[ChuckDickerson]

We use as many rivets as possible every year and have riveted the KitBot for the last three years with ZERO problems. We, of course, riveted it again this year. For the KitBot we have always used ¼” aluminum rivets with aluminum mandrels specifically either:
MSC #04045431 ($7.42/100 - Marson Brand)
McMaster #97447A651($12.75/100 - POP Brand).

As far as our experience with manual ¼” rivet tools here is what I can tell you:

It 2005 we purchased a “NuLine” ¼” rivet tool from MSC (#74327552 - $99.62). It has worked well for us but after 4 build seasons we have literally worn it out. It is made in China (or Taiwan?) and it shows. The main problem is the insert for the ¼” size rivet partially cracked and broke last year and then completely broke this year. The arms are linked by tiny E-clips that have continued to fall off since the beginning. After one too may times of crawling around on the floor looking for the E-clip that fell off we just replaced the pin with a 10-32 bolt this year. We have managed to keep it working but it is time for a new one. After our various modification and fixes the spent mandrels now come shooting out the back of the tool at a rather unsafe velocity. The handles are also very bent and battered from repeated use. Bottom line: I would rate it 3 of 5 stars. It has been a good friend but I think we pushed it a season or two past its useful life. If you are looking to invest is a quality tool that will last a lifetime this is NOT it your tool. It works for a while (~2-3 build seasons) but then literally starts falling apart.

As a replacement I decided to give the Harbor Freight 41291 ($13.99) rivet tool a try. I had a couple of $10 HF gift cards so it was free and good thing because if I had paid $1.00 for it it would have been a waste of money. It will grip and set the rivet fine but then you have to disassemble the thing to get the spent mandrel out before you can set another rivet. After reading through this thread I see that we aren’t the only ones with this problem and others have fixed it with liberal amounts of lubrication. I may give that a try but after the frustration that thing has given I really dread even messing with it any more!

Yesterday I broke down and ordered us a Marson “Big Daddy” rivet tool from McMaster (#90239A510 - $96.92) in preparation for competition. It should be here tomorrow and I am expecting great things after the reviews I have read of the “Big Daddy”. I was a bit hesitant because the McMaster image looks suspiciously like the piece of junk Harbor Freight 41291 but hopefully the HF 41291 is a cheap and poorly executed imitation of the superior Marson “Big Daddy”. The Marson “Big Daddy” from McMaster was the least expensive and best quality (from what I have read online) I could find. An added bonus is that replacement parts for the Marson “Big Daddy” are readily available from McMaster which is NOT the case for the import tools from HF and MSC. I will update this post with my review of the “Big Daddy” after we have received it and had a chance to break it in and see if it lives up to my expectations.