Rivnut or not Rivnut... that is the question

[bc_suv]

Hi all,

I am embarking on my build and was wondering is anyone had experience with 'RivNuts'.

If so, are they worth the investment and are there any particular applications I should look to use them for?

Kind regards,

Brian C

[neil still building it]

hi brian
most certainly ...the rivnuts are so much stronger and well thought out in the way they make the thread 're-useable' ,just think how loose/sloppy those self tappers get with only a few 'ins & outs'-not good.the tool i bought was made by laser..£40 i think...and does 'normal' rivets too ,and with long extendable arms for better leverage,not something i've seen on others and certainly not a this price....got mine from camberley auto factors -others may do them...
if you only do a few 'important' threads i bet you'll do more once you see how easy they are to set -i even used some putting in some speakers in a door on my pug 405 !!
also did some enormous ones on a horse box ....!
but thats another story.....
good luck
NEIL

[snake_bitten]

Be careful with rivnuts, we use them on our new trains and they are very reliable if fitted correctly, but we have had experience of poorly fitted or over tightened ones and they can be a complete pig to sort out.

My advice would be to invest in some good quality drills of the correct size, as this will save alot of time, expense and swearing later on.

but on the whole as stated a huge improvement on self tappers.

I personally prefer floating anchor nuts fixed by two rivets but these are expensive and not ideal for box section.

goood luck.

[tony]

Originally Posted by bc_suv

Hi all,

I am embarking on my build and was wondering is anyone had experience with 'RivNuts'.

If so, are they worth the investment and are there any particular applications I should look to use them for?

Kind regards,

Brian C

Don`t like them myself . Much better to drill and tap the chassis etc. in my opinion:thumb:

[JonnyT]

what thread do use on the chassis members tony - i understand a 5mm fine is one of the best - ensures at least a couple of threads in the chassis. Just doing the brake pipes on the dax de dion so need to find out.

Thanks, Jon

[Grease Monkey]

I'd disagree with Tony on this one. Rivnuts are the best (When fitted correctly)

When fitted incorrectly, ie if you drill the hole too big or over compress them on fitting they can be a bugger.

I've used rivnuts (or 'threaded insert' to use the pukka name) on all aspects of the car. GD supply most bits that need fixing with rivnut inserts and expect you to have a gun to fit them.

Wouldn't have made anywhere near as good a job without them. The advantage over tapping the metal section is that tapping you're only going to get a couple of threads in a thin piece of metal, the rivnut compresses beautifully into to the hole and gives you 10 or 12 perfect threads.

The other thing is you can use them in GRP, plastic etc, where you'd never be able to tap a thread.

Big thumbs up. Mine is an Eclipse something or other and cost around £50.

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

[craggle]

I used a 5mm thread, drilled and tapped in the chassis members for the brake pipes and battery cables. I used RivNuts for any thread bigger than 5mm.

Dax supply hex head self tapping screws for the radiator mounts and the side pipe brackets which I didnt like the look of so I used 8mm RivNuts for a more solid fixing.

There are other ways of pulling up a RivNut without buying the special tools. Have a search on the forum as there was a thread about this a while back.

Craig.

[tony]

Originally Posted by Grease Monkey

. The advantage over tapping the metal section is that tapping you're only going to get a couple of threads in a thin piece of metal, the rivnut compresses beautifully into to the hole and gives you 10 or 12 perfect threads.

The other thing is you can use them in GRP, plastic etc, where you'd never be able to tap a thread.

Big thumbs up. Mine is an Eclipse something or other and cost around £50.

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

These AK chassis have plenty of metal to get a good thread cut .

Adrian`s correct, on thin metal etc. they`re the only real solution and your probably not going to attach anything liable to heavy stresses with them.I used them on a 7 I built several years ago and I guess I never really got the hang of them although the gun was not the best quality (talk about blaming your tools ).

[Grease Monkey]

Granted, where you have a really think piece of chassis you can tap directly into it, but everywhere else up to a given thickness of material can be rivnutted.

I think my gun came with M4, M5, M6 & M8 inserts and mandrels, which as far as i'm concerned should be called 7mm, 8mm, 10mm & 13mm as thats the socket / spanner you need to do em up.

The only near scare i got was having drilled the hole for my anti-roll bar, popped the rivnut in, screwed the mandrel in, gave it a good squeeze and the bugger pulled half the threads out. :angry: :angry:

I was left with a half inserted insert, with no threads that just span around when i tried to drill it out. Got it out in the end after lots of swearing. Fortunately GD had supplied me with a handful of inserts that had the same internal thread size, but needed slightly larger holes, so i could slightly over drill the hole and it all worked out. Phew.!

[midlifecrisis]

don't buy a cheap gun and expect to use the steel inserts.....mine is only stong enough to do the aluminium ones :thumb: