Cleaning up rough copper/ brass rivet heads?

[RickPleasant]

I got a bunch of solid copper and brass rivets and mechanically they work fine. My problem is that 99% of them have heads that look like crud. Everything Ive found had rough marks.  Ive tried stoning and drawfiling to get smoother, but thats horribly time consuming to do one at a time. I tried a cratex abrasive bit on a dremel but it was impossible to get it to stay on the head as it rotated. also tried peening smooth with a polished hammer face, but results were only marginally better. I dont have a motorized arbor with polishing wheel so I havent tried that yet.

Anyone have a decent simple routine to clean up these things?  I hate making a nice finished piece of leather goods with rivets that look like they were dragged down the driveway

 

Help?

 

 

[RickPleasant]

So far my best result has been to glue a piece of 600 grit paper to some rubber and then chuck each rivet up in an electric drill and press it gently onto the paper/rubber while running. I guess a drill press would be more consistant, and easier to keep flat, but it would be really slow to do a big box of rivets.  Guess I may have no choice but to dedicate a whole day to it

[Gezzer]

Cotton wheel on a grinder and some of this compound .  240 may be as course as you want and I would finish up with 400 myself .  You will find a 100 uses for it once you try it , the coarse grades cut pretty quick .

https://www.brownells.com/tools-cleaning/paint-metal-prep/abrasives-polishing/polish-o-ray~/

Just noticed you don't have the grinder ........ sorry about that ,  Good luck

Edited August 1, 2023 by Gezzer
can't read ......

[RickPleasant]

Thinking back to my gunsmith days, I think I really need to get a low speed polisher/ grinder. I could always keep my hammer faces polished up and edgers polished sharp

[fredk]

I think you're in for a long haul on this one. Do X many rivets at a time, leave off for a while, then do more. You'll soon work through them.

But, I'd do the reverse, sort of, what you're doing. This is how I polished up the dome heads on some coach bolts; I chucked the bolt into a small motor tool, like a dremel. I chucked up a polishing wheel in a normal drill. The normal drill & polishing wheel were mounted up in a bench vise and run at a moderately slow speed. Then the motor-tool was run at normal speed and the bolt head pressed into the polishing wheel. In no time it took off the '88' cast on the head and polished it up nicely. I only had about 50 to do. I did them in small batches, having a cuppa tea in between. It didn't take too long to do them all

[Gezzer]

44 minutes ago, RickPleasant said:

Thinking back to my gunsmith days, I think I really need to get a low speed polisher/ grinder. I could always keep my hammer faces polished up and edgers polished sharp

Great , sounds like you know what it's capable of .  I worked with a gunsmith for about 3 years and that is where I found out about it ..

[bruce johnson]

I've used a vibratory tumbler with pretty good success for cleaning. Can do a bunch at a time if you are talking volume. Put them in and walk away for 4-12 hours depending. If you are looking for a high polish then the buffing wheel and compound. A benchtop drill press was the handiest thing in my shop and you can chuck a 4 or 6 inch buffing wheel in it. Move the belts around to the lowest RPM.  I did all my saddle rivets on a set up like that. They can heat up pretty quick though or catch and fly. I used a vise grip to hold the shank with better results than burned fingers and flying copper shrapnel