Make Your Own Rivets

[Magnus]

Hey, I mostly use railroad track pieces for my anvil. You can pound the crap out of them and they're still good. Some of the anvils you buy today from hardware stores are pretty soft.

[Buggnkat]

Railroad track scrapes make awesome anvils, but if you can get to a farm sale you can get the real anvils pretty inexpensively along with some horseshoeing tools (pliers hammers and such). Some you can use some you cant, but it would be interesting to have. The nail nippers (pliers used to bend horseshoe nails straight) can be used for a nimber of tasks to include pulling a badly set rivet.

Greg

[M. Demetrius]

...but of course, we never set rivets badly, so we just use them for clipping the wire to appropriate lengths, right?. :roll: :lol:

[Hibernicus]

You can also use a copper rivet setter to head the copper wire, make a domed head rivet

http://www.io.com/~caladin/MYFArmor_files/image012.jpg

[Nihonius Legio]

You can also use a copper rivet setter to head the copper wire, make a domed head rivet

http://www.io.com/~caladin/MYFArmor_files/image012.jpg

just hit that with the hammer instead of just hitting the copper? Are these things common items?

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

You can also use a copper rivet setter to head the copper wire, make a domed head rivet

http://www.io.com/~caladin/MYFArmor_files/image012.jpg

Furry boots can I find one of these?

[Medicus matt]

You can also use a copper rivet setter to head the copper wire, make a domed head rivet

http://www.io.com/~caladin/MYFArmor_files/image012.jpg

Furry boots can I find one of these?

I got my first one from Le Prevo....
[url:27etu4h9]http://www.leprevo.co.uk/riveting.html[/url]

No T137

I make my own now.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Thanks Matt, I forgot about their tools. :roll:

[M. Demetrius]

And Tandy Leather Co. aka Leather Factory has them in more than one size in the US.

http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/RequestCatalog.asp

The setters for the 2 piece domed rivets will work, or the setter for the copper rivets. Both have a domed recess that will do a good job. The advantage to the latter is that you can use the drilled hole to set the washer over the rivet end, assuming you have the correctly sized wire.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Thanks Dave!

[Nihonius Legio]

Well, the rivets work great. After drilling only one hole my drill bit broke though . I can't help making lopsided heads on mine, but they should work and look nice. Thanks for the tip, it sure saves alot of money.

[M. Demetrius]

Lopsided is probably as accurate as the perfect ones, and most likely more common than we like to think, particularly on everyday items. If the rivet held, it was good enough to work. On decorative things, most likely more care was taken and a more experienced craftsperson was employed.

My problem is I want the rivet to be finished in two or three whacks, but what is necessary for the thing to work right is a dozen or more lighter taps. I have to coax them to work, rather than force them.

[Nihonius Legio]

mine takes more than that. It takes me about 5 min total per rivet. I only have one hole to make them in, and i have a slow time cutting the wire. Especially since my wire is slightly thicker than what is called for here. It's all the harddware store had that was close to the 10 grade or whatever it was.

[Magnus]

Jeez, 5 minutes per rivet? Why not just order some lol.

[Nihonius Legio]

No tengo mucho dinero senor. lol

Heck, just trying roofing nails was going to set me back $15 for a tiny little box of them. A wire costing about $2 or $3 makes me prenty of rivets. More than the easy way would.