Is Welding Worth It?

[Max Boord]

Originally Posted by courtney.john28

For the three years I've been on my team, we have always chosen to assemble with steel rivets that fit with stock versaframe gussets. There have always been problems with sheered rivets (especially during our 2014 season) and the problems seem to continue to an extent this season. I've started looking into welding to solve these issues but I was wondering what you guys think of this change. Is it worth the change?

What size rivets are you using? If its the 5/32" rivets that fit in the predrilled holes then theirs your problem. 4592 was having them pop out last year quite often and this year switched to 10-32 screws and aluminum 3/16 rivets and had no problems since then. Also the quality of rivet installation makes a huge difference. Getting a pneumatic rivet gun if your not using one already is a great way to improve quality over a hand rivet gun and speed up mechanism assembly.

Welding will most likely work but its a more catastrophic failure and I would not risk it unless you have a drop in replacement for any welded sub-system or have someone experienced in welding aluminum. Another option is to gusset and weld as the gussets will both provide extra strength and hold the pieces together making them easier to weld.