[Shop-talk] Rivets won't pop

[David Hillman]

    I spent a good chunk of last Friday and Saturday thrashing to get my 
racecar ready to go ice-racing last Sunday.  I made it, and we ran all six 
races, but torn it up a bit in the process.  Looks like I'm going to 
repeat that process tonight and tomorrow.

    A lot of the thrashing resulted from rivets that wouldn't pop.  I have 
a standard Arrow rivet gun... 
( http://www.amazon.com/Arrow-RH200-Fastener-Riveter/dp/B00004Z2JG ) and 
used a lot of different sizes, both steel and aluminum, but I had the 
same problem with most of them.  The mandrel would break, but the blind 
end wouldn't expand enough to become larger than the hole.

    At first, I thought they were just too cold, as I was working in my 
unheated ~30* garage.  I took all the rivets inside overnight, but had the 
same problem in the morning.

    I have never had this happen before.  I used a wide-enough variety of 
rivets that I don't believe all of them could be defective.  I don't 
understand how a problem with the gun could cause this issue.  That only 
leaves operator error, which is possible, but how hard is it to squeeze 
the handle on a rivet gun?  I've riveted some of these same parts together 
before.

    Anyone know what's going on here, before I waste another couple hours 
and a bunch of rivets?  Thanks.

--
  David Hillman