The marson instructions give you a starting point based on material thickness you are putting the nutsert into. Start there or maybe slightly conservative. When you put a nutsert on the tool, screw all the way on and then back off slightly (needs a little breathing room). The good news is that once the nutsert is in, youi can very easily clamp it tighter. You just can't go back if you go too tight and deform it. So, give one a go and see if you went tight enough. If you pay attention, you can actually feel when it is bottomed out and after which point, you will deform the threads. Micro adjust until the first one is fully seated.

I've done so many that I prefer to go by feel. I set it so it doesn't fully crush. Then, I open the handles a little and thread it further into the nutsert (once it is crushed you can thread further in). Then I go until I feel it bottom. When the handles are open wide, it is pretty easy to tell. It's that last 15% where the leverage happens and you have to hope for the best. That's why I do it the way I do - I want to avoid that part of the stroke.

 

That's comforting to hear. That's exactly what I did. I did most of them by feel. I was really careful not to over tighten them. Hopefully they will be tight enough, but I can always go back and press them a little more if I didn't give them enough.

 

I did a practice piece of sheet metal before I read this thread. It was pretty thin which probably made things a little more difficult. I crimped it, it spun a little so I crimped it a little more, it barely spun so I crimped it again and bent the threaded mandrel on the tool. So if you're close, use very small adjustments. Side note : blind rivet supply has a minimum $15 order. The mandrel is about $5. So I ordered 3 and had to pay $9 for ups ground. So that was a $30 mistake.

 

so before I made the mistake of using a full stroke on the second bite. I only needed an extra quarter stroke or so. I ended up setting it to about three sixteenth and that still wasn't enough.when you take a second bite on it you can really feel it telling you to stop. I use this method for all of them and it was quite easy as long as you don't go further at all once it stops. I did practice a few times underneath the Jeep between the door and the frame.