First up today I spent a couple hours just practicing with the pneumatic rivet gun. I made myself a couple test pieces by drilling a series of #30 holes in some scrap aluminium, selected the appropriate size rivet, and then let rip.
My air pressure was way too high initially, and I was damaging the machine heads of my rivets. Then I learned that if you adjust the pressure regulator on the air drill too far then it can fly apart. Won't do that again. Finally, after 15 or so rivets I eventually got an air pressure and technique that seemed to work. Not much marking of the machined head, and my shop formed heads sitting neatly in the rivet guage.
