[DWarner]

Thought I would chime and say Hi, glad to be here. The site looks sweet! Nice work, gentleman. Also, I've been crushing alot of rivets lately. They have been turning out all right, but not perfect. I had a brain fart tonight, and cut a small piece of t-shirt(thick part from the collar) and laid it in the rivet divet, on my bolt cutters. Crushed the rivet... Finally, a perfectly, smooth, round rivet head I can be proud of! I thought I'd offer up this little tidbit of info, in case someone else hasn't been happy with the way their rivets turn out.

 

[Z_recto]

I have used masking tape on the rivit heads to prevent any marring.

The t-shirt idea is less "sticky" though.

I'll have to try it next time.

 

[viragos]

Duh! Where the hell have I been? I guess the best ideas are the simplest.

 

[Sidecarnutz]

Do you lube the crusher where it meets the rivet head? That prevents galling. The T shirt material may just be acting like a dry lubricant. On the couple I have practiced with, a high pressure lube like gear oil works too. They came out nice. Anti seize would probably do also.

I've been practicing on scraps before doing it for real. I'm a careful old SOB. :wink: I made my own arm for my spot welder too. Used steel for the arm and the original copper tip. The slight extra resistance works great to make welds on thin gage steel more controlable. (But on thicker steels the extra heat that builds up softens the tip too much. For thicker steel I have to use the copper arm there. I have a 220v spot welder.)

I've got my shop all cleaned, rearranged and squared away this past week. Just one one customer job to complete and I can take time to build my tooling!

 

[BulletBait]

Thanks!

 

[moose]

very cool idea!!! i'll take any tips you can throw at me!!

 

[Galactus]

Leather holds up well.