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"Forceps"???...what the hell are "FORCEPS"???
I been in the "trade" for 30 years and I never heard of nuttin called
forceps!!!...that had anything to do with cleco's...
...wait a minute. You talkin' 'bout Cleco pliers???...you know... the cleco
pliers you put the cleco's in with...that wut your callin a "forcep"?
Ohhhh...I admit...ahm' a little slow on them big wurds.
Dr. Dave (in his "other" trade) :-)
<veeduber@isp.com> wrote in message
news:1135704411.038891.322600@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Needing some high-strength 7/16ths bolts, over the holidays I visited
> one of the unofficial RV assembly plants here in San Diego county.
> Located in an industrial park adjacent to the airport, the fellow has
> set-up permanent fixtures just like a real aircraft factory, allowing
> him to assemble an RV with perfect accuracy in remarkably little time.
> RV's use NAS bolts to hold the wings on and I would come a'begging.
>
> He had a new helper, a guy about my age. He was over at the
> leading-edge fixture, struggling to install a cleco. From his body
> language I guessed the thing was bent. I'd have tossed it but he
> kept wrestling with it, finally got it in and went on to the next. But
> damned if he didn't do the same thing.
>
> I found my friend in his cubby hole, told him what I was after, showed
> him what I had to trade. He poked around in his cabinets, found what I
> needed and gave me four. Looking past me he saw the fellow working on
> the leading edge. Heaved a big sigh and shook his head. The guy was
> struggling with yet another cleco.
>
> "Somebody bend all your clecos?" I asked.
>
> My friend gave a bark of laughter. "There's nothing wrong with the
> clecos," he said shaking his head. We both watched the guy. He
> finally got it in, flexed his hand and started doing an other in the
> same awkward manner. We watched him put in three then the fellow must
> of sensed he was being watched because he looked up.
>
> "He doesn't know how to cleco," I said in surprise.
>
> "Yeah," my friend agreed. He told me how the fellow was
> ex-military, had his ticket and a zillion years experience. "But
> nobody ever showed him how to set a cleco," he sighed.
>
> I tucked my bolts in my pocket and got the hell outta there, not
> wanting to be around when my friend, who was never in the military and
> is not an A&P, tried to explain to a card-carrying sixty year old A&P
> that he doesn't know how to cleco.
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> I cannot remember how old I was when my dad let me help him rivet.
> About nine, I think. Unless you're using PK's, knowing how to
> cleco is a required part of knowing how to rivet.
>
> Clecos are spring-loaded temporary fasteners. They get inserted
> through the hole where the rivet goes and serve to hold the parts in
> alignment for drilling and riveting. Once everything is aligned, you
> set rivets in the holes between the clecos, then remove the clecos and
> set a rivet in that hole too. The cleco is installed and removed with
> a pair of special pliers referred to as forceps in the trade. Because
> of the spring, it takes a certain amount of strength to use them. But
> not much, as shown by Rosy the Riveter and her million sisters.
>
> To use clecos, you insert the tang into the hole, press the cleco flush
> against the visible part then squeeze the handles whilst maintaining a
> moderate amount of pressure on the cleco. The pair of shaped wires are
> squeezed past the tang and through the hole in the INVISIBLE part with
> a slight click, telling you it's okay to relax your grip and go on to
> the next one. Doing a panel, you'll have a handful of clecos in one
> hand, the forceps in the other, shooting a cleco into every third or
> fourth hole at the rate of about one every five seconds or less. Do it
> right, it takes just that one, quick squeeze. Since you aren't
> trying to hold the cleco compressed, and since you only have to
> compress it far enough to let the shaped wires through the hole, it
> doesn't take a lot of strength - - even a kid can do it.
>
> What the fellow at the RV factory was doing was putting a cleco into
> the forceps then squeezing until the locking wires were fully extended.
> Holding it with the spring fully compressed, he was trying to fly the
> pair of locking wires through the hole in the two layers of metal,
> which he eventually did. But he was spending a minute or more per
> cleco. In the time he took to do one row a real tin-bender would have
> secured the entire panel.
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> I have reached an age where I am no longer surprised at the things
> people do not know but should. My visit to the RV factory showed me
> yet another reason why some folks think riveting is hard. And why
> others take years to complete a six-month project.
>
> -R.S.Hoover
>
> PS - PK's are hex-head sheet-metal screws fitted with a non-marring
> washer. That what we used before clecos came along.
>
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Re: The Man Who Couldn't Cleco
