How do you do rivets?

[OldMachinist]

"pinning" I guess, more accurately describes the instructions (per DMS's explanation).

It didn't occur to me that annealing would be the purpose of making them red hot. I was guessing that perhaps making them red hot increased the "plasticity of the steel" so that a 3/16 or whatever size "pin" would actually squeeze into a 3/16 hole and stay there.

come to think of it, those of us who in the past had nasty experiences in removing taper pins (but couldn't), were in effect, turning those taper pins into "tapered rivet pins" which is why taper pins should be removed with brass or aluminum punches, but that's a different story

Dave

Part of the reason they did rivets hot was that as they cooled and shrunk in length it made the joint tighter.

 

[SE18]

Don, I was curious about that. I was thinking since heating expands the metal, seems like it would shrink and fall out once cooled, but I guess as you said it shrinks them from the ends so that they expand inside.

Anyway, I believe a lot of steel structures used to use rivets before welding became commonplace

now, it's probably a forgotten art as folks just pick up a welder and in seconds join steel

 

[OldMachinist]

The diameter shrinks also but as the length shrinks it pulls the heads tighter into the countersinks. Many old steel structures that were riveted are still standing. I see riveted steel bridges all the time still in use that are more than 75 years old. The Eads and Golden Gate bridges are a couple of famous ones. The Golden Gate has appoximately 600,000 rivets in each tower.
Hot riveting videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQH6HCnmUgw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLtfgM2xabo

 

[randyjaco]

It is not exactly Kosher, but sometimes when I do need to rivet something I just grab a nail of suitable diameter, cut it a little longer than the length needed. I then place the nail though the holes with an anvil bucking the head, then start hammering the cut end until it mushrooms sufficiently and tightly holds the parts together. It works and doesn't require any special tooling.

Randy

 

[Hawkeye]

I'm with Randy. I use any soft steel of the appropriate diameter, including fence wire and common nails and spikes. I cut them a bit longer than needed. If I want a flush finish, I'll countersink both sides.

Sometimes, I'll start out with a steel washer around the rivet on the lower side, just to keep some length sticking out until I turn it over to hammer that side. For flush finish, a file smooths it all out after hammering.