I've had my hands kind of full this morning.(finally have a real project to do at work
)
But anyway, I'm not going to be of a whole lot of help here. I haven't used much by way of riviting equipment other than a pop-rivit gun.
Would seem to me it's going to depend on size of the rivit, size of what it's going into, and how much weight it needs to hold. I've seen alot of things rivited together that looked like they wouldn't hold a thing, but do just fine.
To bad my dad isn't still around. He was a structural engineer at Boeing, and taught classes for years on fasteners. He could have snowed you under with info.
Good luck on your venture! Let us know how it goes