Van's Tool Box Practice Kit

My next practice project was the Van's Toolbox kit. The instructions didn't call out specific riveting techniques (back rivet, squeezing or bucking) to use, so I decided to go with whatever riveting technique I felt would be appropriate, and easier, for the specific situation.

Tool Box parts

I also decided to try (again) to remove only parts of the blue plastic where I would be working, leaving all other plastic in place to protect the aluminum surface from scratches as long as possible. This meant removing the plastic from all edges and along rivet lines. 

Once again I plugged in the soldering iron (setting 4), and found  it definitely helps to let it heat up for at least 5 minutes (to get sufficiently hot) before trying to melt the plastic. Below you can see all parts with plastic removed where needed. 

Plastic stripped of all edges and rivet lines

The first steps in this project involved getting the tool box sides ready for riveting. Nothing too hard here.

Tool box sides ready to be attached

The sides were riveted using the pneumatic squeezer, paying special attention to making sure the squeezer was held perpendicular to the rivet, and slight pressure was on the manufactured head. All rivets set nicely!

Sides are on...

...with freshly squeezed rivets

Once the sides were attached, the next step was to prepare the hinge that would attach the lid to the body of the toolbox. First the hinge was cut to length and ends deburred, then there was a lot of match drilling of the hinge segments to the lid and body.

Time to tackle the hinge

I test fit the hinge segments to the lid and body several times to make sure that everything fit together well.

Test fitting the hinge

Finally all holes for hinge attachment were dimpled. I did consider countersinking the holes on the hinge, as the hinge aluminum was around the 0.04" thick where you start to countersink rather than dimple. However, I found that the countersink cage interfered with the hinge eyelets, so I wouldn't have been able to use it for countersinking. Dimpling actually worked well enough though.

Hinge is ready to be riveted

Finally with the hinge riveted, I inserted the hinge pin and the lid works really well. It opens and closes easily, and most importantly sits level when closed (although it does sit slightly high by itself)

Test fitting the lid to the body

Fits really well!

Only a few more pieces were left now. First, the latch had to be attached. Final drilling the holes for the bottom latch part was easy enough. Figuring out how to rivet the latch to the tool box was another story! I spent a lot of time trying to determine whether I should (or could) squeeze rivets, or whether I should get out the bucking bar and hammer those rivets in.

The issue with the bottom latch was that the latch and clasp had to be held up to expose the rivet holes, and therefore got in the way of the riveting tool. I finally settled on using the 4" thin nose yoke on the hand squeezer for riveting, as this yoke had enough reach to get to the rivets. I also wasn't able to use clekoes to align the second hole while riveting the first as the cleko also got in the way of the squeezer. 

So I inserted 2 rivets into the holes and held them there with back rivet tape. I then set each 1/8" rivet in turn. This worked really well. Also, the hand squeezer gave me much more control than the pneumatic squeezer would have... a lesson learned from the trailing edge practice kit I tackled previously.

Now for the latch...

I used the same technique to rivet the hook part of the latch. However, here I ran into an issue with how I was using the hand squeezer. With the 4" thin nose yoke there is no rivet set in the top of the yoke. The 1/8" cup set that I inserted into the ram (to set 1/8" AN 470 4-4 rivets) is also not very tall. Therefore to get the required distance between the cup set and yoke top to set the 4-4 rivet, I had to thread the ram quite a ways out. I believe I overextended the ram because as I was finishing setting the second rivet on the latch hook, I heard a loud click from the squeezer and after that the ram became extremely difficult to turn.

I wasn't sure if I had caused damage to the squeezer, but after a quick call with the folks at Cleaveland Tool, and following their instructions, I was able to get the squeezer back into working order. Basically, I had to

1. Completely unthread the ram.
2. Clean the threads on the male portion of the squeezer, and inside the female portion of the ram.
3. Lubricate the threads (I used the lubricant that Cleaveland sent with the pneumatic squeezer).
4. Thread the ram back on to the squeezer.

The lesson learned here is to not extend the ram too far (1 1/8" at most from the bottom of the squeezer). This may mean that thicker rivet sets need to be used if necessary to get the required gap for the rivets being squeezed. I'll definitely be buying 1/8" and 3/32" rivet sets with a body that is 1/2" thick for future use in such cases.

Latch attached and working well!

The final step in the tool box kit involved forming the handle from a straight piece of hinge pin and riveting it to the top of the tool box. The instructions suggested heating the pin to make it easier to bend, but I didn't have anything to heat it with. I used the vise to hold the hinge pin securely while I bent it. It was definitely hard to bend accurately by hand though, however it came out okay!

I used a bucking bar and 1/8" cup set to rivet the handle in place, and that also turned out well. I had a few very slight smilies around the universal heads of the rivets though. I need to see if I can adjust my technique to avoid those if I can, but they were very minor blemishes. Maybe putting a little less pressure on the rivet gun might work, or turning it down a notch??? I'll experiment later when I need to set more universal rivets.

Last step is forming a handle

Finally everything was attached, and all that was left was to remove the rest of the blue plastic.

All parts attached... front and

...back!

I then just wiped all fingerprints and finally had myself a toolbox. Overall, I am very happy with how the project went, and how the tool box turned out. Other than the squeezer issue, I couldn't have asked for a better result and this is certainly my best effort so far in my journey to build an airplane!

Rest of the blue plastic removed...

... along with fingerprints

Tool box... done!

Adding some character with a few stickers...

Looking good!

Lessons Learned

• When using the rivet squeezer (manual or pneumatic) make sure not to over extend the ram as there might not be enough attached threads remaining to handle the squeezing load (especially for 1/8" rivets). This is especially important when using the 4" thin nose yoke as the gap between top and bottom of the yoke is larger than other yokes. Use thicker rivet sets if necessary to reach the desired gap for riveting.

Date: May 18 - May 23 2022

Time Taken: 7.5 hours