Tubular rivets

A tubular rivet is one that has a hole through it. These are frequently used to hold pieces together that will subsequently be fastened to something else with screws through the rivet holes. An example I encountered the other day is the case of a door latch.

This explains making and setting a tubular rivet to repair a door latch, or for that matter, anywhere else such rivets may prove useful.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Edwards
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Ted

Neat. One question, is the rivet set you used, in picture 4 (left bottom), a stock item or did you make it? And, related to that, what's all that other hardware around it in the picture (the twisty piece of wire and some sort of holder). I'm guessing it's some tool that I don't recognize.

Jim

Reply to
Jim McGill

I did not make that particular one, it was given to me and I don't know the source. I have, however, made a few more in different sizes. The tricks are to get a nice curve from the point to the outside, The point must fit nicely into the ID of the tube, the whole end should be of a size that avoids spliting the rolled over part. I've just been guessing at appropriate dimensions and mine have worked. Whether that's because I've been lucky or because it isn't very critical, I don't know. It's a good idea to have a nice finish and polish it a bit so the metal can slide over the surface of the set as the rivet is being deformed.

The twisty bit is the bit retaining spring on my air hammer.

You are looking at the business end of a hand held air hammer. These rivets can be set manually but a good, easily controllable air hammer makes life much easier. Mine is a Cleco brand that I got surplus. Gentle trigger pressure gives gentle blows. I have set solid rivets from 1/16" to 1/4" diameter without need to change the air pressure.

Note that you can make hollow point rivets (just a short bit at the end opposite the head is hollow) by drilling a solid rivet. Hollow point rivets are very common in tubular aluminum garden furniture.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Edwards

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