Pro tip: a rivet gun setup talk made me double check my own gear

Talked to a guy in Gary last week who runs big pressure vessel jobs, and he said he never trust a used hard handle without checking the pawl springs first. I've been running the same seized up rivet gun since 2019, never even thought about the guts. He showed me a cracked pawl that would've let go mid-pass, and honestly it made me go through every tool in my box that night. Has anyone else found a hidden issue like that after a random conversation?

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bennett.noah22d ago

And that's the thing right there, pawl springs are the first thing to go on those old guns. I had a buddy lose a whole day of work because his seized up mid-string on a 3/16 steel pass, ended up having to drill out half the rivets by hand. Now I check the spring tension on every gun I pick up, even new ones, because I've seen brand new units with weak springs from the factory. A cracked pawl usually shows up as a slight drag or a skip in the trigger pull, if it feels off at all, don't run it. Takes two minutes to pop the handle open and look, way cheaper than replacing a yoke or worse, a finger. Once you've seen what a spring does when it snaps under load, you'll never skip that check again.