.
Was able to buy the missing size in the Astro brand but guessing that most if not all rivnut tools are just rebranded anyway.
 
I like the feature of the pneumatic tool that it uses a regular cap screw for the threaded tip of the mandrel. There is one on Amazon that includes three mandrel sizes — 1/4, 5/16, and 3/8 — that I think should pretty much cover any need I’ll ever have. And it uses cap screws. The price is around $160. This is the one I’m looking at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y73GDY...tive&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWwy&th=1

I like that the Astro brand tool has mandrels available for purchase individually. Some of the reviews I read on similar tools mentioned as a downside that individual mandrels are not available. Given the substantial price difference, I think I’ll go with the Astro or something along the same lines that has replacement mandrels available.

Thanks, guys!
 
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