Make Those Visable Pop Rivets Look More Professional.

I had just made a sissy bar for my cruiser bike, but was unhappy as how the pop rivets looked, they where very visable and did nothing to take away the home made look.

I solved this problem by using cup washers on either side of the joint to be riveted, they make the joints look much more professional.

Its not much of a how to but more of this works and can be used in lots of applications.

Thanks for looking, I hope you find this method useful.

Step 1: How To.

All you need for this trick are cup washers that have the same size hole as your pop rivet.

1. Use a cup washer on either side of the joint and rivet as usual.

2. Use the stem of a rivet to knock out the steel stub that is left in the riveted joint, these rust eventually and will stain the work piece.

3. Use a small hammer to flatted the crimped end of the rivet into the well of the cup washer.

That's it, the is not much to it but it gives a much more pleasing finish .

Thanks for looking, I hope you find the idea useful.

Step 2: Other Aplications.

I actually discovered this idea when messing around with some aluminium curtain rail left over from the sissy bar project.

I have been toying with the idea of making a small sterling engine to run from the heat of my wood stove and had though of using the aluminium rail to make the brackets and connecting rods with.

The same method could also be used to make eyelets on brackets for bike break systems and the hole is big enough for a break cable to pass through.

If anyone has other idea please share them.