FOREVTL 16" Rivnut tool with (13) Metric & SAE Mandrels in a plastic case

I think this is a great kit for a hobbyist/DIYer for use around the home or garage. It comes with (13) mandrels, (7 Metric and 6 SAE) along with a matching assortment (150 pieces) of rivnuts to get you started.

Overall length is 16" and that extra leverage should help to get a 'good crush' - to make sure the rivnut is properly seated. They also include a small wrench which makes swapping out the mandrels easy and quick.

The mandrels are neatly stored in little plastic containers in the lid, but being this is a set of 13, there is one mandrel that does not have its own slot. Also, storage is lacking for the 150 rivnets that are included, you will probably need to get an organizer of some sort

All in all, I think this is a great value and would recommend it

As for the tool itself, this thing works well. The instructions are a bit unclear and perhaps my review will help if you have the same question that I had. After you zero out the tool with the arms closed, then you open the arms up until the white bar matches your desired setting... THEN, screw the nutstud onto the mandrel until it bottoms out... Those instructions are not in the user manual at all.

One question that I have not been able to find the answer to is this... Where do you find the desired "number" to use when you are working with the tool? Again, the closed setting is zero (0) but when you are going to crimp a stud, you need to set the tool to the higher number but ... what is that number?

As for the nutrivet and how much you should trust it to hold, well, I would not use it if it were something other than Hobby status. As a test, I put the rivet in a hold on a scrap piece of steel. I then put a large nut as a spacer over the rivet and placed it in a vice. It took VERY LITTLE effort to unseat the rivet, very little. So again, it will hold but don't use it in place of a proper nut/bolt/washer/lock... I sure wouldn't.

Cheerz

Tool itself seems to be really well made. All the mandrels look to be well made themselves and came pre-oiled. The only downside I see with this kit is it needs organized storage for the rivnuts.

Got this and love it. This rivet nut tools works great. Easy to use and sturdy. Definitely needs more rivet nut for my diy projects.

If you need to bolt something onto metal that is too thin for tapping a good enough bolt hole, this is a possible option. Sweet!

However, if you could tap two or three full bolt turns worth of thread into your mounting surface, it may be too thick to receive the rivet. There must also be enough open and free space behind the hole to accommodate the installed rivet. Your bolt may need to be a bit longer because the working thread will start behind the hole and have at least the depth of the nut it is replacing, plus about 50% more.

Short story: Maximum working material thickness is about half of the height of the fluted crush zone of a given rivet. Larger rivets will work in thicker material. What you want to see is a "muffin top" on the back side of the mounting hole.

Note that there will be a thin flange on the inside of the installed rivet. Counter sinking this flange is not a good option in thin material. If there is a muffin top on the inside and no wobble or play in the rivet, it may be acceptable to grind off this flange after installation. It may also be possible to bore a countersink in the object that is being mounted in order to accommodate the rivet flange.

The Devil truly is in the details!

A bit of good news: the rivet mounting hole can be slightly larger than the exact hole size suggested. For example, the 1/4 20 rivet nut calls for a 9.1 mm drill bit, which is 23/64. Mercifully 3/8 will work.

Once you figure it out, the operating procedure for installing a rivet nut is fairly simple. The one thing that threw me was the amount of (intentional) free play in the tool handles. The idea is to compress the rivet by 6mm. There is a scale in the tool that shows the compression to expect after the handles make contact and are then fully closed. There are adjustments to the tool that need to be made, but the goal is to feel that initial resistance at the 6mm mark. This will be after closing the handles about a quarter of the way. Some tinkering required. Once adjusted the tool may be locked for that particular rivet size.

Other than that, the manual is pretty good and complete.

I can already see some uses for this tool in sheet metal projects where a removable bolt would be better than a pop rivet that must be drilled out and replaced. (Don't ask!) I wish I'd known this tool existed a few years ago.

Recommended! If you need this solution to a fabrication problem.

First of all I have to give kudos for not including the number of plastic ziplock bags in the item count. Pet peeve of mine, so to see this one not do that is great.

I've use the other style of rivnut tool (that you squeeze like a staple gun) a lot, and this is a huge upgrade. There's way more leverage so the smaller sizes are way easier, and it's capable of doing larger inserts as well. Now the included inserts I don't think are quite as nice as the name brand ones I have. They squeeze down easier and doesn't appear to be as thick of a wall on it. So I'll use the name brand ones for most of the important projects going forward. The fact this comes with the inserts, and 13 different sizes at that is still awesome. And this tool also fixes a major gripe with the other kind which is the mandrels unscrewing. This one locks in place so that can't happen which is a major improvement. I'll still keep the other version since I already have it, but only as a backup to this one. This one is better in almost every way.

I was really excited about this rivet nut kit, because it comes with many more sizes than my current one. The tool is packed in a nice case, with a space for just about everything. There are 13 mandrels, but only 12 slots to keep them in. Obviously, you can keep one on the tool, but there is still a 13th case for that mandrel. There's plenty of room for it, but not a specific place for it to stay.

There are lots of river-nuts of all sizes included in the kit. Like most kits, these come in simple plastic bags that can get messy once you've opened one. This company did include a pack of small zip-lock bags to hold the rib-nuts once you've opened them. That was a nice touch. Not sure why they didn't just come in zip-lock bags to begin with, but at least they are there.

The tool is plenty big enough to give you the leverage you need to set the riv-nuts. There's really not a whole lot else to say about it. A handy tool for the job!

I need to put tie downs in my trailer floor and it worked just like designed. Case makes it easy to keep everything together.

This rivet set is the real deal. it's definitely not your cheap pop rivet gun.

for the DIY guy that is building / fabricating custom sheet metal goods and attachments, this is a must have. The 1/4" threaded insert was exactly what I needed for the custom rollcage / bumper I fabricated for the golf cart.

the tool is easy to operate, and even though it took a bit of force on a larger diameter rivet, the tool has a large enough lever arm to make it relatively easy task.

Would definitely recommend this for a more advanced DIY person.