Anyone recommend a decent rivnut gun that does not cost the earth, I only have a dozen to fit so I just bought the cheapest one I could get which managed 5 before the jaws spread and it fell apart.

where in uk are you.

I'm in Scotland, 35 miles outside Glasgow.

Mine is cheap laser one from ebay works well, just needs care when using the m3 mandrel as its obviously small and therefore weak.

I bought the Silverline one, I should have known better as most of their stuff is made of cheese but I thought I would get the dozen I had to fit out of it.

Hi

Use this conversion of a pop riveter:
http://www.lasaero.com/site/products/article?id=T02UY0WNP

Or:
http://www.lasaero.com/site/products/article?id=J00228QJ9

Cheers
Mike

I had a standard type rivnut gun, the mandrels lasted about 5 minutes due to my ham fists and just a generally cheese like poor design. I have since bought Rivnut Rivetnut Nutsert Fitting tool M4 M5 M6 Kit car rivet nut special insert.

Fantastic piece of kit, never failed once. So much easier to use, and it uses standard bolts to pull the rivnut, so should they break (I haven't had one go in 30+ rivnuts) it is easy and cheap to fix. You use a socket on one end to fit the rivnut, and it saves your forearms from needing to be like Popeye's.

Edited to add:



[Edited on 15/4/14 by james h]

I have both the last two shown the small slide one is perfect for small places like the inside of the prop shaft tunnel.

Found this after putting a rivnut in the inner side of the tunnel then couldn't get the tool out, had to cut the insert.

The big problem with the large one is too much pressure applied to ali rivnuts while installing.

If silverline is same as laserline it should come with a "lifetime" guarantee so lomg as registered. Check the packaging as you have discovered the expectatino life by the manufactuirer differs widely from what most of us would define as a "usful " life!
Atb
Mike

Thanks guys, the one that converts your standard rivet gun is certainly the cheapest option but my standard rivet gun was a cheap buy also not unlike the ruvnut one so I worry about it just falling apart when more pressure is added so I think I will go for that sliding block one, it looks more robust.
Thanks again

[Edited on 16/4/14 by Scuzzle]

i've done mine with a 12.9 bolt, a stack of greased washers and a nut hold the bolt wind the nut down

I have the silverline one, have used it 20 - 30 times in anger and the thing keeps bending!

I have a Masterfix MFX306 one I picked up on ebay, no issues with mine.