Boler - Rivet Size?

[Kurt in BC]

Just looking to find out the size of the riverts the Boler used. I will be replacing mine with some stainless anchor bolts and want to make sure I buy the right size to fit in the holes.

Thanks!!!

[evan]

Kurt this is a guess based on what rivets are used on my Scamp. I am going to say they are 3/16ths also. The grip length varies between 3/4-1 in. I used stainless 10-24 panhead screws to replace a couple rivets that gave up the ghost. The heads fit right inside the beauty cap retaining ring so you can still snap on those little button covers. The srews hold much better than the soft aluminum blind rivets.

[Jim Paskett]

Hi Guy's

I am a little curious on the use of SS bolts and nuts vs alum rivits. I thought I had read somewhere that replacing rivits with bolts and nuts would cause the fiberglass to crack under stress whereas the rivits apparently are more flexible and hence don't cause the fiberglass cracking.

I am sure there are some folks out there that have a lot more knowledge than I on the subject and would appriciate their input.

Thanks

Jim Paskett

[evan]

Hi Guy's

I am a little curious on the use of SS bolts and nuts vs alum rivits. I thought I had read somewhere that replacing rivits with bolts and nuts would cause the fiberglass to crack under stress whereas the rivits apparently are more flexible and hence don't cause the fiberglass cracking.

I am sure there are some folks out there that have a lot more knowledge than I on the subject and would appriciate their input.

Thanks

Jim Paskett

Hello Jim. I have been following the debate also. The argument for using a soft rivet centers around having the rivet be a "weak-link" to fail before damaging the structure. Pop rivets or as we refer to them here at Boeing "blind rivets" are meant for light duty applications. The thin ga. soft aluminum tube which makes up the body of the rivet is just not that strong of material and prone to stretching under load. I noticed I already had a couple loose rivets on my newer Scamp. When I replaced those or added fasteners for anything new I was hanging from the walls, I used stainless panhead screws, washers and lock nuts. This setup have about 3 times the strength as the blind rivets used by Scamp. It is true that the fiberglass structure will probably fail before the screws however the benefits of better holding power, maintaining a watertight seal, and zero maintainance outweigh that possibility. I think the main problem is people are trying to support too heavy of an object from a thin fiberglass wall, using too few fasteners. For instance, you may have too much weight in a overhead cabinet and overloading the fasteners/structure causing them to fail. I noticed there are only 6 rivets holding the cabinet over the sink in my Scamp. This is way too few fasteners to hold this securely especially with how people might tend to overload it with heavy dishes, pots and pans etc. There should probably be 20+ fasteners to spread the load out such that each individual rivet is not holding that much weight. Bottom line, don't overload the fasteners, which ever one chooses to use. I plan to keep using the stainless srews and nuts for the reasons mentioned.

[Benny K]

I`ve replaced most of my 3/16" rivets about 4 years ago with SS #10 pan head screws and SS nuts and where they are seen I used SS acorn nuts as jam nuts after the hex head nuts....some places I punched out rubber gaskets out of bicycle tube and others I used neoprene tap washers as gaskets just to see how it would work out....I believe that stretched loose POP rivets are worse than damage that could be caused by the machine screws....The only place that I still have replaced with POP rivets are the ones that hold up the brackets for the curtain rods and front stone guard......works for me ...Benny

[evan]

I`ve replaced most of my 3/16" rivets about 4 years ago with SS #10 pan head screws and SS nuts and where they are seen I used SS acorn nuts as jam nuts after the hex head nuts....some places I punched out rubber gaskets out of bicycle tube and others I used neoprene tap washers as gaskets just to see how it would work out....I believe that stretched loose POP rivets are worse than damage that could be caused by the machine screws....The only place that I still have replaced with POP rivets are the ones that hold up the brackets for the curtain rods and front stone guard......works for me ...Benny

Benny how have the screws been working out? Any leaks? I am switching over my Scamps rivets to screws and hope that these will hold up better. I them install using sealant. I guess only time will tell.

[Benny K]

So far no problem with the screws.....also should mention that before I used the screws, I`d noticed that there was some spiderweb type cracks away from the POP rivets....I didn`t repair them so they are still the same.....I still have some spots where there are still rivets and those cracks exist......so using alum rivets doesn`t prevent that from happening.......Benny