Dead End Rivets 1

[Hans Meevis]

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Often, when I am busy on a project, I have a need to rivet something in place in an area that does not allow me to drill right through to peen the rivet over on both sides.

The other options are to make tiny screws and tap a hole, but when this comes down to 1mm taps, it gets very wearisome very quickly.

The other option is to solder the object in place, but often that is not easy or even possible, depending on how finished the object is.

Also just putting a pin in the hole and hammering it down does not work well at all.

What I wanted was a rawl type plug that would expand at the bottom like a masonry bolt.

The problem is I never know what ACTUALLY happens at the bottom.

So I made two flat pieces of plate and tapped the one side and screwed them together.

Then I drilled a 1mm hole down the seam.

Now I could split them apart to see what happened.



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I drew down some wire from 2.5mm to 1mm without annealing.

That made it semi hard, so when it gets tapped down, it would not collapse on itself.

I used a fine three corner file to file a notch into the wire at the bottom, making sure it would collapse there.

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After I had drilled the 1mm hole about 4mm deep, I used a setting burr to create a cavity at the bottom of the hole.

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I used copper and silver but of course one could just as easily use gold.

The picture shows the collapse of the bottom of the rivet into the cavity.

[Hans Meevis]

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So then I riveted a piece of brass to the two plates as if I were doing a real job.

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When the two plates were split, revealed that the rivets had collapsed nicely.

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Prying the plate off proved satisfyingly difficult.

One can clearly see how the rivet tops deformed before the bottom let go.

While this method will probably not be good for critical components, it will work perfectly well with small objects like the plate shown.

[Dennis]

Very useful experiment Hans, thank you. This way of weakening could possibly be adapted to make your own saddler's rivets as they are only available in non precious. Dennis.

[emsterv]

Thanks so much for sharing, Hans. I'm sure this will come in useful one day..

[medusa]

Hans, is there a reason for the notch in the rivet pin? Also, wouldn't the action of making the rivet from annealed silver/whatever harden it and by having it soft to start with mean you get a better deformation/fit?

I found from experience that using hardened silver made for a very hard time when I make my rivets (but I'm making hoop rivets, so maybe it's different?). I'm assuming that the fabrication has made then hard because I've never had a return on them.

[Hans Meevis]

Hi Medusa,
Here is a link of the whole process.
http://www.meevis.com/step-by-step-dead-end-rivets.htm
Hans