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Air Rivet Gun Advice
Tris - 20/11/09 at 08:32 AM

Morning all,

I am currently in 'the market' for an Air powered Rivet gun. Has anyone had experience of the cheap ebay items (about £28 all in) that are about, similar to this one ?

Ebay

OR, having been burnt by buying cheap tools before only to find them snapping in two on their first use,
am i better spending double that at machine mart and getting a clarke gun ?

Machine Mart

I suppose its not going to get an 'professional' amount of use, but i obviously want to get a tool that would last and to be reliable. Any advise or suggestions ?

Cheers
Tris

[Edited on 20/11/09 by Tris]

Flamez - 20/11/09 at 08:45 AM

Why not hire one?

madrallysport - 20/11/09 at 08:45 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Tris
Morning all,

I am currently in 'the market' for an Air powered Rivet gun. Has anyone had experience of the cheap ebay items (about £28 all in) that are about, similar to this one ?

Ebay

OR, having been burnt by buying cheap tools before only to find them snapping in two on their first use,
am i better spending double that at machine mart and getting a clarke gun ?

Machine Mart

I suppose its not going to get an 'professional' amount of use, but i obviously want to get a tool that would last and to be reliable. Any advise or suggestions ?

Cheers
Tris

[Edited on 20/11/09 by Tris]


I bought the cheapy one from ebay and it broke after about 30rivets, the trigger folded on it, re made a locost type trigger only for internals to give up, all it did was leak air it would grip the rivet to pull it up. At least with the machine mart one you should have a bit of come back if it breaks.

carlknight1982 - 20/11/09 at 08:48 AM

I have a clarke one that i used to use when i worked as a commercial body builder and have used on my car, very good, works well and doesnt cost the earth. works on a relitivly small air usage too so if you only have a small compressor it wont kick the guts out of it.

the only thing i have ever found it to struggle with is monobolts which in all fairness it wasnt designed for.

I'm in Thruleigh not far from bedford if you want to come and try it before you go and buy one. drop me a PM

[Edited on 20/11/09 by carlknight1982]

omega0684 - 20/11/09 at 09:00 AM

i bought the ebay one, cost about £25 all in, hasn't let me down yet after 3 year!

scotlad - 20/11/09 at 09:23 AM

In my experience, the cheapy ebay ones are fine for pulling aluminium rivets. I used lots of stainless rivets on my Robin Hood and the cheapy ebay riveter handle casting fractured after just a few rivets emptying out all the hydrauilic oil :-(

In fairness i think it just said aluminium rivets only on the box.....

[Edited on 20/11/09 by scotlad]

iank - 20/11/09 at 09:25 AM

I got lazy tong rivetter which was fine for the 4.8mm ones on the floor (3.2's can be pulled with an ordinary hand held one), only need an air one if you're doing loads IMO (either lots of cars, a procomp car or an aluminium monocoque)

If in the market for one I'd spend my money on something with a guarantee you could rely on. Clarke stuff varies in quality quite widely (and some stuff gets better/worse over the years depending where they source it from) so I'd want to go in and inspect it before buying.

Bluemoon - 20/11/09 at 10:02 AM

^^ My view to.. I have a hand one recommend by primary fasteners, works really well, you do end up with sore hands at the end, but it's not so bad, this was after sealing most the panels at once in a day, and 4.2mm multi-grip rivets at 30mm spacing..

Dan

[Edited on 20/11/09 by Bluemoon]

jacko - 20/11/09 at 10:21 AM

The ebay one looks like a machine mart one without the badge