T
TonyGa
Guest
My daughter, an art student at the Kansas City Art Institute, recently had a project she and her classmates were having trouble finishing. The assignment was to take an old thing and present it from a new point of view.
I walked into the open warehouse space they were using for the project to see a vintage, single axle camper, the kind you would tow behind your truck for a road trip. It was certainly old and it was definitely being presented in a new way: somehow they had turned it upside down.
"Do you need my help figuring out how to turn it over?" I asked.
She explained that they wanted to shoot a music video inside the camper. They had successfully removed the axle and some of the metal frame so that the thing wouldn't collapse in this inverted state. They wanted to add things to make the interior look more authentic and they wanted those things attached to the ceiling.
I said, "Couldn't you have kept the camper the way it was and turned the camera upside down?" They laughed, explaining that the main character in the video needed to be right side up in an upside down camper. It was more artistic that way, they said.
My daughter asked for my help because she remembered me attaching things to the walls in my RV over the years. Suddenly my concerns about this project went away; I knew what she meant and I was happy to have the right tool for the job.
In the past, I had attached new cabinets in my RV for extra storage space, as well as a new shelf in the bathroom. I had wanted to use a lot of rivets to be sure that a cupboard carrying food wouldn't fall while I was driving. I had ordered a pneumatic air riveter from Deelat Industrial. They had a wide selection of pneumatic air riveters -- models designed to handle 3/32" rivets for small projects and bigger types that could handle 6.4 mm rivets for doing bigger projects (like attaching a mast to a boat). Most of my work was done using 5/32" rivets, and plus I needed something small to reach into tight areas, thus I bought the D1151442 model. If you're interested, here is a link to that specific model; https://www.deelat.com/pneumatics/pneumatic-tools/pneumatic-air-riveters-and-nut-tools/pneumatic-nut-riveter-guns/pneumatic-nut-riveter-gun-3-32-1-8-5-32-3-16-24-mm-32-mm-4-mm-48-mm-hydraulic-d1151442
I got that gun and my compressor and came back to help the kids attach a water cooler and a few chairs to the walls near the ceiling. Similar to the walls in an RV, the camper's wall couldn't handle wood screws and I couldn't use bolts because I couldn't access the other side to tighten the nuts. Blind rivets were my only option.
First, I positioned the cooler against the wall where they wanted it and drilled four holes through the rear of the base and into the wall behind it. Then I set a 5/32 rivet into the head of the gun, pressed the rivet into the hole I just drilled and pulled the trigger. This pulls the mandrel back while the rivet is in place. As the mandrel is pulled back it deforms the rivet, pushing the sides outward until the mandrel snaps off. The expanded rivet holds the materials together in a tight bond. I repeated this process until all the holes were filled. The cooler held just fine, so I attached the chairs to the walls near the 'ceiling' using metal clamps in the same manner.
It was what they wanted, and I was happy that they were happy. I asked my daughter what would happen to the camper when they were done. I had a vision of my wife and myself rolling across America with a vintage camper in tow. My daughter rolled her eyes and sighed.
I guess I just don't understand art.
I walked into the open warehouse space they were using for the project to see a vintage, single axle camper, the kind you would tow behind your truck for a road trip. It was certainly old and it was definitely being presented in a new way: somehow they had turned it upside down.
"Do you need my help figuring out how to turn it over?" I asked.
She explained that they wanted to shoot a music video inside the camper. They had successfully removed the axle and some of the metal frame so that the thing wouldn't collapse in this inverted state. They wanted to add things to make the interior look more authentic and they wanted those things attached to the ceiling.
I said, "Couldn't you have kept the camper the way it was and turned the camera upside down?" They laughed, explaining that the main character in the video needed to be right side up in an upside down camper. It was more artistic that way, they said.
My daughter asked for my help because she remembered me attaching things to the walls in my RV over the years. Suddenly my concerns about this project went away; I knew what she meant and I was happy to have the right tool for the job.
In the past, I had attached new cabinets in my RV for extra storage space, as well as a new shelf in the bathroom. I had wanted to use a lot of rivets to be sure that a cupboard carrying food wouldn't fall while I was driving. I had ordered a pneumatic air riveter from Deelat Industrial. They had a wide selection of pneumatic air riveters -- models designed to handle 3/32" rivets for small projects and bigger types that could handle 6.4 mm rivets for doing bigger projects (like attaching a mast to a boat). Most of my work was done using 5/32" rivets, and plus I needed something small to reach into tight areas, thus I bought the D1151442 model. If you're interested, here is a link to that specific model; https://www.deelat.com/pneumatics/pneumatic-tools/pneumatic-air-riveters-and-nut-tools/pneumatic-nut-riveter-guns/pneumatic-nut-riveter-gun-3-32-1-8-5-32-3-16-24-mm-32-mm-4-mm-48-mm-hydraulic-d1151442
I got that gun and my compressor and came back to help the kids attach a water cooler and a few chairs to the walls near the ceiling. Similar to the walls in an RV, the camper's wall couldn't handle wood screws and I couldn't use bolts because I couldn't access the other side to tighten the nuts. Blind rivets were my only option.
First, I positioned the cooler against the wall where they wanted it and drilled four holes through the rear of the base and into the wall behind it. Then I set a 5/32 rivet into the head of the gun, pressed the rivet into the hole I just drilled and pulled the trigger. This pulls the mandrel back while the rivet is in place. As the mandrel is pulled back it deforms the rivet, pushing the sides outward until the mandrel snaps off. The expanded rivet holds the materials together in a tight bond. I repeated this process until all the holes were filled. The cooler held just fine, so I attached the chairs to the walls near the 'ceiling' using metal clamps in the same manner.
It was what they wanted, and I was happy that they were happy. I asked my daughter what would happen to the camper when they were done. I had a vision of my wife and myself rolling across America with a vintage camper in tow. My daughter rolled her eyes and sighed.
I guess I just don't understand art.
