As a start to my series of armouring Instructables i figured I'd go with something nice and easy. It also happens to be one of the most important skills you'll need if you ever want to build a suit of armour.
How to peen the humble unassuming rivet. It's a little more complicated than bashing it with a hammer a bunch, but not much.
How to peen the humble unassuming rivet. It's a little more complicated than bashing it with a hammer a bunch, but not much.
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Lets start with what you'll need.
in this picture i have....
-a 5 pound anvil
-a metal punch
-side cutters
-a small ball peen hammer
-2 pieces of metal to rivet together
-and a roofing nail.
obviously you don't need to use these tools specifically. a drill works as good as a punch, and the anvil can be replaced with any anvil like object. I regularly use a big ass block of steel i found at the side of the road, a chunk of railroad track, a 15pound lead sinker, or in a pinch I've even used a brick. just for some ideas
as for the nail, i usually use 6d nails from the hardware store if i'm riveting metal to metal and use the roofing nails when i;m attaching leather to metal.
in this picture i have....
-a 5 pound anvil
-a metal punch
-side cutters
-a small ball peen hammer
-2 pieces of metal to rivet together
-and a roofing nail.
obviously you don't need to use these tools specifically. a drill works as good as a punch, and the anvil can be replaced with any anvil like object. I regularly use a big ass block of steel i found at the side of the road, a chunk of railroad track, a 15pound lead sinker, or in a pinch I've even used a brick. just for some ideas
as for the nail, i usually use 6d nails from the hardware store if i'm riveting metal to metal and use the roofing nails when i;m attaching leather to metal.
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As a curiosity, until some years ago, corkwood was boiled, straitened a sorted by quality and thickness in small, artisan factories. The corkwood was them piled in blocks. Can’t remember the standard measurements, but let’s say around 1,60 X 0,80 X 0.80 meters.
The block -“fardo”- was held together by two metal strips about a milometer thick.
These strips were used, and reused over and over. Rust and crease, often weakened the strip making it brake under tension.
Joining broken pieces was very easy, using rivets about 6mm diameter. It didn’t even require nail, punch or drill. Just a simple iron rod with a hole in the centre, slightly larger then the diameter of the rivet. The rivet was placed, head down on the anvil and the overlapping strips on top of the rivet. This tool was them held in the direction or the rivet and hit sharply with a hammer. The edge of the rivet would cut through the metal strips and come out on the other side. Another rod of metal, with a concave end, was then used to peen the rivet..
Maybe not very artistic, but fast and efficient.
Beginer's Guide: Traditional Riveting
Thanks.
1) Take a rod of hardenable metal, the diameter of the final rivet head you want to make. Shape and polish to the form you want to end up with. (This need not be a simple spheroid - you can make something more decorative.) When finished, harden it by heating red-hot, then quenching. We will call this the forming positive, because it is the same shape as the rivet dome we want.
2) Take a larger-diameter rod of hardenable metal. Flatten one end, then fasten it in a metal vice with the flattened end protruding quite a bit. This will become the forming negative. Heat the end of the negative red-hot with a propane torch, then drive the forming positive into the end. You'll wind up with a hollow in your negative, the shape of the final rivet head.
3) Step 2 will push metal out to the side. (Think of the rim of a meteor crater.) File and smooth it down. Quench the forming positive to keep it hard. Heat the negative red-hot again, and hammer the positive in, in register with the last strike if you are making a decorative head. Repeat until satisfied. Polish.
4) Heat the negative red-hot, then quench to harden. Preserve the positive - you might find it convenient (if you are in a shared shop) to make several negatives. Then shaped rivets could become a trademark of sorts for your shop.
To use this tool, put the rivet through the metal as in this instructable. Then put the forming negative over the end of the rivet, and use it to beat out the rivet head into the shape you desire. Have the forming end of the negative rod hardened, but the end struck with the hammer should be a bit soft so the hammer won't bounce.
Masonry nails are excellent and affordable hardenable steel. I make all kinds of things with them: rivet formers, maker's-mark stamps, scratch awls, chasing tools, specialized chisels. They come in a range of sizes and shapes suited to a lot of jobs.
Some forms of knowledge are in your head; others are in your hands. I can rivet quite well, but all I know is in my hands. I can't tell people how to do it. Sorry.
Ellen
Please?
Pretty please?
With sugar on top?
Ellen
In any case, if they do need to be normalized or annealed you can strip off the galvanizing safely by soaking them overnight in a bucket of vinegar, or if you opt to burn off the galvanizing then just do it outside on a breezy day and you should be fine.
Articulated armor joints, for instance, in historic recreation fighting: pop rivets are far too weak.
Pop gun rivets are meant to hold with many small points of reinforcement, like stitches in a garment. Hand-rivets are stronger, and capable of being single-point attachments, like staples holding a pamphlet together.