Re: rivets
Originally posted by phatmanmike:<br /> <br />the ones from factory are different, they are flat on BOTH sides.
If you only need a few, most big hardware stores have them. Ask for real rivets, or buck rivets.<br /><br />Once you determine the size & length, you get the rivet. <br /><br /><br />(If you're in the manufacturing business, and setting thousands of rivets a day: Buck rivets are faster, cheaper, and much, much stronger than the blind, or'pop' rivet.<br /><br />Putting a boat together--- or several of them a day--, in most places buck rivets are almost as strong, faster, and cheaper to build something with than heli-arc welding it too.)<br /><br /><br />Anyway:<br />Cut the rivet about 1/8" or so longer than it sticks through the hole.<br /> <br />With both pieces held firmly together, put the rivet in the hole,<br /><br />Have someone hold a 'bucking bar', or a big flat hunk of steel against it on one side.<br /><br />Then, from the other side, you 'buck' with a hand held air hammer. A regular hammer will work, but it is much slower.<br /><br /><br />The rivet swells both in diameter to fill the hole, and the end you cut off or what is on the other side of the 'head' flattens out bigger than the hole diameter.<br /><br />And there is a trick to it, you only buck it till the rivet flattens and seals. If you keep banging away at it,,,, you'll squash out the metal under the head you're trying to hold together, causing a weak spot or possibly a bigger hole to deal with than the one you originally drilled..
