Pneumatic squeezer instead of the rivet gun

Hey everyone.

I'm about to order the Empennage Kit to start my RV-14A build (yey!).

The thing is: I live in a home condo and I want to work late at night and on the weekends without turning my neighbours into enemies.

Is it possible to complete a QB RV14-A on a pneumatic squeezer?

There is a similar thread on the RV-10 and RV-12 forums, where the first is absolutely necessary to use a gun and the second is not.

RV-14 builders, can you help me out?

Most likely not.

The pneumatic squeezer yoke is the issue-----max depth is not enough to reach many of the rivets beyond the edges of the panels.

Doesn't seem likely to me. You'd better get on really good terms with your neighbors!

Maybe consider some kind of sound-proof booth to do your riveting in?

And a sound-proof box for your compressor.

A manual hand squeezer is the quietest and in my opinion more controllable than the pneumatic version. You'll need to use a rivet gun for sure though. And... riveting with a rivet gun is pretty loud.

Sorry, but no. While I have and use 3 different squeezers and more than half dozen yokes, there is no way to avoid using a rivet gun for the construction of an RV-14.

There will be many rivets that cannot be reached with a squeezer. Also note that to use the squeezer, you'll need to run a compressor. Most compressors are pretty noisy.

During my build, I tried to do steps that made a lot of noise like riveting, priming, etc. at reasonable times of day while focusing on quieter things like drilling, de-burring, clecoing, scuffing, and ***-scratching during night-time hours.

It seemed to work out. I have an airplane, I'm still married, and my kids are still asking me for things.

Good luck on your build.