Try Titebond II straight from the bottle-sometimes I have to add a drop or 2 of water to say 1/4 oz of glue. My applicator is a short piece of 2-56 rod, slightly tapered on the end and polished. I just dip it straight down into glue, and touch it to surface for rivet and pull straight back up. I have found that you have to dip the rod into glue the same depth each time to get same size rivets-but with practice it works-also clean off tip every 2-3 rivets.
Practice when you first mix up a batch of glue, when its right - make rivets. The diameter of the tip sort of determines the diameter of the rivet you get-so you may have to experiment a bit for your application.