Brake rivets

The Taylorcraft uses "Shinn" brakes; mechanical, drum style brakes.  Parts are available from Skybound in Georgia.  I got a little kit of parts from them ("send me everything" is what I said) and after cleaning and painting my wheels I was ready to install the new brake linings.

There's two ways to attach linings.  The British method is to bed the linings in epoxy.  The Brits say this method is easier, stronger, keeps the linings from cracking, and you don't have to worry about the linings wearing down to the rivets. 

The other method is to use rivets through the lining and the drum.  The rivet folks argue that rivets are the original method and have worked for over 60 years and anyway epoxy could fail if it gets too hot.  The Brits reply is that, well, they didn't have epoxy 60 years ago or they would have used it and the epoxy bedding method has never failed in thousands of hours of hard use. 

Both methods appear to work just fine, both have their strong points.  So, of course, I used BOTH.  I bedded the linings in epoxy and then put rivets in too.

The epoxy method is by far the easiest way to go.  It took less than 30 minutes to epoxy linings into both wheels.  I used aeropoxy because of its thick, sticky character and reputed high temperature qualities.  I used C clamps and the brake shoes to clamp the linings in place while the epoxy set.

The rivets took a little more time.  First I chucked the wheel under the drill press and drilled holes slightly larger than the rivet shank through the drum and epoxy bedded lining.  Photo 1.  Then from inside the drum I counterbored the hole for the rivet head.  I used a 5/16 drill bit to remove most of the lining material for the counterbore, and then finished the flat bottom of the counterbore with a 5/16 brad point drill bit. No drill motor needed!  I was able to easily make a beautiful counterbore in the soft lining material just by turning the drill bit by hand.  Photo 2.  The brad point drill bit is shown on the left on Photo 3, an ordinary bit is on the right.  Brad point drills are available in most hardware stores.

The top of the rivet head needs to be about 1/16 below the surface of the lining.  Check your counterbore by slipping a rivet into the hole and checking the depth with the depth end of a dial indicator.  Photo 4.  The actual upsetting of the rivet is easily done with a special brake rivet tool (about $20 from Spruce), or the time honored punch and hammer method. Photo 5.

Link to Brake Spring Tool,  Tire Mounting,  Wheel Pants

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