I have been unable to squeeze consistently the AN4 rivets: too much efforts required to do a good job in one pass. Two passes are a pain because of the need to readjust the gap. Walking in Lowe's store, I found steel pipes in the plumbing section: I bought a 3/4"X30 pipe that I cut in half. I now have handles that are 5 inches longer, just the additional leverage I needed to squeeze in one pass. The 3/4" diameter fits perfectly these sleeves over the original handles. I just drilled holes and put screws (visible on the photo) to keep the sleeves from sliding.
This picture shows the difference in length with the original handles:
Now one additional benefit is that the rigidity of the handles is much higher and there is no flex under pressure of the squeeze. This allows a better feeling of where we stand in the squeezing process. Following this modification, I was able to squeeze a dozen AN4 in one squeeze each with an excellent compliance to standards.
Cost: $8
Note that this modification is reversible. For AN -3 rivets, you could remove the sleeves and even put the rubber grips back but I doubt it is necessary
You took the easy way out...you could have worked on strengthening your grip. :-) But I guess the manufacturer is going to have to learn that we have an aging population. :-)
ReplyDeleteRandy