tap and die set

For what it's worth I have a cleat attached to my mast with two M6 (I think) machine screws into threads tapped in the ally. No sign of movement yet.

Pete
 
srah1953 said:
Thanks for all the replies. Now that you remind me I have seen rivnuts mentioned here before. For the amount of work that I might do, I thought I was doing well equipping myself with a pop rivet gun and a tap and die set. Now it's suggested I use something else (imagine one of those non-smiley faces here).
I've edited my original draft because I didn't quite appreciate how rivnuts work.
Rivnuts seem harder to find (they don't come up on the Screwfix website). Where could I at a reasonable price equip myself with a rivnut installation tool and selection of rivnuts?
Click to expand...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/A2-Stainl...ead-Rivnuts-Rivet-Nuts-Nutserts-/251201654173

There are a few different fitting tools depending on budget, simplest and probably the easiest http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rivnut-Ri...t=UK_Hand_Tools_Equipment&hash=item58afb1ae88

up to http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MEMFAST-R...t=UK_Hand_Tools_Equipment&hash=item58b1d866a1
 
mast are thin and for that I would not tap it
us a PK type screw, old name I have in my head also known as a self tapper screw , you drill hole so the screw is tight to screw in and you can get blunt ones
if you want to use rivet nuts you dont have to use a tool for a a one or two off
drill hole put in rivet
use a bolt about twice as long as the tread and wind a nut up it most of the way
then put on two smooth washers dipped in oil
then wind it into rivet all the way
holding the head of the bolt still with a spanner do up the nut towards rivet and you will fell it stating to pull it up when you think it has pullrd up unwind nut and remove your bolt
 
paul-essex said:
mast are thin and for that I would not tap it
us a PK type screw, old name I have in my head also known as a self tapper screw , you drill hole so the screw is tight to screw in and you can get blunt ones
if you want to use rivet nuts you dont have to use a tool for a a one or two off
drill hole put in rivet
use a bolt about twice as long as the tread and wind a nut up it most of the way
then put on two smooth washers dipped in oil
then wind it into rivet all the way
holding the head of the bolt still with a spanner do up the nut towards rivet and you will fell it stating to pull it up when you think it has pullrd up unwind nut and remove your bolt
Click to expand...

I'm going stupid in my old age. What's the purpose of the washers? Are they between the nut on the bolt and the rivnut? There's a video on youtube showing a home made tool [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA9fB3asSZU ] which seems to be a length of metal with a hole in it (possibly for the same purpose as the washers) but, again, I can't see what its purpose is.
 
prv said:
For what it's worth I have a cleat attached to my mast with two M6 (I think) machine screws into threads tapped in the ally. No sign of movement yet.

Pete
Click to expand...

I have the same. The main force acting on a cleat is parallel with the mast, and only a small component of that force is trying to pull the fixings out. The trick when screwing a cleat to a mast using tapped holes is to do up the fasteners hand tight with a screwdriver and no more. Using a spanner or an allen key may just strip the threads.
 
With the question on tap and die sizes reveals lack of familiarity with the process please note that for any size thread there are "specific" size drill bits that should be used. Most standard size drill bits eg in 1/32 or 05mm increments will be approximate and take out too much material.
 
Sailfree said:
With the question on tap and die sizes reveals lack of familiarity with the process please note that for any size thread there are "specific" size drill bits that should be used. Most standard size drill bits eg in 1/32 or 05mm increments will be approximate and take out too much material.
Click to expand...
You have to make do with what you have.
I absolutely own up to a lack of familiarity – I wouldn't say that I'm making it up as I go along, more that I'm trying to figure out what to do from bits and pieces on the web. And then there's my appalling memory to try to remember what I did learn.
PS I had a rigger fit an attachment to the mast a while back. He didn't have the right sized tap so he bodged it up some way with a drill bit.
 
Is there such a thing as an adaptor you could attach to a rivet gun to insert a rivnut?
Also, one of the videos referred to in the thread shows a notch being made to hold the rivnut, but I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere else??
 
A rivnut gun is different, and usually stronger, than a normal pop rivet gun but they can easily be fitted with just a nut & bolt, or even a set screw and bolt

I've never cut a notch for one for any of the stainless or ally ones I've used
 
I remember getting a normal rivet gun with an adapter to pull up Rivnuts. Basicly a sort of pop rivet with an internal thread. But they do have lumps to prevent them turning and should have notches in the sheet to engage those lumps, so not quite the simple hole that a pop rivet normally goes in.
I did spend some time up a mast using a big riviter to pull some 6mm Monal ones... not fun.
 
DownWest said:
I remember getting a normal rivet gun with an adapter to pull up Rivnuts. Basicly a sort of pop rivet with an internal thread. But they do have lumps to prevent them turning and should have notches in the sheet to engage those lumps, so not quite the simple hole that a pop rivet normally goes in.
I did spend some time up a mast using a big riviter to pull some 6mm Monal ones... not fun.
Click to expand...


Some have lumps to prevent rotation and need the notch but many/most don't, it depends if you get the branded ones and which material they are. It also depends on whether you use flat, countersunk, or recessed ones as well.
 
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